IM 863: Fire and Ash - Hot Takes on Tech Trials

IM 863: Fire and Ash - Hot Takes on Tech Trials

Author: TWiT March 26, 2026 Duration: 2:44:09

Tech journalist Marshall Kirkpatrick joins the panel to showcase a new AI-powered tool that doesn't just summarize articles—it thinks like a journalist, flagging what's truly new and revealing the patterns that matter. If you want to stay several steps ahead in the AI race, this episode is a must-listen.

  • Malware autodownloaded by AI agents
  • Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was "inevitable" on its apps
  • We're saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing.
  • TurboQuant: Redefining AI efficiency with extreme compression
  • Apple Can 'Distill' Google's Big Gemini Model
  • Apple Plans AI Reboot With Siri App, New Look and 'Ask Siri' Button in iOS 27
  • Google Search referrals to the web have plummeted, AI links are 'less than 1%' of traffic
  • A US appeals court puts on hold an earlier ruling that had blocked Perplexity from using its agentic shopping tool to shop on Amazon's marketplace
  • A look at "tokenmaxxing", a status game where employees at a number of companies compete on leaderboards to show how much AI they're using
  • Elon Musk Announces $20B 'Terafab' Chip Plant in Texas To Supply His Companies
  • Jury finds Elon Musk guilty of defrauding Twitter investors [U]
  • Tracy Kidder, Author of 'The Soul of a New Machine,' Dies at 80
  • AI Doc trailer
  • reflect — Time-Travel Reflection for Obsidian
  • Esoteric Ebb
  • Butthole
  • Regex Blaster

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Guest: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:


From the team at TWiT, Intelligent Machines (Video) dives into the seismic shift unfolding right now. The first part of this century was defined by networks connecting people; the coming era will be defined by the intelligence embedded within the objects and systems around us. This isn't just about speculative fiction-it's about the algorithms in your car, the logic in your home appliances, and the evolving minds within our phones and robots. Each episode of this podcast unpacks a piece of that complex reality, examining both the profound potential and the tangible risks of this transformation. We're moving beyond simple gadget reviews to explore the deeper societal, ethical, and personal implications of living alongside thinking machines. The conversation is grounded in the present, looking at real-world applications and the engineers, philosophers, and policymakers shaping our automated future. Tune in for clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful discussion that aims to demystify the technology, helping you grasp not only what these systems do, but how they will redefine work, creativity, privacy, and human agency itself. Join us as we navigate the most significant technological revolution in generations, seeking to understand what we're building before it reshapes everything.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 16

Intelligent Machines (Video)
Podcast Episodes
IM 873: Superman's Mustache - AI in Hollywood [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 0:00
AI is upending the movie business, from Amazon's new AI Creators Fund to contract battles that just gave synthetic actors the green light in Hollywood. This episode dives into the real-world impact of generative tools on…
IM 872: Infinite Jeffs - Why the Pope's AI Manifesto Matters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:32:25
Photographer Rick Sammon shows how AI is transforming creative work and what happens when the Pope issues a sweeping 42,000-word encyclical on artificial intelligence and invites tech skeptics and true believers to weigh…
IM 871: CTRL-F Techno King - Google's Search Overhaul [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:53:48
Dashlane's CTO pulls back the curtain on how password managers are actually using AI, why it's more complicated than hype suggests, and what the rise of AI-powered code review means for the next wave of digital security.…
IM 869: My Sentience is Going Up - Chatbots in Charge [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:29:13
Have I Been Pwned creator Troy Hunt reveals how a homegrown AI sidekick helps manage billions of hacked credentials, but even the smartest bots aren't immune to hallucinations and headaches. White House Considers Vetting…
IM 867: The Ketchup Effect - The Lines Are Too Damn Long [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:45:37
Game designer and Atlantic writer Ian Bogost joins to argue that the true joy of technology is not frictionlessness, but the small sensory pleasures and constraints that keep us tethered to real life. Discover how AI cou…
IM 866: I'm Bonkers for Yonkers - Is Coding Dead? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:28:30
When renowned photographer Craig Mod coded his own AI-powered Twitter, the lines between art, tech, and community blur in surprising ways. This episode explores what happens when creative minds take AI into their own han…
IM 865: Mythic - Too Dangerous to Release? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:26:36
A secretive AI called Mythos is already finding zero-day exploits that humans missed for decades, but Anthropic claims it is too risky for public release. Hear what leading security experts think could happen if this tec…
IM 864: And Artemis Too - Journalism In The Age Of AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:25:03
What happens when a thriving newsletter-turned-AI lab lets artificial intelligence shape writing, editing, and even entire products? Find out how Every is challenging the boundaries between tech and culture and why even…