Big Tech promised AI would solve our biggest problems. But behind the hype there is a more unsettling reality: labor exploitation, environmental harm, and the looming threat of mass automation. Dexter sits down with journalist Karen Hao to talk about her new book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. They dig into how today’s AI companies are operating less like tech innovators and more like empires. Make sure to check out Karen’s book: Empire of AI Got something you’re cur...
Jun 25, 2025•41 min
When ICE raids sparked massive protests across Los Angeles, something unusual appeared in the sky: Predator drones. Dexter talks to Joseph Cox over at 404 Media to understand how military-grade surveillance aircrafts ended up flying over U.S. citizens and what that means for the future of civil liberties. Read + Watch: Joseph’s articles on the Predator drones flying over the protests: DHS Flew Predator Drones Over LA Protests, Audio Shows CBP Confirms It Is Flying Predator Drones Above Los Angel...
Jun 18, 2025•27 min
The Nintendo Switch 2 is out – but why did Nintendo credit someone who died in 1997 in a press release for the console? Dexter talked to Patrick Klepek , of the video game website Remap , and Jeremy Parish , an expert in video game history, to tell the story of Gunpei Yokoi and how his influence led us to the Switch 2. Read + Watch: Patrick's article on Switch 2 games he's excited to play with his kids – https://www.crossplay.news/p/best-games-for-kids-and-families-june-2025 Jeremy on Bad Dudes ...
Jun 11, 2025•37 min
Dexter doesn't have a car. But he uses AI… a lot. So, is his environmental impact worse than someone who drives a truck to work every day? This seemingly simple question led us to a bigger conversation about water, public health, and why we still don't know much about the true environmental cost of artificial intelligence. To help us understand all this, we talk to researchers Shaolei Ren and Alex de Vries , who’ve been studying the toll AI takes on the planet. Got something you’re curious about...
Jun 04, 2025•32 min
For about 24 hours, Grok, Twitter’s AI chatbot, went berserk. You could ask it about puppies, sports, or movies, and it would reply with a bizarre diatribe about white genocide in South Africa. If you’ve already heard of this, you’ve probably seen people dunking on Elon Musk, and, well, that’s understandable. But Max Read, today’s guest, explains why this brief peek into a weird conspiracy theory might have actually been a good thing. Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kale...
May 28, 2025•36 min
Almost two million people watched a horrific story of a murder in Colorado: the “grisly” death of a real estate agent who had a secret affair with his stepson. The problem is, there was no crime. Dexter talks to Henry Larson, the reporter who tracked down the guy behind the video, about where the story came from and what it means for the “True Crime” genre. He also asks True Crime podcasters, Lauren Bright Pacheco and Bob Motta, about how this trend is a threat to more than just their livelihood...
May 21, 2025•34 min
About 48 hours after the US National Security Advisor was spotted using a weird cloned version of Signal, someone said they’d hacked it. It took them all of 15 minutes. We now know that TeleMessage is ‘cartoonishly hackable,’ but we still don’t know why top White House officials were using it. And what about the investigation to find out if this Israel-based app is bad on accident, or on purpose? I called up my friends Evan McMorris-Santoro of NOTUS and Joseph Cox of 404 Media to get some more c...
May 14, 2025•37 min
Have you seen Shrimp Jesus? What about the Hollywood sign burning? It probably feels random, but it’s not. There are real people behind AI Slop, and there’s real money to be made. Dexter talks to Jason Koebler from 404 Media who’s been tracking AI slop since its beginnings, and they compare notes to try to figure out where the money is coming from. Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc , or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky. Read + watch: Jason’s article, Facebook's S...
May 07, 2025•45 min
While you were going about your life, we all narrowly avoided a complete disaster. This is the story of how one lone Microsoft engineer saved all of us. Dexter talks to Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer at SentinelOne, about how it all went down and why this story still terrifies him today. Got something you’re curious about? Hit us up killswitch@kaleidoscope.nyc , or @dexdigi on IG or Bluesky. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 30, 2025•41 min
Welcome to our first episode of kill switch , where we’re diving right into the deep end – investigating how police departments are implementing AI technology. Can AI facial recognition be a magical solution to the unreliability of witness identification? Or is it just making things worse? Dexter talks to Douglas MacMillan, a reporter from the Washington Post , who has been tracking the spread of the technology, and where it seems to (repeatedly) break down. Got something you’re curious about? H...
Apr 23, 2025•39 min
Sleepwalkers is now Kill Switch , where we explain the right now of living in the future. Everything from making money on saving fake baby animals to how you could get arrested by a police algorithm. Every Wednesday we talk to people to help us understand how our tech-focused society works …or doesn't work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 16, 2025•2 min
Were we sleeping when everything changed? Not if you listened to the first season of this podcast, because a whole lot of what we explored is now reality. Seems like the technologically driven future is already here. So we've decided to bring the show back -- with a new host, Dexter Thomas Jr and a new perspective. On Kill Switch , we explain the right NOW of our super charged technological lives. Examining the ways we shape and are shaped by our ever-changing technology. See omnystudio.com/list...
Apr 09, 2025•7 min
We explore the hidden role of cobalt in the A.I. revolution. The element is a key ingredient of lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from cell phones to laptops to electric vehicles. But the way cobalt is mined is troubling. New Yorker journalist Nicolas Niarchos takes us to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for more than 70% of the world's cobalt supply. There, he exposes child labor in the supply chain and reveals a new frontier of competition with China. Learn more abo...
Aug 27, 2021•22 min
In this special bonus episode, Oz and Karah share their trip to the Consumer Electronics Show. They present excerpts from a conversation with Matt Monahan of The Washington Post about how to best harness the power of AI, while avoiding common pitfalls. Matt is head of product for Arc Publishing, which began life as The Post's internal publishing suite, and is now licensed by hundreds of partner sites. Oz and Karah also discuss their highlights from the CES floor, including a device to track dogs...
Jan 24, 2020•24 min
In this special episode, Oz and Karah examine our evolving relationship with the technology we create. Karah meets Jason Cohen, CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems, to see if his team can hack her taste preferences, and use AI to create a new flavor of beverage that she will love. Oz and Karah also look ahead to Season 2, previewing stories they are excited to report, including algorithms that promise to optimize end-of-life conversations. And they share highlights from conversations with guests fr...
Jan 14, 2020•27 min
The rules are changing. At a time when technology promises to allow the lame to walk and the blind to see, we're forced to ask: what makes us uniquely human? In this final episode of Season 1, we speak with the so-called "sage of Silicon Valley," Yuval Noah Harari, about humanity's future. We try out technology that claims to deliver on a miracle, and we meet the source of several new innovations being created by people normally left out of the laboratory. In this episode: Professor Yuval Noah H...
Jul 04, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 10
A.I. is already better than human doctors at diagnosing skin and breast cancer. And as machine learning advances, it's becoming able to decode more complex information, like brain waves and the human genome. A.I. is beginning to revolutionize medicine, and allowing us to see into the future of our bodies...but can we ever know too much about ourselves? What will happen when machine learning lets us open our own black boxes? In this episode: Physician and author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee , Google ...
Jun 27, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 9
War has been a driver of breakthrough technology for a long time. The first waves of artificial intelligence and even the internet came out of DARPA, a defense agency whose original mission was to keep the U.S. technologically ahead of the Soviet Union. But what happens when the battlefield is increasingly dominated by autonomous weapons, which don't require humans in the loop to shoot and kill? In this episode: Arati Prabhakar, former head of DARPA; Richard Danzig , former Navy Secretary; Paul ...
Jun 20, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Robots are coming for our jobs, and not just in factories. Artificial intelligence doesn't distinguish between blue collar and white collar work, which means that the economy of the future will look very different. And as it changes, we'll need to make big adjustments. But A.I. is also being used in the fight against world hunger. This episode, we speak with roboticists, inventors, and a fast food regular about how we'll put food on the table. In this episode: Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group , Kai ...
Jun 13, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 7
We travel to Silicon Valley where Astro Teller welcomes us inside X, Google's secretive innovation laboratory, to explain how one of the most powerful companies on earth is building the future. X is working on everything from creating new antibiotics to restoring internet connectivity after natural disasters. And they're not alone. Tech companies are increasingly involved in building infrastructure, and even playing the role of government. But what kind of power does this give them? And what can...
Jun 06, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 6
It's getting harder to tell reality from fiction. Fake news and misinformation are all around us, and they're increasingly used as weapons of war. But what happens when A.I.-doctored videos are added to the mix? We meet the people fighting back against deep fakes, and even using them for good. And we visit Facebook headquarters to learn how Russian agents are trying to manipulate our behavior. In this episode: Nathaniel Gleicher of Facebook , John Micklethwait of Bloomberg News , Jose Sotelo of ...
May 30, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Ever wondered what it would be like to live in a world where computers know exactly what we're feeling? It may sound far-off but advances in sensor technology and A.I. are making us easier to read than ever. For some, this conjures fears of a Minority Report future. For others, it means revolutions in medicine and end-of-life care. We speak with leading experts in the field of empathetic technology to understand the risks and rewards of giving up our privacy. When our technology can adapt to us,...
May 23, 2019•33 min•Season 1Ep. 4
If data doesn't make you think of a new world order, it should. AI is enabling wholesale surveillance, and changing the landscape in countries like China, where cameras monitor citizens to decide their social credit score. But how is this already playing out in the US? We speak with experts on both sides of the Pacific, and visit the NYPD to learn how they use AI. Plus, we see where else predictive technology is being used in the American criminal justice system. In this episode: Ian Bremmer of ...
May 16, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 3
If there's one thing that sets people apart from machines, it's creativity, right? Automation may take over certain jobs, but what happens when algorithms start to learn from our work to create their own? This episode, we speak with people using AI to generate films, poetry, music, and even recipes. And the founder of Google X, Sebastian Thrun, explains what's powering this new wave of AI. In this episode: Ross Goodwin and Oscar Sharp of Sunspring , Janelle Shane of AI Weirdness , Drew Silverste...
May 09, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Welcome to the A.I. revolution that is already transforming our lives, for good and evil. But what exactly are we sleepwalking into? We start by investigating the connections between online dating, terrorism, and screen addiction. In this episode we hear from: Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology , Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post, Yasmin Green of Jigsaw , and Dr. Helen Fisher . Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/liste...
May 02, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This is Sleepwalkers. With secret labs and expert guests, Oz Woloshyn and Karah Preiss explore the thrill of the AI revolution hands-on, to see how we can stay in control of our future. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 25, 2019•1 min
