personhood

 A surprise ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court has halted fertility treatments across the state and sent a shock wave through the world of reproductive health.

Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender, and science for The Times, explains what the court case means for reproductive health and a patient in Alabama explains what it is like navigating the fallout.

Guests: Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender and science for The New York Times; and Meghan S. Cole, who is in the final stages of IVF treatment in Alabama.

Background reading: 

• Alabama ruled frozen embryos are children, raising questions about fertility care.
• Fertility clinics are routinely sued by patients for errors that destroy embryos, as happened in Alabama. An effort to define them legally as “unborn children” has raised the stakes.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In this episode, we explored the AI themes in Battlestar Galactica through the humanoid Cylons. Originally created as robotic slaves, the Cylons evolve sentience and rebel, sparking an apocalyptic war with humanity. Complex characters like Sharon illustrate AI issues around identity, free will, and synthetic morality that mirror real-world concerns. Ultimately, Battlestar Galactica cautions against reckless AI pursuits, while envisioning compassionate machines that uplift civilization. This sci-fi masterpiece illuminates technology’s double-edged potential through compelling storytelling.

Learn to master the AI with my free Udemy class: The Essential Guide to Claude 2

This podcast was generated with the help of artificial intelligence. We do fact check with human eyes, but there might still be hallucinations in the output.

Music credit: "Modern Situations by Unicorn Heads"

This episode explores AI ethics through the iconic character of Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. We examine Data's quest to understand humanity, including his limitations emulating emotions. A classic episode "Measure of a Man" tackles Data's legal status and personhood in a thought-provoking trial. We analyze how Star Trek used androids to raise prescient philosophical questions about the implications of creating AI life. While fictional, Data's journey mirrors issues around developing real-world AI that exceeds human intelligence in some areas, while falling short in others like emotional intelligence. By using sci-fi storytelling, Star Trek compellingly opened minds to rethink our relationship with thinking machines. Listen for an imaginative look at AI through the eyes of one of sci-fi's most sympathetic android characters.

Are you interested in learning to use AI? Take a look at my free class on Udemy: The Essential Guide to Claude 2!⁠

This podcast was generated with the help of artificial intelligence. We do fact check with human eyes, but there might still be hallucinations in the output.

Music credit: "Modern Situations by Unicorn Heads"

Matt Walsh debunks the most common pro-abortion arguments.

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What exactly is personhood? Over time, the term "person" has evolved to include numerous concepts. In this episode, Julie and Robert explore the nature of personhood, why corporations are considered meta-people and the sticky concept of consciousness.

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