About this episode

Sean Illing talks with Charlie Warzel about the increasingly artificial experience of being online and the implications of AI and social media.

Today, we're bringing you an episode of "The Gray Area," another great show from the Vox Media Podcast Network. In this episode, host Sean Illing talks with Atlantic writer Charlie Warzel about the increasingly weird experience of being online. They discuss AI-generated content, bots, algorithms, the “dead internet theory,” and why so much of the web now feels artificial, manipulated, or unreal. They also explore psyops, conspiracy culture, social media, and the deeper question lurking beneath the AI boom: What are human beings actually for? Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) Guest: Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) Come see Kara live in DC. She is sitting down with Former Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on July 16 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, and you can be in the room. ⁠Register now⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More episodes of On with Kara Swisher

• Are Insurgent Democrats Breaking the Party — or Rebuilding It? · July 20, 2026 · 55 min
• The Cyberattack We’re Not Ready For · July 16, 2026 · 58 min
• Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan Take Us Inside Trump’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ · July 13, 2026 · 60 min
• Inside the Fight Against Non-Consensual Deepfake Porn · July 9, 2026 · 59 min
• The Vatican Takes On AI · July 2, 2026 · 52 min
• The Media CEOs Betting Big on Journalism’s Future: Jim Bankoff & Meredith Kopit Levien · June 29, 2026 · 53 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the On with Kara Swisher podcast page.