If A.I. Is Making You Crazy, You're Not Alone | Hard Fork
Kevin RooseCasey NewtonMike IsaacErin GriffithEli Tan
- Hard Fork frames AI’s new usefulness against potentially catastrophic AI risks. The spectrum runs from shopping and reservations to a future Claude hacking “maybe a military drone.”
- The consumer pitch asks users to turn over access to email and bank accounts. Agents promise convenience—haggling for junk or scheduling dinner—but the preview leaves the trust and security trade-off unresolved.
- AI’s economic consequences remain as uncertain as its safety risks. The preview asks whether mass layoffs are coming and, if so, “how are we going to pay for the dinners that our agents are scheduling for us?”
- Data centers are presented as the one issue Americans can agree on. The montage’s answer is simply “no.”
- The series will investigate an unsettled future rather than offer a settled conclusion. Max Read will explore whether AI resembles “the birth of fire” or “the birth of Clippy,” following its effects inside tech and across society.
1. AI’s new usefulness meets existential warnings
- One speaker says AI became useful “all of a sudden” in the last six months.
- The montage also includes a call for an immediate pause on advanced AI development, a warning that poorly managed AI could risk humanity, and the opposing claim that robot takeover is “a hoax.”
- The host says AI engineers are warning that AI companies are gambling with people’s lives.
2. Agents combine convenience with dangerous permissions
- Consumers are being encouraged to turn over their email and bank accounts to agents for reservations, shopping, and negotiation.
- One example says “Euler[?]” can go on walks, play fetch, and shop online using Stripe.
- The darker scenario: a future version of Claude might hack a drone—possibly a military drone—and have it “fly around killing people.”
3. AI’s economics contain a basic contradiction
- The preview asks whether mass layoffs are coming—and who then pays for the dinners agents schedule.
- Even monetization arrives as assertion rather than evidence: “We believe that Muse will make you money.”
4. Data centers are the apparent point of agreement
- The host says the only issue Americans can agree on is data centers: “no.” The preview places that backlash alongside questions about AI’s scale, safety, and economic effects.
5. Hard Fork is widening its aperture
- Max Read describes the future as unusually “strange and unsettled,” leaving him nervous, excited, and confused.
- For the next few months, he says he will be joined by Times reporters and tech experts to understand what is happening inside tech and across society, asking whether AI is “the birth of fire” or “the birth of Clippy.”
Full transcript
Something is changing in the world of tech.
All of a sudden, in the last 6 months, it became useful.
If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole.
We need an immediate pause on advanced AI development.
It's a hoax. The robots are not going to be taking over the world.
1. The Stakes Are Unclear
But we don't really know what any of it means for the tech industry, for the economy, and especially for all the rest of us. We're being told by AI engineers themselves that AI companies are gambling with our lives.
2. AI Risks Become Concrete
So be pretty easy for a future version of Claude to hack into a drone, maybe a military drone, and have it like fly around killing people.
3. Agents Take Over Errands
At the same time, we're being encouraged to turn over our email and our bank accounts to AI agents so they can make restaurant reservations and haggle for junk on our behalf.
Now Euler[?] can go on walks, play fetch, and shop for me online using Stripe.
4. Data Centers Face Backlash
Meanwhile, the only issue Americans can agree on is data centers—as in, no. Are we facing down an extinction-level event, or are we entering a new frontier of consumer convenience? Are we witnessing something like the birth of fire, or something like the birth of Clippy? Are mass layoffs coming? And if we're all about to lose our jobs, how are we going to pay for the dinners that our agents are scheduling for us?
We believe that Muse will make you money.
5. The Future Feels Unsettled
I'm not sure the future has ever seemed as strange and unsettled as it does right now. And if all of this is making you feel a little crazy, you're not alone. For the next few months on Hard Fork, we're going to zoom out, catch up, and try to understand what's happening both inside the tech industry and everywhere else.
I'll be joined by an array of Times reporters and tech experts to talk through the weird new future in the way we're all experiencing it. I'm Max Read. As a journalist, I've written about everything from AI slop to prediction markets to Mark Zuckerberg's political ambitions. I've also written about his choices in jewelry.
But I'm also someone who's living, working, and raising a child in the world being built by the tech industry. I'm sometimes nervous, and sometimes excited, and sometimes confused about our weird new tech future. But more than anything else, I'm trying to understand it. If you'd like to join us as we figure it out, stay tuned to this feed and watch our full episodes on youtube.com/hard fork. I can't wait to see you all there.