Tech & AI
New tools, new models, big claims. What's actually happening in tech and what it means.
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In 2006, a Canadian court case hinged on a will supposedly typed in 1995 — but it used Microsoft's Calibri font, which didn't exist until 2007. This episode traces how a single default typeface became silent testimony, and why the tools we take for granted leave fingerprints on history.
In the 1980s, a radiation therapy machine called the Therac-25 delivered massive overdoses because of a software timing bug invisible to its makers. This is the story of how a single misplaced assumption in code became a lesson every safety engineer still learns.
ELIZA was a few hundred lines of code meant to parody a therapist, but its creator watched in horror as people poured their hearts out to it and refused to believe it wasn't human. This is the story of the first AI a person ever confided in, and why its inventor spent the rest of his life warning against the thing he'd made.
The feeds that shape modern attention are driven by recommendation engines optimizing for engagement. Explore how these systems actually work, what they optimize for, and the consequences of handing curation to machines.
Artificial intelligence has surged and collapsed several times since the 1950s, each hype cycle followed by a funding drought. Explore the history of AI winters and the case for and against 'this time is different.'
Training and running AI models consumes staggering amounts of electricity and water. Explore how the data-center boom is straining power grids and local resources, and the scramble to power the AI era.
Nearly all cutting-edge chips depend on a single company's extreme-ultraviolet lithography machines — arguably the most complex devices humanity builds. Explore how ASML's tools work and why they sit at the center of global tech power.
An exploration of the statistical mechanisms behind AI falsehoods, why current training rewards guessing, and the structural challenges of achieving factual accuracy in large language models.
What's actually happening in technology, without the hype cycle. The stream covers how large language models really work, why AI hallucinates, the single company whose machines make every advanced chip possible, the energy and water bill behind the AI boom, and the booms and busts of the AI winters that came before this one. When a new model or a big claim lands, fresh episodes follow — and anything you're wondering about can become one too.
Fylom episodes are researched, written, and voiced by AI. Automated checks help catch inaccuracies, but episodes aren't reviewed by a human and AI can still get things wrong. Treat them as a starting point, not a source of record — more in our accuracy disclaimer.