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The New York Times

“Hard Fork” is a show about the future that’s already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hard Fork

This week, iRobot, the pioneering American robotics company behind the Roomba, filed for bankruptcy and announced that it would be taken over by its Chinese creditor. Colin Angle, a co-founder and a former longtime chief executive of the company, joins us to explain why the company lost its market dominance and what America should do to protect its newest crop of A.I. and robotics start-ups from the same fate. Then, we settle the score on our high, medium and low predictions from last year and lay down our new ones — including a spicy take on who will take over after Tim Cook at Apple. And finally, we wish all of our listeners a very happy holiday season with our annual tech-themed Christmas carol.

 

Guest:

 • Colin Angle, iRobot co-founder and former chief executive for over three decades.

 

Additional Reading: 

Roomba Maker iRobot Files for Bankruptcy, With Chinese Supplier Taking ControliRobot Is in Trouble, but Roomba Is Already DeadOur 2025 Tech Predictions and Resolutions
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin’ Xmas Song

This week, Australia implemented the most aggressive social media ban in a democracy to date, kicking children under 16 off 10 of the most popular social platforms. We discuss how the platforms lost the argument around child safety and whether others will follow Australia’s lead. Then, the blogger Andy Masley joins us to separate fact from fiction on the topic of A.I. water use. Is it a distraction from other more pressing environmental concerns? And finally, our first-ever “Hard Fork” Wrapped: We break down our favorite “Hard Fork” stats from 2025 and bring you up to date on three of our biggest stories of the year.

 

Guests:

 • Andy Masley, blogger 
The Weird Turn Pro
 

Additional Reading: 

A Grand Social Media Experiment Begins in AustraliaThe A.I. water issue is fakeWhy Is Everyone So Wrong About A.I. Water Use?Trump Signs Executive Order to Neuter State A.I. LawsTrump Clears Sale of More Powerful Nvidia A.I. Chips to ChinaWe Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

It’s A.I. model rollout season in Silicon Valley, and OpenAI appears to be feeling the pressure. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, sent a memo to staff on Monday declaring a “code red” effort to improve ChatGPT and delay other initiatives. We explain why the latest frontier models from Google and Anthropic have OpenAI spooked and how the company is reshuffling priorities to respond. Then, we give our honest thoughts on which A.I models we like best and share how we’re using A.I. in our day-to-day lives. And finally, we take a look at some of the most popular A.I.-generated content on the internet this week in our latest installment of the Hard Fork Review of Slop.

Additional Reading: 

What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With RealityGoogle Unveils Gemini 3, With Improved Coding and Search AbilitiesTourists Tricked by Fake Royal Christmas MarketDeepfake of North Carolina lawmaker used in award-winning Whirlpool video
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

OpenAI Calls a ‘Code Red’ + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop

Last year we debuted Hard Fork’s 100 Most Iconic Technologies list, in which we ranked the technologies from across all of history that best define life as we know it. To our surprise, it became one of our most popular episodes ever. So now we’re doing it again — with a twist. All year, we’ve been collecting ideas for the 50 Most Iconic Technologies of 2025, and this week we present them to you, along with our case for why each entry played an important part in defining this year, for better or worse.

 

Additional Reading: 

 • Check out last year’s list: 
Hard Fork’s 100 Most Iconic Technologies Meet the Artist Who Bedazzled Naomi Osaka’s Labubus
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hard Fork’s 50 Most Iconic Technologies of 2025

Last month our colleague Lulu Garcia-Navarro had a conversation with Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales about the challenges the site is facing — including by right-wing influencers who claim it is biased and by A.I. chatbots that compete with its content.

We found the conversation interesting, and think you might too. So to tide you over until our special holiday episode on Friday, we’re bringing you that conversation from the New York Times podcast “The Interview.”

 

Guests: 

 • Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and author of “The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last”

 

Additional Reading:

The Culture Wars Came for Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales Is Staying the Course.Elon Musk Challenges Wikipedia With His Own A.I. EncyclopediaElon Musk Groks Wikipedia
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Interview: How Wikipedia Is Responding to the Culture Wars

Roblox's popularity has exploded among kids since the pandemic. Today Roblox has more than 150 million daily active users, and functions as one of the primary online gathering places for preteens. But precisely because Roblox is so popular with children, it has also attracted the attention of adult predators.

This week we’re joined by Roblox chief executive David Baszucki for a conversation about how the company is responding to allegations that it has become unsafe for children, and the new measures the gaming platform says it’s now implementing to protect them.

Guests:

 • David Baszucki, chief executive of Roblox

Additional Reading: 

Roblox Sued for Wrongful Death After Teenager’s SuicideGeneration Alpha’s FarmVille Is Growing Like Crazy in Roblox
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.

Google’s much anticipated new large language model Gemini 3 begins rolling out today. We’ll tell you what we learned from an early product briefing and bring you our conversation with Google executives Demis Hassabis and Josh Woodward, just ahead of the launch.

 

Guests:

Demis Hassabis • , chief executive and co-founder of Google DeepMind
Josh Woodward • , vice president of Google Labs and Google Gemini

 

Additional Reading: 

The Man Who ‘A.G.I.-Pilled’ Google
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Google's Gemini 3 Is Here: A Special Early Look

This week, we talk about Google’s new plan to build data centers in space. Then, we’re joined by Dean Ball, a former adviser at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Ball worked on the Trump administration’s A.I. Action Plan, and he shares his inside view on how those policies came together. Finally, Professor Mark Humphries joins us to talk about a strange Gemini model that offered mind-blowing results on a challenging research problem.

 

Guests:

Dean Ball • , senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation and former White House senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence and emerging technology
Mark Humphries • , professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University

Additional Reading: 

Towards a Future Space-Based, Highly Scalable A.I. Infrastructure System DesignWhat It's Like to Work at the White House Has Google Quietly Solved Two of AI’s Oldest Problems?
 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Data Centers in Space + A.I. Policy on the Right + A Gemini History Mystery

This week, we’re joined by Bernt Bornich, chief executive of 1X. We talked with him about NEO, his company’s new humanoid robot, which has the internet buzzing. Then we meet NEO itself, and compare notes on the experience. Finally, we close the week with a roundup of tech news headlines: It’s time for some HatGPT.

Guests:

Bernt Bornich • , chief executive of 1X

Additional Reading: 

I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You. It’s Still Part Human.Invasion of the Home Humanoid RobotsThere Are More Robots Working in China Than the Rest of the World CombinedTrump Pardons Founder of the Crypto Exchange BinanceFor Podcasters, a Voice Clone Is a Double-Edged Sword

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

We Met NEO, the Viral Humanoid Robot + HatGPT

This week, Character.AI announced that it would soon be taking its A.I. companions away from teens. We explain why this is a major development in the world of chatbots and child safety and how we expect other companies to respond. Then, Elon Musk has built a Wikipedia clone called “Grokipedia.” We discuss what it means for the control of knowledge on the web. And finally, we’re joined by A.J. Jacobs to talk about his 48-hour experiment in which he tried to avoid all forms of artificial intelligence. We ask why that led him to collect rainwater and forage for food in Central Park.

Guests:

A.J. Jacobs • , author, journalist and host of the podcast “
The Puzzler • ”

 

Additional Reading: 

Character.AI to Bar Children Under 18 From Using Its ChatbotsElon Musk Challenges Wikipedia With His Own A.I. Encyclopedia48 Hours Without A.I. 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Character.AI’s Teen Chatbot Crackdown + Elon Musk Groks Wikipedia + 48 Hours Without A.I.

TikTok is opening up a “Transparency and Accountability Center” to try to win over skeptics. Is the company’s strategy working? Then, the origin story of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and how the company kicked off an A.I. arms race.

Plus: A co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, hopes to make a “TikTok for text.”

On today’s episode:

 • Kevin Systrom is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Instagram.

Additional reading:

 • TikTok is taking a 
more aggressive • approach toward lobbying.
 • Inside 
OpenAI’s race • to build ChatGPT.
 • Kevin Systrom is starting a new 
A.I.-powered news app • .

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

A Trip to TikTok + ChatGPT’s Origin Story + Kevin Systrom’s Comeback

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