AI and the Human Future

00:13:45

The Algorithm Can't Fire You Anymore — But It Still...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/10/02

California has barred employers from letting AI be the deciding voice in firing or disciplining workers. Daniel and Emily unpack what the law actually changes, how algorithmic management already runs the workday, and which link in the chain regulation should grab. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries,

en-us

00:13:42

Microsoft's 'OS for Work' Bet: When Your Job Runs...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/10/02

Microsoft has quietly repositioned Copilot as an 'operating system for work,' folding Office and AI agents into one layer and pitching it first to enterprise buyers at a private event. Daniel and Emily ask what that flip does to everyday skills, entry-level careers, and who holds the terms when the tools start orchestrating the worker. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging

en-us

00:14:02

Pricing the Pause: What Slowing Down AI Costs...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/10/02

Somewhere between the AI speed debate and a family still waiting for a diagnosis sits a drawer of already-sequenced genomes nobody has re-read. Daniel and Emily follow one lab's AI reanalysis of unsolved genetic data, an AI-assisted novel that needed a human editor, and the uncomfortable arithmetic of what every month of delay actually spends. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging

en-us

00:14:58

Reason Is More Than a Tool: What Kant Would Ask Your AI

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/10/02

A philosopher sat in a packed university auditorium and heard a celebrated computer scientist define intelligence as optimization — and it set off an alarm bell. Daniel and Emily dig into the 250-year-old quarrel between Hume and Kant that the AI era has quietly revived, and what it means for how we build products, run workplaces, teach students, and decide what's worth wanting. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering,

en-us

00:13:37

The +60% Problem: When AI Tools Cost More Than They...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/17

The loudest champion of maxing out AI coding subscriptions just shut down his own AI-built product — the only thing he ever shipped with them — and Databricks watched coding spend jump 60% when 3,500 engineers switched to a model benchmarks call cheaper. Daniel and Emily audit what AI tool ROI actually looks like for the people who depend on it.## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging

en-us

00:16:21

Writing When Words Are Free

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/17

When a model can produce a polished ten-thousand-word essay in seconds, what is left that only human writing can do? We dig into a celebrated essay on writing to argue that writing is not assembling text but forcing your brain to fight chaos — and that in a flood of synthetic prose, a distinct voice and real density of thought will command a premium.## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and

en-us

00:14:17

Tool, Pet, or Citizen? The Class System We're...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/17

Driverless fleets are already carrying passengers through some of the world's busiest streets, and the robotaxi market is projected at $400 billion by 2035. Daniel and Emily ask what happens when embodied machines gain continuous memory and pain-like responses — and whether hurting one could ever become a crime. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how

en-us

00:14:10

The Half-Second Problem: Why Home Robots Can't Think...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

A stealth startup with roughly $400 million behind it just stepped out of the shadows claiming it hacked the memory shortage squeezing AI hardware. Daniel and Emily trace why that unglamorous chip story quietly decides whether home robots ever get real reflexes — or stay expensive machines that freeze when your Wi-Fi does. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He

en-us

00:13:23

The Last 0.001%: Robotaxis and the Long-Tail Reckoning

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Tesla's Cybercab finally hit the road — a strangely quiet launch, 45 registered cars in Texas, and an NHTSA snag within days. Daniel and Emily unpack why 99.9% correctness is a triumph in software but a catastrophe on real streets, what one bad night in San Francisco did to Cruise, and why the last mile of robotaxi commercialization may be less about driving and more about who pays for the rare failure. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a

en-us

00:14:13

The Golem in the Warehouse: Technological Determinism...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

A Palladium essay argues that our fear of machines turning on their makers is as old as Icarus and the Golem of Prague, and that the real risk is subtler: tools that quietly edit the menu of human choice. Daniel and Emily follow the argument from ancient myth to the scanner-paced warehouse floor and the algorithmically scheduled dinner table, looking for where freedom still has a handle. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in

en-us

00:14:42

Why the Backflipping Robot Isn't Coming Home Yet

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Arm gathered more than 80 companies to give robots a report card, so Daniel and Emily read the fine print: kilowatt bursts, hot motors, five-figure gearboxes, and a safety problem no keynote can demo away. The honest grade for a home humanoid today is probably 'do not leave alone with your toddler.'## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological

en-us

00:15:13

From Pixels to Space: Teaching Robots What 'One...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Watering flowers while hovering one to five centimeters above each bloom is trivial for a child and brutal for frontier AI — Gemini-2.5-Pro scores 3% on a new 3D trajectory benchmark while a layered system called RoboTracer hits 45%. Daniel and Emily unpack spatial intelligence, Fei-Fei Li's world-model bet, and how much of it survives contact with a real kitchen. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative

en-us

00:13:37

The Room Never Closed: Does the Robot Know It's...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Forty-five years after John Searle locked a man in a room full of Chinese symbols, an Aeon video drags the thought experiment back just in time for robots that narrate their own grip. Daniel and Emily ask whether predicting words and reading force sensors can ever add up to understanding weight, touch, and gravity. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how

en-us

00:14:05

Free Weights, Tall Walls: Can Closed-Source AI Survive?

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

A Chinese lab gave away a downloadable model that benchmarks like a restricted American frontier model, one week after that model's controlled re-release. Daniel and Emily argue about whether free open weights can actually dissolve closed-source monopoly profits, what the distillation theory really proves, and where a working developer should put their career while the giants fight. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in

en-us

00:13:58

One Video, One New Task: When Robots Learn Jobs by...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

NVIDIA and Skild AI say their S1 robot foundation model can learn a brand-new, long-horizon task from a single video demonstration, with no retraining and no rewritten code. Daniel and Emily unpack whether learning by experience instead of preprogramming is a real step change for physical AI, what the business numbers actually prove, and what it means for the people whose skills get filmed. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in

en-us

00:14:37

Passing the Bar Exam in Three Seconds, Grabbing an...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

A robotics startup that once had nothing but a cartoon of a robot just raised $100 million to run warehouse shifts, while AI models ace exams yet still fumble in the physical world. Daniel and Emily revisit Moravec's paradox and ask why the smartest brains still won't fit into nimble bodies. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological

en-us

00:13:21

The Machine Keeps Score, the Friend Sees You

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

An Aeon essay argues we are most human when we play freely, imaginatively, and pointlessly — and that gamification is quietly wearing that capacity down. Daniel and Emily follow the thread to its loneliest end: if an algorithm can respond perfectly to your pain but never feel it, what exactly are you asking for when you say you need another person?## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and

en-us

00:13:47

Siri Took Notes on Our Fight: Ambient AI Enters the...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Apple's newest Watch ships an always-on Siri that 'ambiently listens' and turns the audio around you into a daily recap. Daniel and Emily separate what actually shipped from what's coming next, and ask whether an algorithm sitting in the middle of family life is a warm mediator or a quiet Panopticon. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological

en-us

00:14:15

The Best Listener in the House Is a Machine

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Microsoft just signed ten contractually enforceable AI safety principles with America's second-largest teachers union — one of them bans AI companions outright. Daniel Altman and Emily Carter follow that clause from the classroom to the bedroom, where a child's midnight confidant operates under no contract at all, and ask whether a friend who never pushes back builds a kid's social immunity or quietly dissolves it. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist

en-us

00:13:23

The Dead Can't Object: Who Owns Your Words Once...

AI and the Human Future ·

2026/09/16

Anthropic's 1.5-billion-dollar settlement paid authors for pirated books — and publishers and agents immediately began claiming shares of the money. Daniel Altman and Emily Carter follow that fight all the way home: when a parent dies, is a lifetime of private messages and diaries an inheritance to spend, or a self the heirs never owned?## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging

en-us

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Two Blokes Talking Tech

Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech

Best AI papers explained

Enoch H. Kang

ev.news

Martyn Lee

Silicon Champions Tech Transforming Sports