Harry McCrackenEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

The US government abruptly forced Anthropic to pull its most advanced AI model offline after fears it was simply too powerful to be safe. Hear the real story behind the sudden shutdown that rocked the tech world—and what it reveals about the uneasy alliance between Washington and Silicon Valley. • Anthropic's Fable 5 AI model release sparks cybersecurity and jailbreak concerns • White House pressures Anthropic to withdraw Fable amid security fears • Debate over government intervention, model regulation, and Anthropic's IPO timing • SpaceX IPO rockets to record-breaking $1.77 trillion valuation • Apple unveils revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence at WWDC • Apple's new child safety and parental controls in iOS • OpenAI and Anthropic plot IPOs, face economic realities of AI industry • Supply chain attacks hit Arch Linux packages, security risks highlighted • Spotify battles surge of fake podcasts promoting illegal drugs • German court rules Google AI overviews legally liable for inaccuracies • FCC pursues crackdown on anonymous burner phones, raising privacy alarms • North Korean hackers' massive infiltration of US tech sector exposed • iFixit teardown reveals Trump Phone is just a rebadged HTC U24 Pro • Smartphone and internet access linked to declining US birth rates • Skydance-Paramount merger approved as Warner Bros seeks next mega deal • Roku seeks buyer, raising questions about future streaming platforms Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Christina Warren , Harry McCracken , and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meter.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

The US government abruptly forced Anthropic to pull its most advanced AI model offline after fears it was simply too powerful to be safe. Hear the real story behind the sudden shutdown that rocked the tech world—and what it reveals about the uneasy alliance between Washington and Silicon Valley. • Anthropic's Fable 5 AI model release sparks cybersecurity and jailbreak concerns • White House pressures Anthropic to withdraw Fable amid security fears • Debate over government intervention, model regulation, and Anthropic's IPO timing • SpaceX IPO rockets to record-breaking $1.77 trillion valuation • Apple unveils revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence at WWDC • Apple's new child safety and parental controls in iOS • OpenAI and Anthropic plot IPOs, face economic realities of AI industry • Supply chain attacks hit Arch Linux packages, security risks highlighted • Spotify battles surge of fake podcasts promoting illegal drugs • German court rules Google AI overviews legally liable for inaccuracies • FCC pursues crackdown on anonymous burner phones, raising privacy alarms • North Korean hackers' massive infiltration of US tech sector exposed • iFixit teardown reveals Trump Phone is just a rebadged HTC U24 Pro • Smartphone and internet access linked to declining US birth rates • Skydance-Paramount merger approved as Warner Bros seeks next mega deal • Roku seeks buyer, raising questions about future streaming platforms Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Christina Warren , Harry McCracken , and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meter.com/twit threatlocker.com/twit bitwarden.com/twit NetSuite.AI/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

The ethics of generative AI are more complicated than they might seem. Take generative images, like the ones created by DALL-E and Midjourney. Even when legal issues like the licensing of training imagery are addressed (as Adobe Firefly seems to), does that mean it's OK to create an image in the style of a well-known illustrator without their knowledge or approval? And does the prolific use of GenAI images cheapen the entire practice of photo illustration? That was one of many topics I talked about this week with Harry McCracken , Global Technology Editor for Fast Company , and a key member of the publication's internal team exploring generative AI. Harry has been covering tech since the dawn of the internet and has had a front-row seat every innovation in tech since then. Over the past several months he's plunged deep into AI, and the topic features regularly in his newsletter, Plugged In , such as this recent piece on the dawn of "self-aware" software . Harry is also the first guest in what will become a regular feature on The Media Copilot: Friday Conversations , where I chat with journalists, media executives, and interesting people doing interesting things with generative AI and the news. This first conversation is free for everybody, but I plan to make these conversations exclusive to paid subscribers starting next week. If you don’t want to miss any, it might be a good idea to take advantage of that subscribe button below 👇 I hope you find the conversation as stimulating as I did. Look for more insights from fascinating people working at the intersection of media and GenAI in the coming weeks. The Media Copilot is a podcast and newsletter that explores how generative AI is changing media, journalism, and the news. ⁠Subscribe to the newsletter.⁠ ⁠Follow on X.⁠ Subscribe to the podcast on: ⁠Apple⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ Music: ⁠Favorite⁠ by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2023

On today’s show, we have part two with animation experts Harry McCracken and Kamden Spies. Harry was one of the editors and publishers of the late, lamented Animato. He was also the editor of PC World and is currently the technology editor for Fast Company. Plus, the usual news from Fun Ideas Productions.

On today’s show, we have one of the editors and publishers of the late, lamented Animato. He was also the editor of PC World and is currently the technology editor for Fast Company. Here he is, Harry McCracken, along with Kamden Spies. Plus, the usual news from Fun Ideas Productions. This is part one of two.

Harry McCracken is an award-winning journalist and Technology Editor of Fast Company, a news media outlet dedicated to inspiring readers to think beyond traditional boundaries and create the future of business. In this podcast interview, Harry talks about how he decides what to write about, regulating tech without ruining it, restoring trust in journalism, YouTube's product strategy, and how to get featured by Fast Company. Advertisement Regulating Engagement Based Algorithms Ever since the Cambridge Analytica psychographic profiling scandal, Congress has yet to hold Facebook, Twitter or Google accountable for the lies and deception their algorithms spread in order to increase session time with sensationalized content that is psychographically selected to align with and stoke each user’s fears, hopes and dreams. These social networks do the same thing Cambridge Analytica tried to do, but was shut down because the social networks want their user data all for themselves. Despite the fact that social networks use algorithms to direct users to content most likely to provoke an emotional reaction, they are currently shielded from liability for what users say on their platforms under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which Justice Clarence Thomas took aim at. By saying social networks have really become more like “common carriers” -- which is the language used to describe phone companies -- Thomas is suggesting that social networks should be treated more like phone companies. https://youtu.be/MH2KULhivxY Harry says that while What’s App is similar to a common carrier, social networks don’t like to admit it but they are much more comparable to traditional news media outlets. He also says there’s a bipartisan consensus in the federal government that section 230 is broken and needs to be fixed. The fact that social networks are removing noncompliant content, makes them much more of a publisher than a common carrier. Restoring Truth in Journalism Back in 2007, Harry was the editor in chief of PC World Magazine, which at that point was the largest tech magazine in terms of circulation. He briefly left his position at the publication after an editorial dispute with their CEO at the time, where he took a stand for a story titled “10 Things We Hate About Apple” that the CEO did not want to publish (in the interest of protecting a critical business relationship). The issue became public, and after some time, the CEO ultimately left his position. Harry returned to his duties as EIC and stayed for another year. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows a decline in trust in the news media. “I'd say that, broadly speaking, the reputation of the media is in tatters,” Harry opines, though he adds that it’s still possible to build a media brand that people trust. “One of the reasons that Fast Company is weathering this era pretty well, is that we have this quorum of people who have really bonded with us on an emotional level in terms of what our mission is.” https://youtu.be/opp2PDPkk5E Harry describes Fast Company as a brand that has stayed optimistic in its 25 years of existence, and that it has done its best to tell uplifting, inspiring stories in the tech world. However, the publisher has also evolved over the last four or five years to be quite a bit more critical than it once was, calling out big tech and media companies whenever necessary. “I think that's probably the single most important thing you can do to continue to have credibility among your readers.” What Makes Fast Company’s Editorial Unique? While Fast Company covers tech news like other outlets, the brand leans more towards keeping stories short and skimmable, giving them more freedom to invest time and energy into stories that really matter. “We love behind-the-scenes stories; we love having the opportunity to follow an innovation in progress over days or weeks, or months,

The news that Yahoo was shutting down Yahoo Groups, as I said, was another gut punch when you realize how much of the web’s history is so ephemeral. It also got me thinking that Yahoo as a company might be about to go down the memory hole, and that got me thinking about Yahoo’s legacy as perhaps the first great Internet company, and that got me talking to one of the deans of tech journalism, Harry McCracken. What IS Yahoo’s legacy? Why has it ended up the way it has? And also, why do we feel nostalgic for the sort of web Yahoo Groups represents? What has changed on the Internet from the Yahoo Groups glory days until now? Sponsors: PixelUnion.net LegalForce RAPC (650-390-6461 or raj@legalforcelaw.com)

Harry McCracken, Technology Journalist Harry McCracken is a technology journalist — he's technology editor at Fast Company magazine. He cut his teeth on the TRS-80 and Atari 400 computers, including writing for Creative Computing magazine, and creating a game that he wanted to publish with Atari Program Exchange, but didn't finish. This interview took place on September 27, 2016. Harry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harrymccracken "...fact about the Atari 400 was that it had maybe the worst keyboard in the history of computing. ... Oddly enough I don't remember having trouble with the keyboard, maybe because when you're programming, it is, generally speaking, not about the speed at which you type."