Cybernews podcast #44: everything you wanted to know about big tech but were afraid to ask

Without a single scratch and in mint condition, iPhone 14s might soon be heading for the dumpster. Without shiny new AI features, who needs them anyways?

The speed of tech innovation sure makes us dizzy. From all robot-run Starbucks to personal robot assistants, from ChatGPT coming to the rescue with relationship advice to Siri with an artificial brain (finally!)

For the love of Pete, with an iPhone, you can even text with your friends without a mobile connection.

Your Apple watch can and will call an ambulance for you when you fall. Students have harnessed AI technology to automate cheating.

It’s hilarious, there’s no denying that.

However, rapid tech innovation comes with a hefty price tag. Especially to our environment.

Paris Marx, a Canadian journalist and tech critic, has been looking under the hood of shiny tech for years, relentlessly shattering the rosy bubbles rising from Silicon Valley.

“But none of them [Apple’s generative AI features] were anything to get too excited about,” Marx wrote after the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).

Marx joined the Cybernews weekly podcast to speak about uncomfortable truths regarding big tech. Tune in to hear more about:

• Apple promoting new AI features with the slogan “AI for the rest of us.” But who are these “rest of us,” given that Apple devices are among the most expensive on the planet?
• Will Apple Intelligence lead to users upgrading their phones once again because even relatively new iPhone 14 models won’t support the new features?
• Where users’ “old” iPhones end up, and how they fuel conflict in Africa
• How much energy ChatGPT burns in order to get your answer right
• Who are the first in line to lose their jobs to AI

For more insights from Paris Marx, we recommend you check out his own podcast – Tech Won’t Save Us.

But before you do, we have a warning: don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answers to.