Richard Dawkins Finds Love, and Other AI News (Half the Answer #84, with Hagen Blix)

Is this chatbot sentient? Is AI my friend? Is isolation hackable? Trent and Caitlin discuss recent AI news, Sam Altman's troubles legal and otherwise, labor organizing as a strategy against the worst fears of AI experts, and whether Richard Dawkins is conscious, in this news digest episode with linguist and AI researcher Hagen Blix.

Richard Dawkins Finds Love, Isolation as a Societal Norm, and Other AI News (with Hagen Blix)

Podcast Episode · Half the Answer · May 21 · 1h 34m

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Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares

On the Interpretation of Nightmares

Common NotionsHagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer

Petition against the Model Capability Initiative

Tech Workers Can Still Fight Silicon Valley’s Overlords

Don’t let the AI of it all fool you — tech workers can still bring Silicon Valley to a halt.

Hagen Blix

Don’t Believe the Hype — or Doom — About AI

For America’s VC-dominated tech industry, AI hype isn’t just a crazy by-product — it’s a structural part of the US economy in which capital tries to write our destinies. We shouldn’t let it.

Hagen Blix

Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data

How a fiery attack on Sam Altman’s home unfolded

Molotov cocktail attack on OpenAI CEO’s home comes amid growing discontent against artificial intelligence

The GuardianNick Robins-Early

Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale

Next week, Meta is cutting about 10 percent of its staff. WIRED spoke with more than a dozen current and former employees about what it’s like inside a company where “everyone is unhappy.”

WIREDParesh Dave and Lauren Goode and Steven Levy and Zoë Schiffer

Meta Layoffs 2026: 8,000 Cut for 35B AI Capex

Meta cut 8,000 jobs (10% of staff) on April 24, 2026 to fund 15-135B AI capex. Inside the divisions hit, market reaction and 5 predictions.

Tech InsiderNadia Dubois

When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious?

When Claudia met Claudius

think again

UnHerdRichard Dawkins