In the span of just a few months, tech companies have released a plethora of new artificial intelligence products that are already influencing our digital lives. It all seems to be happening really, really fast, and it has us wondering: Are we at an inflection point with AI?

“I do think it rises to that level of the printing press or the internet, where it’s this tool that fundamentally shapes everything we do, how we think, how we interact with the world. So, I kind of see it influencing everything that happens going forward,” said Kyle Chayka, technology and culture writer at The New Yorker.

On the show today: How some folks are starting to use AI tools in their day-to-day lives, what ChatGPT can and can’t do well (yet), and why toying around with chatbots or image generators might help us feel a little less afraid of AI technologies. Plus, why it’s a big deal that so many of us fell for the viral AI-generated photo of the pope in a Balenciaga coat.

In the News Fix: The tech community is divided over how to safely develop new AI tools, and the federal government is jumping into the debate by taking early steps toward AI policy recommendations. Plus, what you need to know about charging your phone in public.

Later, one listener shares what ChatGPT had to say about “Make Me Smart.” And another listener tells us what they got wrong about a little-known side effect of eating asparagus.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet” from The New Yorker

• • “A.I. Pop Culture Is Already Here” from The New Yorker

• • “Elon Musk, Other AI Experts Call for Pause in Technology’s Development” from The Wall Street Journal

• • “AI might not steal your job, but it could change it” from MIT Technology Review

• • “How AI Chatbots Are Helping Some People Have Hard Conversations” from The New York Times

• • “Doomsday to utopia: Meet AI’s rival factions” from The Washington Post

• • “The AI factions of Silicon Valley” from Semaphor

• • “Commerce Department looks to craft AI safety rules” from Axios

• • “FBI warns against using public phone charging stations” from NBC News

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