414: ‘Annoying Friendliness’, With Joanna Stern
The Talk Show With John Gruber
11/18/24
•114m
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Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about our new best friends, AI chatbots, and I chime in with how the Voight-Kampff test got it all wrong.
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Links:
- Joanna on YouTube: “I Spent 24 Hours in the Woods With Talking AI Chatbots”.
- Joanna’s excellent interview with Craig Federighi on Apple Intelligence, which is also on YouTube.
- My commentary linking to it.
- Ann-Marie Alcántara’s Wall Street Journal piece: “When Did Apple’s Notes App Become an Extension of Our Brains?” (also on News+)
- Larry David on Siri.
- Voight-Kampff Test.
- There’s a social media thing where people are posting ChatGPT’s illustrations from the prompt “Based on what you know about me, draw a picture of what you think my current life looks like.”
- Here’s mine: I’m all alone in a nice study with lots of books, a leather couch, and a manual typewriter.
- Here’s Joanna’s: Boy Scouts, basketball, cameras, computers, and lots of bagels.
- Here’s an alternate from Joanna.
- The Gruber and Coudal families, leaving Barack Obama’s election night rally in Grant Park in Chicago in 2008.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Previous Episode
413: ‘Holiday Party 2024’, With Merlin Mann
November 9, 2024
•172m
This again. Jiminy. Well, once more, let's talk around another election, and try, by doing so, to maybe express something about it.
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Links:
- Previously on The Talk Show, with Merlin:
- Holiday Party 2016 (the bad one)
- Holiday Party 2020 (the good one)
- Yours truly, on this week: “How It Went”.
- Seki Edge nail clippers:
- Panzarino at The Obsessor: “The Best Nail Clippers You’ll Ever Use”.
- The Talk Show, October 2022: ‘Big Booger Came After You’, where Merlin first recommended these to me.
- Get them at Amazon for $16. Buy two pairs.
- Kai scissors. Get a few pairs of these too.
- Merlin’s Wisdom Project. Read this if you haven’t. Read it again if you have. So good.
- Reconcilable Differences — Merlin’s podcast with John Siracusa. The kids call it “Rec Diffs”.
- Merlin’s Happy Place — a YouTube playlist, comprised of “Videos I watch pretty often when I need a little pick-me-up.”
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Next Episode
415: ‘A Good Duck Butt’, With Allen Pike
December 2, 2024
•152m
Special guest Allen Pike joins the show to talk about the state of generative AI and how Apple Intelligence measures up (so far). Also: some speculation on Apple’s pending acquisition of the ever-difficult-to-pronounce Pixelmator.
Sponsored by:
- WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
Links:
- Allen’s blog.
- Allen’s take on Apple Intelligence, so far: “It’s Good for Apple, and Okay for You”. (Includes the Image-Playground–generated derpy-looking images of Allen that we discuss on the show.)
- Forestwalk Labs — Allen’s new startup.
- Allen’s podcasts:
- CGP Grey and Myke Hurley discuss how Apple Intelligence message suggestions feel “anti-human” on Cortex ep. 161.
- Cursor — “The AI Code Editor”.
- Rich Sutton’s 2019 essay “The Bitter Lesson” (“The biggest lesson that can be read from 70 years of AI research is that general methods that leverage computation are ultimately the most effective, and by a large margin.”)
- AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire”, which ran four seasons from 2014–2017.
- Ellen Cushing for The Atlantic: “Thanksgiving Should Be in October”.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
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