Some Catholics no doubt took offense, but no one was seriously harmed by the Pope-in-a-puffer-jacket meme. Far more sinister deepfakes are on the rise, however, with scammers now frequently using widely available technology to bilk the unwary, and political campaigns marshaling AI to sow lies about their opponents. Perhaps the greatest threat is not the deepfakes themselves but that their mere existence can cause us to question the veracity of nearly everything we see and hear online and in the media. So, how concerned should we be about the proliferation of fake media? And what, if anything, is being done to staunch the bleeding? UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss what the growing onslaught of mis- and disinformation portends for our society and what we can do to manage it.

Further reading:

• Watch the full live conversation with Hany Farid on YouTube
• Find out more about California Live! events

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald. Special thanks to Hany Farid, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Just over a decade ago, Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell, recently named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, warned a lecture audience that achieving artificial general intelligence “would be the biggest event in human history . . . and perhaps the last event in human history.” Since then, the development of superintelligent AI has only accelerated—infiltrating nearly every part of society. So, what does the future hold? Stuart joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss the perils and promise of the AI revolution.

Further reading:

• Watch the full live conversation with Stuart Russell on YouTube

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald.

Special thanks to Stuart Russell, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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There’s a paradox in robotics that says: what’s easy for humans is hard for robots, and vice versa. Complex calculations, for instance, are the domain of machines. Simple motor tasks like picking up an object, on the other hand, can stump a robot. That’s where our guest comes in. Jeff Mahler has spent his career working on improving the capabilities of robotic object manipulation. After completing his postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, Mahler went on to co-found Ambi Robotics with Stephen McKinley, David Gealy, Matt Matl, and Professor Ken Goldberg, building AI-powered robots for warehouse operations. He talks to us about the state of robot assistants and how soon—if ever—we might expect a full robot revolution.

Further reading:

• TechCrunch article on the launch of Ambi Stack
• UC Berkeley News article on Berkeley’s latest breakthroughs in robot learning
• WIRED article covering Amazon’s new tactile-sensing warehouse robot, Vulcan.
• Mahler et al.’s 2019 Science Robotics paper, which introduces Dex-Net 4.0
• Watch Dex-Net 2.0 picking up objects
• Episode transcript

This episode was written and hosted by Nathalia Alcantara and produced by Coby McDonald.

Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Can we look into the past? Does the universe have an edge? What’s so great about a total solar eclipse? Have we been visited by aliens? Astrophysicist Alex Filippenko joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss eclipse chasing, dark energy, and the abiding mysteries of the universe.

Further reading:

• Watch the full live conversation with Alex Filppenko on YouTube
• Buy your tickets for “Enthralled: What Explains Our Unshakeable Fascination with Cults?” with Poulomi Saha on March 27

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald.

Special thanks to Alex Filippenko, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Octopuses and humans have very little in common. It’s not just a matter of their eight limbs and cool camouflage—we haven’t had a shared ancestor for more than half a billion years, before dinosaurs walked the earth. But there’s one surprising thing we do seem to share: MDMA makes us both a lot cuddlier. For neuroscientist Gül Dölen, this was a huge insight into the powerful role psychoactive drugs can play in animal social behavior. Now a pioneer in the burgeoning field of psychedelic research at UC Berkeley, Dölen discusses her quest to understand how these drugs could be harnessed as tools in learning and therapeutics.

Further reading:

• Gül Dölen’s 2019 Nature paper “Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA”
• Gül Dölen’s 2018 Current Biology paper “A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus”
• UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics launches new online course on “Psychedelics and the Mind”
• Altered States, a new podcast from from PRX and the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics about “what science can tell us about psychedelics and what psychedelics can tell us about ourselves”

This episode was written and hosted by Leah Worthington and produced by Coby McDonald.

Special thanks to Pat Joseph, Nathalia Alcantara, and Gül Dölen. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Don’t let the term “climate change” mislead you. It’s true that our environment is changing in all sorts of ways as we continue to pollute and exploit and manipulate our planet. But even as we brace for more historic typhoons and biblical floods, there's an invisible and pervasive force that is wreaking havoc on us all: heat. In this episode, we speak with environmental journalist and Berkeley alumnus Jeff Goodell about his latest book, The Heat Will Kill You First, the potentially lethal effects that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet, and what we can do to prepare for it.

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Nearly four years have passed since COVID swept the globe, infecting millions and bringing society to a grinding halt. The ensuing months saw strict mask mandates, revolutionary vaccines, new viral strains, and—finally—a return to some sort of normal. With the end of the public health emergency and a sudden disappearance of the once-ubiquitous masks, it’s easy to feel like the pandemic is, well, over. But some would strongly disagree with that prognosis—and one group in particular: people suffering from the lasting effects of long COVID. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kim Rhoads, a Berkeley grad and associate professor at UCSF, about the challenge of diagnosing this post-viral illness, its wide-ranging and often mysterious symptoms, and why you might not want to throw out your mask just yet.

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Roughly every second, a star explodes. Beyond treating astronomers to a radiant light display, these dramatic supernova events contain vast amounts of information about the origin, behavior, and ultimate demise of our universe. UC Berkeley astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance, has dedicated her life to studying really big exploding stars and what they tell us about our ever-expanding universe. She joins us this episode to talk about her own path to star-gazing and the big, existential questions that keep her eyes to the sky.

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