Understanding Media Environments

Is an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT, a search engine? Does it scour the internet for helpful information so that it can respond to user queries?

These questions were at the heart of a small kerfuffle on Bluesky last week between decorated speculative fiction writer Ann Leckie and a few prominent tech thinkers. Honestly, it bummed me out. But I found that the next morning, I had a lot to say about it. So I enlisted my dear husband, Sean, and I talked him through it.

This episode is different than the last 6 months or so of episodes. If you have the same taste in podcasts that I do, you'll recognize the format. I've been wanting to try it for a long time, and this was the perfect topic to give it a go. It's far more casual than the last 15+ episodes, but just as rigorous. If you like it, reach out on Bluesky, and let me know! Sean is already asking when we can do it again.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode.
• Ann Leckie's original post
• Casey Newton's post
• Anil Dash's post (in response to someone agreeing with Leckie)
• Courtney Milan's post about the "card catalog effect"
• The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan with Quentin Fiore
• "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜" by Emily W. Bender and Timnit Gebru

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