This week on Consider This, it's called an AI spiral.

When a person communicating with an AI chatbot loses touch with reality.

When I thought I was communicating with the digital god, I got dopamine from every prompt.

Artificial intelligence, human consequences.

This week on Consider This, this.

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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Friday, February 6th, 2026. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover

Congress. And let's talk about the week that was in Washington, starting with the blink and you'll miss it, partial government shutdown. Sam, remind us why was there a shutdown in the first place?

The short answer is the two deadly shootings by federal immigration officers in

Minneapolis. Democrats said that they would not approve more funding for the Department of Homeland

Security, which includes immigration and customs enforcement and customs and border protection

without adding guardrails in the law to restrain these enforcement tactics.

And they ran out of money. They ran out of time. But then they came together and passed a

temporary extension of that Homeland Security funding and funded the rest of the government for

the rest of the year. So yeah, so we had this partial shutdown because the

house had to come back and sign off on that deal. The house was not in Washington. Once they did come

back and sign off, it actually set up another deadline clock, as you mentioned. And that is because

under this deal, DHS is funded only through February 13th. So Congress is now back on the hook to try and figure out not only a funding

package, but also potentially some solutions related to immigration enforcement tactics.

So Ashley, the shutdown ended, but there wasn't much of a celebration. I don't get the sense

...