Hard Fork
Our 2026 Tech Resolutions + We Answer Your Questions
AI Summary
The episode outlines the team’s 2026 tech resolutions while fielding listener questions, covering practical AI usage tips, the limits of AI in scientific breakthroughs, and major industry updates such as Google’s Gemini 3 launch, OpenAI’s platform ambitions, and Roblox’s new AI‑driven age‑verification for child safety. Guests—including tech CEOs, AI experts, and Wikipedia co‑founder—provide perspective on why AI won’t cure diseases soon, the cultural battles over platforms, and the ethical concerns of AI‑driven content and surveillance. The discussion also highlights broader trends like the decline of iPhone innovation, the rise of space data centers, and regulatory moves in California, offering a forward‑looking roadmap for tech development in 2026.
Episode Description
Happy New Year! We’re kicking things off by sharing our tech resolutions for 2026 and reflecting on how we fared with our social media and meditation goals from last year.
Then, we open up the listener mailbag and answer your questions on data centers in space, who’s to blame when a customer service A.I. bot lies to you and whether it’s OK to deepfake Santa into your home security footage.
Also, get your very own “Hard Fork” hats, now available at the Times Store: https://store.nytimes.com/products/hard-fork-baseball-cap
Additional Reading:
What I Learned About Productivity This Year
Data Centers in Space + A.I. Policy on the Right + A Gemini History Mystery
Shuffling Some Whimsy Into Poker and Blackjack
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. 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.
Show Notes
Our 2026 Tech Resolutions + We Answer Your Questions
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto
The Wirecutter Show: Tips for Using A.I. Smartly With Kevin Roose
If you’ve ever wondered what chatbots are good for and how best to use them, this episode is for you.
By Christine Cyr Clisset, Caira Blackwell, Rosie Guerin, Abigail Keel and Kevin Roose
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
A tech CEO explains why A.I. probably won’t cure diseases anytime soon. Hint: You still need humans.
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton and Rachel Cohn
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin’ Xmas Song
“We were roadkill,” says Colin Angle, former chief executive of iRobot, maker of the robot vacuum.
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop and Diane Wong
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
“I’m told that Australian teens, in preparation for this ban, have been exchanging phone numbers with each other.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto
OpenAI Calls a ‘Code Red’ + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
“For OpenAI to realize its ambitions, it is not going to be enough for them to make a model that is as good as Gemini 3. They need to be able to leapfrog it again.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop and Rowan Niemisto
Hard Fork’s 50 Most Iconic Technologies of 2025
“You can’t tell the story of 2025 without these icons.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Powell and Diane Wong
The Interview: How Wikipedia Is Responding to the Culture Wars
Attacks against the site are piling up. Its co‑founder says, “Trust the process.”
By Lulu Garcia‑Navarro, Wyatt Orme, Anabel Bacon, Efim Shapiro, Marion Lozano and Dan Powell
We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.
This week the company announced that it would require users to undergo an A.I.-powered age‑estimation process in order to chat with others on the platform. Will this change reassure parents?
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton and Rachel Cohn
Google’s Gemini 3 Is Here: A Special Early Look
Maybe more than other model releases, this one seems to have the attention of Google’s competitors. Will it put the company at the top of the A.I. leaderboard?
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Rowan Niemisto and Diane Wong
Data Centers in Space + A.I. Policy on the Right + A Gemini History Mystery
“As you may have noticed, it is not easy to build data centers here on Earth.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop and Marion Lozano
We Met NEO, the Viral Humanoid Robot + HatGPT
People have been waiting for a robot to do their chores since they watched “The Jetsons.” Can the company behind NEO finally make it happen?
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Rowan Niemisto and Diane Wong
Character.AI’s Teen Chatbot Crackdown + Elon Musk Groks Wikipedia + 48 Hours Without A.I.
“We are living through a dramatic contraction in the access that teenagers have to technology online.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto
Celebrities Fight Sora + Amazon’s Secret Automation Plans + ChatGPT Gets a Browser
“Now we are just seeing OpenAI do the full Facebook when it comes to content policy.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Alyssa Moxley, Rowan Niemisto, Elisheba Ittoop and Pat McCusker
California Regulates A.I. Companions + OpenAI Investigates Its Critics + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
Could this be a blueprint for the nation?
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Rowan Niemisto and Diane Wong
ChatGPT’s Platform Play + a Trillion‑Dollar GPU Empire + the Queen of Slop
At DevDay, OpenAI signaled its ambition to take everything you can do on the internet and shove it inside ChatGPT.
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Diane Wong
Sora and the Infinite Slop Feeds + ChatGPT Goes to Therapy + Hot Mess Express
“I do not like the idea of pointing these giant A.I. supercomputers at people’s dopamine receptors and just feeding them an endless diet of hyper‑personalized stimulating videos.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto
The Great A.I. Build‑Out + H‑1B Visa Chaos + TikTok Braces for the Rapture
“You now have the leaders of the biggest technology companies in the world saying, effectively in unison, that they do not care how much it costs to build all the way to A.G.I.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell and Elisheba Ittoop
Charlie Kirk and Online Rage + Inside Trump’s Chip Flip + This Week in A.I.
“We as a culture are optimizing for rage now.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Chris Wood, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Rowan Niemisto and Pat McCusker
Are We Past Peak iPhone? + Eliezer Yudkowsky on A.I. Doom
“There’s only so many things that you can do to redesign a glass rectangle in your pocket.”
By Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Whitney Jones, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Rowan Niemisto and Alyssa Moxley
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