Trump Fights ‘Woke’ A.I. + We Hear Out Our Critics

On Wednesday, President Trump signed three A.I.-related executive orders, and the White House released “America’s A.I. Action Plan.” We break down what’s in them, how the federal government intends to target “political bias” in chatbot output, and whether anyone will stand up against it. Then, do we hype up A.I. too much? Are we downplaying potential harms? We reached out to several prominent researchers and writers and asked for their critiques about how we cover A.I. For a limited time, you can get a special-edition “Hard Fork” hat when you purchase an annual New York Times Audio subscription for the first time. Get your hat at nytimes.com/hardforkhatGuests:Brian Merchant, author of the book and newsletter “Blood in the Machine”Alison Gopnik, professor at the University of California, BerkeleyRoss Douthat, New York Times opinion columnist and host of the podcast “Interesting Times”Claire Leibowicz, head of A.I. and media integrity at the Partnership on AIMax Read, author of the newsletter “Read Max”Additional Reading:Trump Plans to Give A.I. Developers a Free HandThe Chatbot Culture Wars Are Here We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.