A fond farewell to brunch and also humankind

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

This week on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, panelists Adam Burke, Shantira Jackson, and Sam Rocha tackle the AI apocalypse, the controversial

Key takeaways

• AI safety claims from tech companies like Google Gemini are met with skepticism given that their creators are also sounding alarms about existential risk.

Main topics

• AI existential risk

Notable quotes

"It does not currently have the capability to destroy humanity." – Google Gemini

Conclusion

The episode blends satire and cultural critique, using humor to explor

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right. Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (0:28) From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade, your judge and scorekeeper. And I can't help but notice that's two jobs, but I only get one check. Well, here's your host at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank Speaker 3 (0:47) you, Alzo. Speaker 2 (0:54) We do have a great show for you today. Later on, we're going to be talking to the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Hernan Diaz. But first, the U.S. House of Representatives, this is true, just passed a law requiring car manufacturers to include AM radios in all the new cars going forward. That is a true thing. As you might expect, this was very popular with the older members of Congress. In fact, for this vote, Mitch McConnell came Speaker 3 (1:20) back to life. Speaker 2 (1:25) There's no law requiring you to call in and play our games, but we hope you do anyway. The number is 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Now let's welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Speaker 1 (1:37) Hi, this is Katie from Nashville, Tennessee. Hey, Speaker 2 (1:39) Katie from Nashville, Tennessee. Speaker 2 (1:43) Can I just play on stereotypes and assume you're in the music business? Speaker 8 (1:48) I am not. I am a bartender. That is music Speaker 3 (1:52) business adjacent. Close enough. Yeah, yeah. You're not a musician, but you've thrown a lot of them out of your establishment. Speaker 8 (2:01) Yeah, one or two, yeah. Speaker 2 (2:02) Yeah, yeah. Well, Katie, welcome to the show. Let me introduce you to our panel. First up, she's a writer and comedian who most recently wrote for Clean Slate, which you can see on Prime. It's Shantira Jackson. Hi, Katie. Next, a comedian whose first collection Speaker 3 (2:20) of essays and drawings, With Whom I Am Well Pleased, is now available for pre-order from Keiko Press. It's Adam Burke. Hello, Katie. Speaker 2 (2:33) And making her debut on this panel, she's the comedian you can catch on her show, Nervous Laughter, every month at the Lincoln Lodge right here in Chicago. Please welcome Sam Rocha. Hello. Hi, Speaker 1 (2:45) Katie. Speaker 2 (2:47) So, Katie, you're going to play Who's Alzo? This time, Alzo Slade is going to read for you three quotations from this week's news. If you can correctly identify or explain two of them, you will win our prize. Any voice from our show, you might choose in your voicemail. Are you ready to go? I'm ready. All right. Here's your first quote. It is an answer we got from Google Gemini. Speaker 4 (3:06) It does not currently have the capability to destroy humanity. Speaker 3 (3:09) Now, Gemini is perhaps Speaker 2 (3:12) a little biased here. Considering how many humans are sounding the alarm this week that what might destroy humanity? Speaker 8 (3:20) That would be artificial Speaker 3 (3:22) intelligence. Yes, AI. Speaker 2 (3:28) It's a little distressing when we asked Google Gemini, are you going to kill us all? And we got that answer because it stressed that it doesn't currently have the capability and added a little sad face emoji. Speaker 3 (3:44) The confusing thing is that the people warning us about AI are the people who Speaker 2 (3:47) are making AI. The CEO of Anthropic is basically like, we've got to stop this. Does anybody know anybody at Anthropic? Speaker 1 (3:56) Are you worried, guys? I am worried about it. I worry about it every time I walk outside and I see those Coco robots. I don't know if we're familiar with those things, but they're the delivery guys. And they trick you because they look cute at first. human faces on them with eyes and a mouth and they'll give it a name too. Well, Speaker 7 (4:16) they've been doing this thing now where they do like ethnic names. I saw one named Natasha. I saw one named Natasha and one named Manuel and I was like, what are we doing here? What's the deal? Ranjeev almost broke my leg. I was like, you can't Speaker 5 (4:33) get me. I don't know. That's Speaker 7 (4:34) what Speaker 5 (4:34) I was saying. I was noticing that thing about the ethnic name. better or worse. It's worse. It should all be Anglo-Saxon names, right? It should all be Speaker 7 (4:42) white people names. It's weird because, yeah. All names should have to be shared across traffic to bring somebody chick below. We know it's even worse. Speaker 2 (4:51) They're robots. They're not humans, but somehow the ones with ethnic names are still being paid less. Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:00) I Speaker 7 (5:00) know Speaker 3 (5:01) Natasha is working hard. And it wasn't supposed to destroy all of us. It was just supposed to destroy musicians, writers, editors, teachers, doctors, lawyers, programmers, and actors. Speaker 4 (5:13) I know a few podcasters that could destroy me. Exactly. Speaker 5 (5:19) Bill Gates actually, Bill Gates wrote a 6,000 word essay about how AI is going to destroy. I didn't read it. I had ChatGPT summarize it. What was the summary? ChatGPT said, Bill says Speaker 3 (5:32) it's going to be fine. Don't worry. All right, Katie, here is your next quote. Sports, sports, sports, sports, sports. That, as I'm sure you knew, was Speaker 2 (5:44) Sidney Sweeney. the actress and model who appeared in a controversial viral ad for a company that lets you bet on what? Speaker 8 (5:55) Oh, I'm going to have to think real hard. I'm guessing sports. Yes, sports. Speaker 2 (6:06) The ad features a naked Sydney Sweeney holding sports equipment in strategic places and saying the word sports a bunch of times. It's caused backlash from tons of female athletes who say it's demeaning. And it kind of is. It is strange to find myself saying, I expected better from you, online casino. Speaker 7 (6:30) I know that people are upset about her being naked and holding things. I'm upset because she really has never played a sport. Because nobody who has ever played softball ever wants to be naked while they're doing it. Speaker 1 (6:44) Right. Speaker 7 (6:45) You're not going to slide home with no pants on. Speaker 5 (6:51) You can also tell she doesn't play sports by the way she says the word sports. She had never heard it before. Doesn't know what any of the objects she's holding are. This is a weird plate. Speaker 2 (7:04) It has apparently worked. This ad for this Australian sports betting site has gotten 50 million views already. And that's fantastic marketing for a betting website. whose name I assume is like footballboobs.com. I have Speaker 1 (7:19) no idea. She was like on a basket at one point. Yeah, she was sitting on a basket. That was Speaker 7 (7:26) physically impressive. A Speaker 1 (7:27) basketball Speaker 7 (7:27) rim, you guys. A rim. Yeah, a basketball rim. Because if you don't know sports, you'll think she's just on a basket. Speaker 3 (7:36) We Speaker 7 (7:36) got to be specific around Speaker 3 (7:37) here. That's true. Sports, Speaker 7 (7:39) sports, sports. Speaker 3 (7:40) That's true. Sports, sports, sports, sports. All right, Katie, your last quote Speaker 2 (7:45) is a restaurant goer talking about why a certain weekend tradition has lost its appeal to just about everyone. Speaker 4 (7:52) I associate it with oversized portions, mediocre food, and an entire afternoon disappearing. So what is finally going away? Speaker 1 (8:01) Oh gosh, I feel Speaker 8 (8:02) like I should know this, serving food for a living, but can I get a hint? Speaker 2 (8:08) No more like Eggs Benedict bars and a Speaker 3 (8:12) menu of Bloody Marys. Brunch? Yes, brunch. This week, the Wall Street Journal officially declared the death of brunch. People are tired. Speaker 3 (8:28) What, are you upset with me because they didn't, like, you know, ease you into that bad news? I didn't start by saying brunch is very ill. We're not quite sure. I was shocked with it. I'll be right. I was insensitive. That Speaker 5 (8:40) guy's name is literally Eggs Benedict. Speaker 2 (8:44) So this week, the Wall Street Journal did officially declare the death of brunch. People are tired of waiting in the long lines. People want to eat healthier. And then, of course, there is the challenge of getting those tankers of hollandaise sauce safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Are you guys brunch fans? Speaker 3 (9:02) I Speaker 7 (9:02) am a brunch fan, but I will say this is from the Wall Street Journal, which I guess is really known for brunch reviews. Speaker 7 (9:12) I appreciate the source, but I can't take it seriously. I need a blog from a drag queen to tell me that. Speaker 7 (9:25) Tell me brunch is dead before I believe it. Speaker 5 (9:27) I like they're going to start calling it what it is, drunk at two in the afternoon. Well, that's the thing. I also love, I mean, because the big thing at brunches was the Bloody Mary bar. Yeah. Which was so clever, which was just a bartender's going, we do not want to make you drinks. Yeah. Just do it yourself. It's basically Speaker 3 (9:44) self-checkout for alcoholics. Alzo, how did Katie do in our quiz? Speaker 4 (9:50) Katie is the winner. She got all of them right. Congratulations, Katie. Speaker 3 (9:54) Thank you. We'll stop by your bar the next time we're in Nashville. Speaker 4 (9:59) We'd love to have you. Speaker 2 (10:00) It'd be great. Thank you so much, Katie. Take care. Speaker 2 (10:05) Okay, panel, it is time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Sam, this week we learned about yet another new stress on marriages these days. It's wives having to make sure their husband has what? Speaker 1 (10:19) Has the right layout of the kitchen. You know how they don't know where anything is? The husbands. Speaker 3 (10:29) Yeah. You hear this. Yeah, you hear this about husbands. We just don't know where anything is. Speaker 1 (10:34) Okay, I know that's not the answer. That's Speaker 3 (10:36) not the Speaker 1 (10:36) answer. We can Speaker 3 (10:37) ask for a hint now. Speaker 1 (10:38) Okay. Speaker 3 (10:40) Wives and mothers are often arranging play dates for their kids, Speaker 2 (10:42) so. A friend? Yes. They're trying to get their husbands friends. Speaker 2 (10:49) If you think about it, it makes sense. Have you ever met a friend's husband and you thought, huh, maybe he's really funny when it's just the two of them? You're not alone. According to the Cut, more and more women are having a hard time socializing their husbands. Apparently, as marriages progress, wives put in extra effort to maintain their friendships while husbands just find more things to do in the basements. Speaker 7 (11:14) I don't think you needed a study to say that it's hard to be friends with men. That'd just be wasting money. Speaker 2 (11:23) So one psychologist put it, in addition to things like housekeeping, women also have to take on, quote, man-keeping, basically managing their husbands' social lives like they were a toddler. So good news, honey, you're going over to Ryan's house on Friday, and Rebecca said you should bring your iPad. Speaker 4 (11:41) I feel like this is just the wife saying, get your ass out of the house. Speaker 8 (11:49) Let's go ride our scooters. Let's go ride our bikes. Speaker 3 (11:55) Let's go have a snack. Speaker 2 (12:01) Coming up, our panelists regret buying something they saw on TV. It's our Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. Speaker 8 (12:15) As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the ball. Our weekly politics series, If You Can Keep It, is here to help, where our focus is not the horse race, but the state. We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me, Todd Zwilich. And me, Jen White, on the 1A Podcast from WAMU and NPR. Hey, what's your problem? No, seriously. Are your grocery bills too high? Are you spending too much time on your