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Radiolab

Shell Game

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.643.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One man secretly hands off more and more of his life to an AI voice clone. Today, we feature veteran journalist Evan Ratliff who - for his new podcast Shell Game - decided to slowly replace himself bit by bit with an AI voice clone, to see how far he could actually take it. Could it do the mundane phone calls he’d prefer to skip? Could it get legal advice for him? Could it go to therapy for him? Could it parent his kids? Evan feeds his bot the most intimate details about his life, and lets the bot loose in high-stakes situations at home and at work. Which bizarro version of him will show up? The desperately-agreeable conversationalist, the crank-yanking prank caller, the glitched out stranger who sounds like he’s in the middle of a mental breakdown, or someone else entirely? Will people believe it’s really him? And how will they act if they don’t? A gonzo journalistic experiment for the age of AI, that’s funny and eerie all at the same time. We have some exciting news! In the “Zoozve” episode, Radiolab named its first-ever quasi-moon, and now it's your turn! Radiolab has teamed up with The International Astronomical Union to launch a global naming contest for one of Earth’s quasi-moons. This is your chance to make your mark on the heavens. Submit your name ideas now through September, or vote on your favorites starting in November: https://radiolab.org/moon EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Evan Ratliff Produced by - Evan Ratliff and Simon Adler Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger and Edited by - {{SHRNR}} EPISODE CITATIONS: Audio: If you want to listen to more of Evan’s Shell Game, you can do so here, https://www.shellgame.co/ Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Wait, you're listening.

0:03.0

Okay.

0:04.0

All right.

0:05.0

Okay.

0:06.0

Okay.

0:07.0

All right.

0:08.0

You're listening to Radio Lab.

0:11.0

Radio Lab.

0:12.0

From W-N-Y-S from WNYC.

0:14.0

C.

0:15.0

This is Radio Lab and I am the real Lut of Nasser.

0:20.0

Hello. Hello. and I am the real lot of Nasser.

0:22.6

Hello.

0:23.6

Hello.

0:24.6

How you doing?

0:25.6

I'm all right.

0:26.6

How are you?

0:27.6

I'm doing great.

0:28.6

Now it doesn't sound like it, but this interview you're hearing, I was so nervous to do this interview, like more nervous

0:35.2

than I've been to do an interview in years because I wasn't sure that the person who

0:40.5

showed up was really a person. I feel like I was expecting you to come camera off. I had to come

0:47.0

camera on otherwise you would not trust that it was me. That was then I was

...

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