AI/ML

Shell Game Episode 6, our final episode of our first season, is out now!

While at times it may have seemed like I was just using my voice agent to mess around and have some fun—in fairness, many times I was—you’ve hopefully detected by now that we were also on an intentional journey over the course of the first five episodes. From a voice clone that knew nothing about me in its calls to customer service, to one built to tie up scammers. Then from an agent that could represent me in my most superficial conversation, to one that could express my inner life, and try and take on my job.

In the last episode, we arrive at our destination, where a cheshire cat awaits us, with a pair of questions. First, a general one: How do we grasp the benefits of new technologies, like AI voice, without simultaneously letting go of things that matter to us? And as a way of approaching that question, another: What does it feel like for the people closest to me to confront AI me, instead of me?

To answer them, I had to push this experiment as far as I was comfortable and then beyond. This was the hardest episode to make, for reasons that will become clear when you hear it. But I hope that you feel the way the three of us working on it have felt, that it will stick with you for a long time.