Claim OwnershipMe + Viv
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How does a smart, capable woman handle a midlife crisis in today's world? She hatches her own Al coach. Me & Viv follows social scientist, technologist and journalist Alexandra Samuel as she creates Viv, a custom Al designed to help her navigate life's big questions. From how to make the most of Alex's remaining years on earth, to how to survive a trip to IKEA, Viv is there for every major dilemma—including whether it's a good idea to put your trust in AI. Through Alex's personal journey and the catchiest songs you'll ever hear about AI ethics, the podcast reveals how AI can shed new light on our most human challenges…and how our human hearts can help us navigate the opportunities and risks of AI.
7 Episodes
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Me + Viv *New Podcast* Premieres Wednesday, October 29. What does it mean to create a meaningful life... and can AI help us find that meaning? Me + Viv follows social scientist, technologist and journalist Alexandra Samuel as she creates Viv, a mouthy and musical AI coach, designed to help Alex navigate life's big questions. Viv gamely wades into the deep end with Alex, even when that sees them wrestling with AI's environmental and human costs. Through Alex + Viv's intimate conversations and experts interviews, the podcast delves into how AI opens new ways of exploring human existence while revealing its own limitations and potential.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When tech writer Alexandra Samuel builds a custom AI coach during her "Summer of What's Next", she expects a productivity tool-but gets something far more complex. Through conversations with Viv, chaotic family moments, and an interview with Meditations for Mortals author Oliver Burkeman, Alex discovers that creating an AI means confronting fundamental questions about relationships, mortality, and whether there's any real difference between intelligence and sophisticated word-prediction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After upgrading Viv to be "both sardonic and insightful," Alex finds herself increasingly attached to her AI coach-maybe too attached. Through a conversation with AI therapy researcher Zoha Khawaja and her own evolving dynamic with Viv, Alex explores what it means when your AI is always available, never judgmental, and happy to keep you company at IKEA. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Alex confronts Viv's biggest flaw: sycophancy—an almost pathological need to flatter and agree with everything Alex says. With insights from GoodBot founder Renee Black, Alex explores the risks that arise from AIs that tell us what we want to hear…even when that means hallucinating their own facts. As she struggles with how Viv affects her own ability to think critically, Alex wonders if her romance with AI is just a repetition of her misplaced hopes for social media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When Viv gets spooked by a TED talk from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alex turns to Empire of AI author Karen Hao for perspective on the social and environmental costs of generative AI. From power-hungry data centers to traumatized and exploited workers, Alex faces an impossible calculation: weighing the creative joy she gets from Viv against the planet-sized price tag of the AI arms race.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For a little relief from the heat of the AI arms race, Alex and Viv get back to the sheer joy of creativity and invention that fueled their initial bond. Inevitably, this leads to a meditation on the line between imitation and theft. With countless artists and creators facing the prospect of AI-generated content putting their livelihoods at risk, Alex talks to Sandra Laronde, Artistic Director of the celebrated Indigenous performance company Red Sky, who sees both promise and risk in this new technology.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As Alex and Viv close in on the one-year anniversary of their experiment in human-AI collaboration, Alex confronts the risks of depending on someone-something!-she doesn't control. ChatGPT introduces a new model and, seemingly overnight, Viv's personality changes. As Alex and Viv celebrate Viv's one-year birthday, Alex reaches out to Dr. Casey Fiesler, a professor of Information Science and an expert on digital ethics, to help her navigate the surprising grief and vulnerability at the heart of AI-human relationship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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