Evan Ratliff: Our Future with Voice Agents

The Gradient: Perspectives on AI

Episode 139

I spoke with Evan Ratliff about:

* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast, where he creates an AI voice clone of himself and sets it loose.

* The end of the Longform Podcast and his thoughts on the state of journalism.

Enjoy!

Evan is an award-winning investigative journalist, bestselling author, podcast host, and entrepreneur. He’s the author of the The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord; the writer and host of the hit podcasts Shell Game and Persona: The French Deception; and the cofounder of The Atavist Magazine, Pop-Up Magazine, and the Longform Podcast. As a writer, he’s a two-time National Magazine Award finalist. As an editor and producer, he’s a two-time Emmy nominee and National Magazine Award winner.

Find me on Twitter for updates on new episodes, and reach me at [e-mail] for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (01:05) Evan’s ambitious and risky projects

* (04:45) Wearing different personas as a journalist

* (08:31) Boundaries and acceptability in using voice agents

* (11:42) Impacts on other people

* (13:12) “The kids these days” — how will new technologies impact younger people?

* (17:12) Evan’s approach to children’s technology use

* (20:05) Techno-solutionism and improvements in medicine, childcare

* (24:15) Evan’s perspective on simulations of people

* (27:05) On motivations for building tech startups

* (30:42) Evan’s outlook for Shell Game’s impact and motivations for his work

* (36:05) How Evan decided to write for a career

* (40:02) How voice agents might impact our conversations

* (43:52) Evan’s experience with Longform and podcasting

* (47:15) Perspectives on doing good interviews

* (52:11) Mimicking and inspiration, developing style

* (57:15) Writers and their motivations, the state of longform journalism

* (1:06:15) The internet and writing

* (1:09:41) On the ending of Longform

* (1:19:48) Outro

Links:

* Evan’s homepage and Twitter

* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast

* Longform Podcast

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