Machines Like Us Podcast

A @globeandmail technology podcast about people, who are helping shape our future. Hosted by @taylor_owen and produced by Paradigms.

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

We’re living through a remarkable moment in history. But the AI revolution isn’t just about ChatGPT, smart cars, or social media. Beyond the buzz, a much deeper transformation is brewing.

Introducing Machines Like Us, a new @globeandmail technology podcast…about people.

[Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy @MediaTechDem]

We recently heard from @GaryMarcus at #AttnGovernOrBeGoverned, where he argued that we are witnessing an AI bubble.

This week, @taylor_owen interviewed him on @_machineslikeus to discuss whether an alternative AI could save us. Check it out here: https://t.co/te0RgV7EvS

[Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy @MediaTechDem]

In April, Jim Balsillie (former Chair & Co-CEO, Research in Motion) joined @taylor_owen on @_machineslikeus, where he asserted that Canada's problem isn't Trump, "Canada's problem is Canada." At #AttnGovernOrBeGoverned, they reunited to talk about un-capturing democracy. 🧵

[Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy @MediaTechDem]

Jim Balsillie addressed the current sovereignty crisis, describing the situation as a multi-decade failure exacerbated by bullying from the U.S. and Trump. You can hear more from his conversation with @taylor_owen here: https://t.co/kvi7lCxf6t

[Amber Mac @ambermac]

🇨🇦 Canada is too often a wait-and-see country when it comes to digital governance.

🎧 Here's @taylor_owen, Director @mediatechdem / Host of @_machineslikeus, on our podcast this week.

📹 The AmberMac Show at Attention: Govern or be Governed

cc @jeffmacarthur

[Taylor Owen @taylor_owen]

In the lead-up to recording this episode of Machines Like Us, my producer Mitch shared a song with me from a band that doesn’t exist.

Velvet Sundown’s “Dust on the Wind” sounds like it came straight out of a 70s playlist. Lynyrd Skynyrd meets CCR meets Tom Petty. It’s also entirely synthetic. And the unsettling part isn’t the fakery, it’s that the song isn’t bad. And millions are listening to it.

This week on @_machineslikeus I spoke with @ednewtonrex, a composer and former head of audio at Stability AI, who walked away when he realized the industry wasn’t going to pay the artists it was training on. He calls that theft. AI companies call it fair use. That gap isn’t just legal hair-splitting; it’s about whether we want an information (and culture) economy that compensates the people whose work trains the machines now competing with them.

Our conversation covers the practical fixes (licensing, transparency about training data), and a bigger question I can’t shake: if we flood the world with decent, cheap, machine-made culture, what happens to human creativity? And perhaps more importantly, what happens to the young people deciding whether it’s worth learning an instrument, writing a song, or creating art every day?

If you care about music, copyright, or the future of creative work, especially as Canada heads into its own copyright debate, I think you’ll find this one useful.

(Links in thread)

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

From our season 2 premiere ft. @nfergus

[Taylor Owen @taylor_owen]

I was just writing a reference letter for a former students, and was reading their incredibly thoughtful essay for my class 5 years ago. It hit me that, as @nfergus reflected in our conversation, we will never be able to assign essays like that again. Whatever benefits come from AI to education, this is a loss to how we teach, learn and think.

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

Share this with teachers and students you know who are navigating AI in higher education.

#artificialintelligence #university #ChatGPT

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

Season 2 of Machines Like Us launches today.

AI has thrown universities into turmoil. This week's episode: should educators embrace AI or ban it outright?

#MachinesLikeUs #Podcast #AI #HigherEd

[The Globe and Mail @globeandmail]

Is AI the learning tool of the future, or should we be worried about its use in higher education? https://t.co/HV1KF3VjXY

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

Machines Like Us is a @globeandmail podcast with support from @CIFAR_News and @MaxBellSchool.

Stay tuned for more critical conversations with guests including @geoffreyhinton, @rutgerbregman, @ednewtonrex, and many others!

[Taylor Owen @taylor_owen]

S2 of @_machineslikeus launches next week. In addition to our feature interviews we'll be doing regular chats between my producer Mitch and I. Here's the first. We dive into new chatbot safety lawsuits, online harms regs, & AI in higher Ed https://t.co/xYfKzaU1QQ @globeandmail

[Taylor Owen @taylor_owen]

About to record the first interview of @_machineslikeus Season 2 in my new studio. We have some incredible guests lined up for the fall. @globeandmail @mcgillu @CIFAR_News

[Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy @MediaTechDem]

"Anybody with a public broadcaster that large and influential should feel very fortunate" — @jayrosen_nyu (professor of journalism at NYU).

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

Find the full season of Machines Like Us anywhere you listen, or watch the full episode on YouTube.

#KarenHao #EmpireofAI #DeepSeek #TechJournalism #AIindustry #OpenAI #SamAltman #NewYorkTimes #NewYorkTiimesBestSeller

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

@_KarenHao's book, Empire of AI, just hit the @nytimes Best Seller list! We had the pleasure of chatting with Hao right as DeepSeek upended the tech world by developing a model that was as powerful as OpenAI's latest models—but at a fraction of the resources & cost.

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

For the final episode of season 1, @taylor_owen sits down with one of Canada's top business leaders, Jim Balsillie, for a wide-ranging conversation about Trump, Canada, and how we might build a stronger, more sovereign country.

Watch the full video here: https://t.co/ZUQ958tSCn

[Taylor Owen @taylor_owen]

For as long as I can remember, Canadians have generally felt two things about America. And they’re deeply in tension with one another. On the one hand we consume American media and mimic American politics, and we depend on the US for national security and as our most important trading partner.

And yet we also define ourselves largely in opposition to them. In its most superficial form, this can look like cheap anti-americanism. But, at various moments in our history, US dominance has forced Canada to think seriously about the things that set us apart: universal health care, our social safety net, our public broadcaster. America is like our older sibling – we look up to them, while at the same time defining ourselves by the things that make us different.

This is what makes Trump’s second term so jarring for Canada. The US is now both a threat to our economy and to the future of our sovereignty. But that also means that Canadians are now, once again, asking what we want our country to be. And whether our reliance on the US is still serving us.

While most of us are only just waking up to this, Jim Balsille has been thinking about it for 30 years. Balsillie is the former co-CEO of Research in Motion – the company that developed the Blackberry. But Jim isn’t just one of the most successful business people in Canada – he’s also one of the most patriotic. Which makes his recent criticism of our country that much more meaningful.

As Jim has pointed out, our GDP per capita is currently about 70% of what it is in the US. Our productivity growth has been abysmal for years, and our high cost of living means that 1 in 4 Canadians are now food insecure now use a food bank.

But according to Jim none of this, our precarious economic position, can be blamed on Trump. He thinks that over the last thirty years we’ve clung to an outdated economic model, and have allowed our politics to be captured by corporate interests.

So, with less than  a week to go before the  federal election, and for our final episode of Season One of @_machineslikeus for the @globeandmail I thought it was the perfect time to sit down with Jim and ask him how we might build a stronger, and more sovereign Canada.

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

Journalism is in crisis at a time we need it most. At the @MediaEcosystem's Attention conference in Montreal, @taylor_owen spoke with @jayrosen_nyu about our post-truth era, journalists' role in bringing it on, and what might come next.

Watch: https://t.co/nlWZbvCW68

[Machines Like Us Podcast @_machineslikeus]

"Say Musk tweaks the algorithm in the last 2 weeks of the Canadian #elxn45, and that changes a few seats and leads to a different gov't. If there's a 5% chance of something like this happening, we should be fundamentally concerned, because it's existential for our future," says @AengusBridgman on Machines Like Us.

Listen: https://t.co/ajWz36FAtB