What's Your Problem?

Note: Today’s show is sponsored by PayPal. Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School. The problems he studies include: What will it take for people to trust AI agents to buy stuff for them? And how should businesses prepare for a world where their customers include AI agents? In this episode, Kartik explains: Why trust in agentic shopping will arrive category by category, not all at once How a single old Reddit post erased a thriving brand from ChatGPT’s recommendations Why someone needs to take on the liability risk when purchases go wrong How treating AI as just another sales channel is the mistake the movie studios made with Netflix How to get a language model to pay attention to your brand Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram  Email us at [email protected]  Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X  Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History  To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrated novelists, countless students and at least one billionaire have recently been accused of using AI in their writing. The most commonly cited AI detector in these cases is called Pangram.  Max Spero is the co-founder and CEO of Pangram. His problem is this: Can you build tools that reliably detect AI-generated text and images? And a few years from now, will anybody care? In this episode, Max explains:  Why AI prose so often sounds the same How often Pangram makes mistakes How detectors like Pangram compete with humanizer tools  Why the big AI companies may not be interested in detection The shifting norms around AI-generated writing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all heard that nothing ever gets deleted from the internet. Luke Arrigoni says that just isn’t true. His company deletes thousands of deepfakes every day. Luke is the founder and CEO of Loti, and his problem is this: How do you turn the Internet into a place where people have more control over their name, image and likeness? Tens of thousands of famous people pay Loti to scour the internet and take down deepfakes and unapproved endorsements. But in Luke's telling, this is just the beginning. The company will soon allow celebrities to license their likeness for use in AI videos, and it also plans to start offering its services to ordinary people.  In this episode, Luke explains:  The harm that online deepfakes and impersonations can cause  How Loti automates tens of thousands of takedowns per day  Why the law may soon make it easier to fight deepfakes  Why celebrities are beginning to license their likenesses to AI platforms  AI’s role in the future of human creativity  Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram  Email us at [email protected]  Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X  Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History  To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody’s worried about the risks of AI. So we called up one of the most insightful writers we know on the subject: Zvi Mowshowitz. Zvi writes about AI and AI risks at his substack, Don’t Worry About the Vase. Zvi’s problem is this: How do we prevent artificial intelligence from killing everyone?  In this episode, Zvi explains:  Why it’s often useful to anthropomorphize AI  What this summer’s Hugging Face attack tells us about the nature of AI What increasing AI capability means for cybersecurity risk Whether and when we should pause AI development Why powerful pen-weight models may remove the last reliable points of control Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram  Email us at [email protected]  Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X  Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History  To listen to the show ad free, sign up for Pushkin+  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fish we eat usually die slowly, suffocating after they’re pulled out of the water. Saif Khawaja is the co-founder and CEO of a company called Shinkei. Saif's problem is this: Can he build a machine to efficiently kill fish in a way that is more humane? In this episode, Saif explains:  How he came to believe that our current fishing practices are inhumane  How he adapted the Japanese technique of ikijime for use at scale  Why Shinkei’s process results in better texture and longer shelf life than commodity fish. Why Shinkei is doing its own technology development, fish processing, and consumer branding.  Connect with us: Follow Jacob Goldstein on LinkedIn, X and Instagram  Email us at [email protected]  Follow Pushkin on Instagram, LinkedIn or X  Listen to Jacob’s other show, Business History  To listen to the show early and ad free, sign up for Pushkin+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.