ai politics

A new chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to mimic the leading candidates in the 2024 presidential race is fresh on the scene. Users can query a candidate’s avatar or conjure up a one-on-one debate. We’ll get into the potential impact of AI on future U.S. elections and what some politically engaged citizens are doing about it. Plus, we’ll explain why the wait for your morning latte at Starbucks might be getting out of hand. And Operation Santa is open for business.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Conspiracy Theorists Go Viral With Claim Sen. John Fetterman Actually Body Double” from Forbes

• • “John Fetterman would be particularly hard to body-double” from The Washington Post

• • “Prepare yourself. A Donald Trump chatbot is about to be unleashed.” from Politico

• • “Artificial Intelligence in Campaign Ads” from the Federal Register

• • “Write to Santa Today!” from the USPS

• • “Why Starbucks (SBUX) Is Desperate to Reduce Your Coffee Wait Time” from Bloomberg

Got a question for the hosts? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email us at makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Ben and Tommy talk about the evacuation of American employees from Sudan, expectations for Ukraine’s spring military offensive and Ron DeSantis’s trip abroad. Then they cover new intelligence about Russian influence in Africa and the ISIS threat in Afghanistan, Chile’s plans to nationalize its lithium industry, how former British PM Boris Johnson nearly gave Queen Elizabeth covid, and how the war on beer spread to Europe. Then Ben interviews Reuter’s Sudan and Egypt Correspondent Nafisa Eltahir about what’s behind the conflict in Sudan and the experiences of people left in Khartom.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Next in our series Good Bot, Bad Bot: the possibilities of bots being used in governments around the world. How can bots increase transparency and shine a light on corruption, such as insider trading, among our elected officials? Will bots be put on the ballot in the near future? We go into all of this and more in this installment of Good Bot, Bad Bot. 

****** Credits: This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter. Mixing and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson are the co-hosts.