Season 5, Episode 4 - Robot hugs versus social isolation

In this episode, Ben and I talk about everything from real-time deepfake romances, to new battery tech, to dumb phones, and AIs predicting human motion and expression. All the topics begin to converge around social isolation, connection, and how emerging tech would look to fight it. Where do we draw the line between human and synthetic emotional connection? And how does that extend into our physical world? And finally, is this something we want, or are we headed there anyway?

Sean’s links:

• AI predicting humanoid locomotion

• The Dumbphone Boom

• The vaccine to end all vaccines?

Ben’s links:

• AI predicting human smiles

• Real-time deepfake romance scams

• Rapid charge/discharge sodium batteries

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• Spotify

• Apple Podcasts