Well, Casey, we're experimenting with a bold new technique called taking a vacation this year.

So we are on summer break and in our place, we wanted to bring you a couple of little things from the other parts of the New York Times podcast world that we thought you might enjoy. Yeah,

first up is an episode of The Daily featuring writer Eli Saslow called Can AI Make People Feel

Less Lonely? That's a question we're interested in around here. And in this episode,

they talk about a pilot program in Washington State where they're using AI robots to try to

fight loneliness and isolation

among older Americans. As an older American yourself, you probably have a special interest in this

situation. Oh, I'm signing up for my robot. You can send that right to my house. You know,

Eli writes in this piece about an 85-year-old woman named Jan Worrell, who lives on the coast of

Washington with a machine called L.EQQ. Is L.I.Q?

L.E.Q. I pronounce it L.EQ. But the great thing about an AI robot is you can call it whatever the hell you want. They don't care. That's true. So, and then, Kevin, you're probably saying, is that the whole show? But guess what? It's not. Because after that, we're bringing you a conversation from the Opinions podcast, where they talk about Silicon Valley's current obsession with taste.

Yes, taste is the word in the word from the Opinions podcast, where they talk about Silicon Valley's current obsession with taste.

Yes, taste is the word in the word cloud of San Francisco AI culture this year that I have not been able to escape.

You will hear them talk about what is behind this obsession with taste and whether AI will ever develop taste of its own.

It's a tasty, tasty segment, and we're excited to bring it to you now.

Eliasasas, welcome to The Daily.

Thanks so much. Happy to be with you.

You are a journalist who is known for spending a lot of time with individual people who have these really gripping and evocative stories that don't just tell us about their lives, but actually tell us something much bigger about the time that we live in. And that is absolutely what you did with a recent story you wrote about how in one instance, artificial intelligence is being used to treat loneliness. And what it captured was

not just this unique moment that we're in, where technology is playing an increasingly large role in

our lives, but also it captured how people are grappling with what that role should be.

So just to start off, why don't you tell us what you set out to do with

the story and what you were interested in? Yeah, I've spent a lot of time traveling around the

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