Adam Davidson Hosts A.I. Series on Freakonomics Radio

 

Freakonomics Radio has launched “How to Think About A.I.,” a three-part series providing some entertaining clarity that cuts through the noise surrounding artificial intelligence. The series is guest-hosted by award-winning reporter Adam Davidson, who views the series as an unofficial successor to his Peabody- and Polk-winning 2008 This American Life episode, “The Giant Pool of Money,” which explained the housing crisis in a way normal people could understand.

 

Davidson was the co-founder of the Planet Money NPR podcast, and co-host of Gimlet's Surprisingly Awesome podcast with Adam McKay.

"I’ve spent months now talking to as many smart people as I can find about A.I., and I learned a lot," Davidson says in the first episode. “The main thing, the big headline: Nobody knows where A.I. is heading. That’s why there’s such a crazy range of predictions. As one expert told me, there are no experts yet. We’re still figuring this out.”

With help from leaders in the fields of A.I. (including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei explaining why no one gets to ignore A.I. for much longer), economics (including Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick exploring how A.I. could help would-be entrepreneurs), and creativity (including TV showrunner Michael Schur wondering how the technology will change writers’ rooms), Davidson begins by asking a few basic questions — like, what actually is A.I.? — but the main questions are these: What happens when A.I. can do things that we think of as distinctly human? Can it be truly creative? And will A.I. take my job?

The series gets into the nuts and bolts of the technology as it exists today: what can it do, and how should you use it? It also zooms out to talk about A.I.’s impact on jobs, and the long history of how technological advances have shifted employment. Additionally, the series asks who get to shape the path that A.I. takes. How can we best understand if and when A.I. will really transform our lives? 

 

The first episode is available August 24th at freakonomics.com and on all podcast platforms. The next two episodes will come out on Wednesdays August 30 and September 6 at 11:00 PM ET.

The A.I. miniseries follows other recent special programming across the Freakonomics Radio Network, including multi-part series on whaling, art repatriation, air travel, and Adam Smith (all on Freakonomics Radio) and the seven deadly sins (on No Stupid Questions). Earlier this summer, the network launched its newest show, The Economics of Everyday Things.

 

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