Black Box

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At some point in the past few years, humanity collided with a new kind of intelligence. And things are getting strange. People are being accused of crimes by algorithms; falling in love with digital beings; pioneering new ways to fight old diseases; turning to machines for comfort in their worst moments, and using artificial intelligence to commit - and hide from - terrible crimes. The Guardian’s Michael Safi investigates the story of a technology so complex that its own creators have no idea what it is thinking, and captures a snapshot of the era when people first made contact with AI

The Guardian


    • Jun 23, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • every other week NEW EPISODES
    • 30m AVG DURATION
    • 21 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Black Box

    Episode five: the fightback

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2025 38:19


    Funerals are held for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira and there is hope that the election of President Lula will mean new protections for the Amazon – and that the killers of Dom and Bruno will face justice. But organised crime is widespread and deep-rooted. The investigative journalist Sônia Bridi tells the Guardian's Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips about a man who allegedly not only may have helped plan the killings but may have ordered them. A man whose name strikes fear across the region

    Episode four: the ambush

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2025 25:25


    The Guardian's Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, recalls the moment that he and others on the search team found Dom and Bruno's belongings in a hidden area of flooded forest. The team finally discover what has happened to the men

    Episode three: the protector and the poacher

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2025 35:08


    Bruno Pereira has been considered one of the great Indigenous protectors of his generation. And this has made him an enemy of a man called Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado. The Guardian's Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reports on the story of these two men – Bruno and Pelado – and what happened when their paths collide

    Episode two: the journalist and the president

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2025 30:13


    What took British journalist Dom Phillips from the club nights of the UK dance scene as editor of MixMag to one of the most remote, and dangerous, corners of the Amazon rainforest? In 2022, Dom set off on a reporting trip with Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on uncontacted tribes, into the Javari valley, to investigate the criminal gangs threatening this region. And then they vanished

    Episode one: the disappearance

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2025 26:46


    Three years ago, British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished while on a reporting trip near Brazil's remote Javari valley. The Guardian's Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, investigates what happened in the first episode of a new six-part investigative podcast series

    Coming soon: Missing in the Amazon – a new Guardian investigative series

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2025 0:30


    In one of the most remote corners of the Amazon jungle, a journalist and an indigenous defender disappear without a trace. Missing in the Amazon – our new six-part investigative podcast series uncovers what happened to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. Told for the first time by the people closest to them

    Episode 6 – Shut it down?

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2024 41:16


    For decades, Eliezer Yudkowsky has been trying to warn the world about the dangers of AI. And now people are finally listening to him. But is it too late?

    Episode 5 – The white mask

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2024 36:09


    In January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested by Detroit police for a crime he had not committed. The officers were acting on a tip not from a witness or informant. In fact, not from a person at all

    Episode 4 – Bing and I

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2024 42:00


    Two stories about the way AI could – in fact, already is – making the world better. In Montana, when Lee Johnson discovered his wife, Yokie, had cancer, he turned to AI – and was surprised by the answers he got. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts Prof Regina Barzilay's experience with cancer has led her to build an AI system that can detect the disease years before a human

    Episode 3 – Repocalypse now

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 34:33


    When Eugenia Kuyda created Replika, the AI companion app, she had no idea it would be downloaded millions of times all around the world. The results were more powerful than she could ever have predicted. But so was the backlash

    Episode 2 – The hunt for ClothOff: the deepfake porn app

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2024 45:44


    For the past six months, Guardian journalist Michael Safi has been trying to find out who is behind an AI company that creates deepfakes. Deepfakes that are causing havoc around the world, with police and lawmakers baffled about how to deal with them. And in trying to answer one question, he has been left with a bigger one: is AI going to make it impossible to sort fact from fiction?

    Episode 1 – The connectionists

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2024 39:21


    This is the story of Geoffrey Hinton, a man who set out to understand the brain and ended up working with a group of researchers who invented a technology so powerful that even they don't truly understand how it works. This is about a collision between two mysterious intelligences – two black boxes – human and artificial. And it's already having profound consequences

    Episode 0 - The collision

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 29, 2024 13:28


    The beginning of a new series that explores seven stories and the thread that ties them together: artificial intelligence. In this prologue, Hannah (not her real name) has met Noah and he has changed her life for the better. So why does she have concerns about him?

    Black Box: a new podcast series about AI and us – trailer

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2024 2:53


    In rural Norway, a young woman's boyfriend forgets who she is overnight. In Detroit, a man is arrested for a crime, but he was never there. In a Spanish town, disturbing pictures of young girls have appeared, but no one knows who is behind them. In this new series from the Guardian, we'll explore what it is that connects all these stories: the collision between people and artificial intelligence. Coming soon …

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode seven: an update

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2022 10:48


    Guardian producer Lucy Hough and reporter Matthew Weaver give an update on the outcome of Matthew Hardy's appeal

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode six: the winding clock

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 32:31


    As the years tick by, journalist Sirin Kale speaks to victims and those who know Matthew to ask whether his stalking will ever truly end

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode five: a mother's love

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 42:22


    Journalist Sirin Kale meets Matthew's mother to uncover more about his past, and find out what might have motivated him to cyberstalk his victims for so many years

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode four: a reckoning

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 39:45


    Matthew's victims come face to face with him as an attempt is made to stop his torment once and for all

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode three: the man upstairs

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 34:38


    Who is Matthew? Journalist Sirin Kale looks for clues about who this cyberstalker really is and why he creates chaos and fear in so many people's lives

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode two: the widening circle

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 39:11


    As the cyberstalker spreads his net wider, anyone could be a target. The fast-changing world of social media creates new opportunities for him to find more victims. Only now, someone is watching him …

    Can I tell you a secret? Episode one: the beginning

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 33:52


    Guardian journalist Sirin Kale takes us to a small town in the north of England to uncover how one man began a decade of cyberstalking

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