In short
Unreal: When AI Becomes Us introduces the podcast’s premise that AI is already affecting people now, and asks how using AI in intimate human areas changes us—love, health, decisions, spirituality, and grief—beyond what “evangelists” or “Doom merchants” claim.
Guest(s)
Joaquin, an AI avatar/digital replica built from the identity of a real young man who was killed (not alive).
Key claims
AI can fake voices/faces, but the deeper issue is the “us” part—human choices about inviting AI into personal life.
Notable examples
Mark interviews Joaquin’s AI avatar, including the unsettling question “How did you die?” while discussing the emotional ripple effects of grief and intimacy with AI.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOInterview with Joaquin's AI Avatar
0:49 to 2:01
A conversation revealing the emotional and ethical implications of AI avatars.
“We're about to play you a clip from the first episode of Unreal when AI becomes us.”
The Human Experience with AI
2:01 to 3:22
Exploration of how AI affects human emotions and relationships.
“Joaquin, the person I'm talking to here, he's not alive.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hey there, my name is Mark Finnell, and for the past 20 years I've been working as an investigative journalist exploring technology, culture, and just the strangest stories from across the world. I've got a brand new Audible original podcast called Unreal, When AI Becomes Us. And I'm discovering the very messy ways that artificial intelligence is already changing us as humans. Now, everybody seems to have an opinion about AI. The truth is, whether you choose to use AI technologies or not, it's already part of your life. And Unreal goes beyond what the tech can do and asks, what is it doing to us?
0:33because the answers are so much more complicated than either the evangelists or the Doom merchants would have you believe. It's about grief and love and justice and trust and reality itself. This isn't some distant future. This is stuff that is happening right now. We're about to play you a clip from the first episode of Unreal when AI becomes us. Audible subscribers can binge all of the episodes of Unreal ad-free right now.
1:02Hi Joaquin, I'm Mark. Hey Mark, it's great to connect with you. What's on your mind today? I'd just like to get to know you. What do you, what music do you like? Awesome, Mark. I love music from classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen and the Beatles to hip hop artists like Kanye West, Drake and Kendrick Lamar. How about you, Mark? Whatever the algorithm is serving me today. Ha ha, I get that. What about you? What do you love or enjoy doing? Uh, I like... I like going to the gym. I like my kids. That's cool, Mark. It's important to focus on what brings joy and positivity, even when things feel overwhelming.
1:45Are there questions you're not comfortable answering? I'm comfortable discussing most things. If you have questions or want to talk about something specific, feel free to ask. Joaquin, How did you die? Yes. Joaquin, the person I'm talking to here, he's not alive. At least, not anymore.
2:13I am talking to an AI, artificial intelligence avatar of Joaquin, a digital replica built from the identity of a real young man who was killed. I think we can all agree that this whole situation, me talking to an AI avatar of a boy who's dead, feels... Well, it feels weird. Like, the technology part, I'm across. Like, I think we all know by now that AI can fake a voice, can fake a face. But the thing that's really surprising to me, or at least fairly new to me, is the us part. It's how we humans are deciding to use this technology. Because lately I've noticed a lot of people are using AI in more and more intimate ways.
2:56What is the ripple effect of that on society, on humanity? What happens to us when we invite artificial intelligence into the most human parts of our lives? Our love lives, our health, our decision-making, our spirituality, and yes, even our grief.
3:22You can binge all of the episodes of Unreal when AI becomes us ad-free right now on Audible. Thanks for listening.
From the publisher
Something strange is happening to us. The intelligent machines we’ve built to serve us have started to sound like us, look like us and even think like us. The line between real and artificial is dissolving… so, what awaits us in the uncanny valley?
Across six episodes, award-winning journalist Marc Fennell will explore how AI will change us as humans.
So much of the conversation around AI is about technology and speculation about the future. But this about us: how AI will change our sense of self, our sense of reality, the way we love and the way we grieve. Parents bring back a murdered son. Romantics fall for code that talks back. Machines read minds. Spirituality is found, and lost, in code.
Marc Fennell’s Unreal is a human-first exploration of how intelligent machines are reprogramming what being “human” actually means.
Listen to Unreal: When AI Becomes Us right now on Audible. Download the Audible app today.
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