Why OpenAI Is Rewriting Its Rules of Regulation
About this episode
From the show’s notesThis week, we learned that OpenAI had stopped training new artificial intelligence models while the company reviewed its security measures. Will this encourage other labs to hit the brakes too?
Then, the historian Jill Lepore joins to discuss her new book about the artificial state — or, as she describes it, “the rule of humans by machines manufactured by corporations.”
Read the show’s notes in full
And finally, why is Google buying up the data of the defunct Spirit Airlines? It’s time for our new segment “Train of Thought.”
Guest: Jill Lepore, professor of history and law at Harvard University, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the new book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.”
Additional Reading
OpenAI Slows Model Training to Bolster Security After Hugging Face Hack reuters.com/technology/openai-s…
A Government for the People, but Not by People
nytimes.com/2026/08/19/books/re…
Google to Buy Spirit Airlines Business Data for $10 Million
reuters.com/legal/litigation/go…
A.I.’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks and Emails
forbes.com/sites/annatong/2026/…
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon A.I. Training Facility. 404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipme…
instagram.com/kevinroose
music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c7fe…
