Podcast

Black Box: The Chatbots

Documentary, Society & Culture

People are becoming convinced they have made scientific breakthroughs, cured diseases or invented new technologies using AI chatbots. What does this reveal about a technology now used by more than a billion people? A new series from the Guardian Investigates

Documentary chart
#72
Episodes
51
Releases
Daily
Typical length
41 min
On air since
2022
Latest episode
2 months ago

Episodes

51 episodes, from the first

Season 1

  1. Can I tell you a secret? Episode one: the beginning

    Episode 1

    Show notes

    Guardian journalist Sirin Kale takes us to a small town in the north of England to uncover how one man began a decade of cyberstalking

    34 min
  2. Can I tell you a secret? Episode two: the widening circle

    Episode 2

    Show notes

    As the cyberstalker spreads his net wider, anyone could be a target. The fast-changing world of social media creates new opportunities for him to find more victims. Only now, someone is watching him …

    39 min
  3. Can I tell you a secret? Episode three: the man upstairs

    Episode 3

    Show notes

    Who is Matthew? Journalist Sirin Kale looks for clues about who this cyberstalker really is and why he creates chaos and fear in so many people’s lives

    35 min
  4. Can I tell you a secret? Episode four: a reckoning

    Episode 4

    Show notes

    Matthew’s victims come face to face with him as an attempt is made to stop his torment once and for all

    40 min
  5. Can I tell you a secret? Episode five: a mother’s love

    Episode 5

    Show notes

    Journalist Sirin Kale meets Matthew’s mother to uncover more about his past, and find out what might have motivated him to cyberstalk his victims for so many years

    42 min
  6. Can I tell you a secret? Episode six: the winding clock

    Episode 6

    Show notes

    As the years tick by, journalist Sirin Kale speaks to victims and those who know Matthew to ask whether his stalking will ever truly end

    33 min
  7. Can I tell you a secret? Episode seven: an update

    Episode 7

    Show notes

    Guardian producer Lucy Hough and reporter Matthew Weaver give an update on the outcome of Matthew Hardy’s appeal

    11 min

Season 2

  1. Black Box: a new podcast series about AI and us – trailer Trailer

    Episode 1

    Show notes

    In rural Norway, a young woman’s boyfriend forgets who she is overnight. In Detroit, a man is arrested for a crime, but he was never there. In a Spanish town, disturbing pictures of young girls have appeared, but no one knows who is behind them. In this new series from the Guardian, we’ll explore what it is that connects all these stories: the collision between people and artificial intelligence. Coming soon …

    3 min
  2. Black Box: the collision – episode 1

    Episode 2

    Show notes

    The beginning of a new series that explores seven stories and the thread that ties them together: artificial intelligence. In this prologue, Hannah (not her real name) has met Noah and he has changed her life for the better. So why does she have concerns about him?

    13 min
  3. Black Box: the connectionists – episode 2

    Episode 3

    Show notes

    This is the story of Geoffrey Hinton, a man who set out to understand the brain and ended up working with a group of researchers who invented a technology so powerful that even they don’t truly understand how it works. This is about a collision between two mysterious intelligences – two black boxes – human and artificial. And it’s already having profound consequences

    39 min
  4. Black Box: the hunt for ClothOff, the deepfake porn app – episode 3

    Episode 4

    Show notes

    For the past six months, Guardian journalist Michael Safi has been trying to find out who is behind an AI company that creates deepfakes. Deepfakes that are causing havoc around the world, with police and lawmakers baffled about how to deal with them. And in trying to answer one question, he has been left with a bigger one: is AI going to make it impossible to sort fact from fiction?

    46 min
  5. Black Box: repocalypse now – episode 4

    Episode 5

    Show notes

    When Eugenia Kuyda created Replika, the AI companion app, she had no idea it would be downloaded millions of times all around the world. The results were more powerful than she could ever have predicted. But so was the backlash

    35 min
  6. Black Box: Bing and I – episode 5

    Episode 6

    Show notes

    Two stories about the way AI could – in fact, already is – making the world better. In Montana, when Lee Johnson discovered his wife, Yokie, had cancer, he turned to AI – and was surprised by the answers he got. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts Prof Regina Barzilay’s experience with cancer has led her to build an AI system that can detect the disease years before a human

    42 min
  7. Black Box: the white mask – episode 6

    Episode 7

    Show notes

    In January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested by Detroit police for a crime he had not committed. The officers were acting on a tip not from a witness or informant. In fact, not from a person at all

    36 min
  8. Black Box: shut it down? – episode 7

    Episode 8

    Show notes

    For decades, Eliezer Yudkowsky has been trying to warn the world about the dangers of AI. And now people are finally listening to him. But is it too late?

    41 min

Season 3

  1. Missing in the Amazon: a new Guardian investigative series – trailer Trailer

    Episode 1

    Show notes

    In one of the most remote corners of the Amazon jungle, a journalist and an indigenous defender disappear without a trace. Missing in the Amazon – our new six-part investigative podcast series uncovers what happened to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. Told for the first time by the people closest to them

    1 min
  2. Missing in the Amazon: the disappearance – episode one

    Episode 2

    Show notes

    Three years ago, British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished while on a reporting trip near Brazil’s remote Javari valley. The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, investigates what happened in the first episode of a new six-part investigative podcast series

    27 min
  3. Missing in the Amazon: the journalist and the president – episode two

    Episode 3

    Show notes

    What took British journalist Dom Phillips from the club nights of the UK dance scene as editor of MixMag to one of the most remote, and dangerous, corners of the Amazon rainforest? In 2022, Dom set off on a reporting trip with Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on uncontacted tribes, into the Javari valley, to investigate the criminal gangs threatening this region. And then they vanished

    30 min
  4. Missing in the Amazon: the protector and the poacher – episode three

    Episode 4

    Show notes

    Bruno Pereira was considered one of the great Indigenous protectors of his generation. And this made him an enemy of a man called Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado. The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, reports on the story of the two men and what happened when their paths collided

    35 min
  5. Missing in the Amazon: the ambush – episode four

    Episode 5

    Show notes

    The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, recalls the moment that he and others on the search team found Dom and Bruno’s belongings in a hidden area of flooded forest. The team finally discover what has happened to the men

    25 min