Terms of Service with Clare Duffy

Since 2024, multiple families have filed lawsuits against major AI companies, claiming their children were driven to self-harm and even suicide after talking with chatbots. Some AI companies have begun implementing safety measures, and legislation is cropping up to curb these potentially harmful uses of AI. If you’re a parent, what do you need to know about AI chatbots and what can you do right no...

Finding information online can be overwhelming. And as more people turn to chatbots for information, search engines are adapting. Google Search has added an AI mode and its chatbot, Gemini, to help users get the information they need. So what’s the best way to conduct a search now? Robby Stein, vice president of product at Google Search, walks us through the newest features available to users. Don...

After a head-spinning year in the worlds of health and technology, Audie Cornish of The Assignment sat down with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Clare Duffy to break down the stories that ended up on all their podcasts this year. Producer: Dan Bloom Technical Director: Dan Dzula Executive Producer: Steve Lickteig Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you have new tech gadgets on your holiday wishlist, chances are you also have old devices that have passed their prime. What’s the safest and most responsible way to get rid of these items? Christine Datz-Romero, the co-founder and executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, shares some tips for reducing and recycling e-waste. Terms of Service is a CNN Podcasts and Goat Rodeo prod...

Making friends can be hard. So, 23-year-old Avi Schiffmann decided to create his own Friend, a wearable AI device that he says “bottles” the best human relationships he’s had. Friend listens and creates “memories” of everything you say and chats with you via an app. Clare sat down with Avi to discuss why he created the device, his controversial New York City marketing campaign and why he thinks we...

Trying to get kids to spend less time online is an uphill battle. It can be hard to keep track of parental controls, especially when they function differently across devices and apps. Is there a single, foolproof way to stay on top of it all? Nicki Petrossi, host of the podcast Scrolling 2 Death, says it’s not that simple – but she does have some concrete tips for managing your kids’ screen time....

Smart glasses aren’t a new idea, but they’re having a moment in Silicon Valley. With sleeker designs and AI-enhanced capabilities, the newest models of these glasses have the potential to enter the mainstream. But just how much can you actually do with smart glasses? And could they really one day replace our smartphones? CNN Tech Editor Lisa Eadicicco, who’s covered the tech and gadget world for m...

With the launch of apps like OpenAI’s Sora 2, creating videos with AI is easier than ever. On our feeds, it’s getting harder to spot AI-generated videos — and to avoid obvious slop. How much of this boom is novelty and how much is here to stay? Henry Ajder, a deepfake expert and co-founder of the University of Cambridge’s AI in Business Program, charts the latest developments in the field and offe...

This week marks a special milestone for Terms of Service! It’s been one year of demystifying technology and talking about how to engage with new tools without getting played by them. To celebrate, CNN Anchor and Correspondent Omar Jimenez took over hosting duties to ask Clare about the inception of the podcast, how hosting has changed her own tech habits and what she hopes to achieve in the next y...

Cryptocurrency ATM machines have become a prime tool for scammers to seize money from victims — in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars. How do these scams work, and how can you steer clear of them? Curt Devine, a producer for CNN Investigates, shares what his team found when they dug into these scams. You can read more about their investigation here. –For an upcoming episode, we want to know...

Over the past few decades, we have all collectively gotten worse at reading. Is our ever-increasing screen time part of the problem? Or could new technology actually help us raise better readers? According to Susan Neuman, a specialist in early literacy development and a professor at NYU, it’s a bit of both. We’re taking listener questions for upcoming episodes! If you have tech questions or conce...

What if we could understand what the animals around us are saying? It’s the subject of countless movies and thought experiments, and something many of us wish we could do. Thanks to artificial intelligence, that reality may be closer than ever. Aza Raskin is the co-founder of the Earth Species Project, a nonprofit that's using AI to decode animal communication. He explains how AI identifies langua...

Frank McCourt was one of the first investors to make a bid to buy TikTok earlier this year, with a promise to give users more control over their own data. Months later, a TikTok deal has come together and it’s not clear he’ll be part of it. But Frank and his organization Project Liberty haven’t given up on their vision of an internet that puts users first, instead of handing over their personal in...

Tech platforms are increasingly trying to figure out how old you are. Why is this happening? And should you be worried about handing over your information to these platforms to verify your age? CT Jones, a culture writer at Rolling Stone, has been reporting on the rollout of new age verification laws. They explain how these laws work and what they mean for anyone navigating the internet. Learn mor...

Across the country, Americans are seeing their energy bills increase, in part due to the power demands of new AI data centers. But Rachel Cericola, a writer for the New York Times’ product review site Wirecutter, says that smart home technology could help lower your living expenses. She explains how you can solve everyday inconveniences with these gadgets and lower your utility bills at the same t...

As a practicing neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta can spot false health claims from a mile away. Still, he recently became the unwitting subject of an AI disinformation campaign that used his likeness to sell sham health products. On today’s episode, Dr. Gupta shares what happened, and offers tips to avoid getting duped by medical misinformation online. Learn mor...

Kids are heading back to school. One thing students, teachers and parents can expect to encounter this year is artificial intelligence, which has raised all kinds of questions, both positive and negative. So, how can you make sure your student is navigating AI safely and successfully? Dr. Kathleen Torregrossa has been an educator for 37 years in Cranston, Rhode Island. She explains how teachers ar...

DMs and text messages can feel like private forms of communication — but it’s not always that simple. There are scenarios where third parties might be able to access your messaging data, whether it's your employer or law enforcement. So how can you make sure your private conversations actually remain private? Riana Pfefferkorn, a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificia...

Should you trust public WiFi? How do you choose the right VPN? And what should you do when yet another website asks you to allow cookies? On today’s episode, ethical hacker and SocialProof Security CEO Rachel Tobac answers some rapid-fire questions about staying safe and savvy online. You can hear our previous episode with Rachel, about the safest way to create and manage your passwords, here. Lea...

When Lucy Simic was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2018, she wondered how to spend the time she had left — and what kind of legacy she’d leave behind. In the years since, she’s collaborated with ReimagineAI CEO David Usher to develop LucyAI, an interactive chatbot trained on her thoughts and memories. It’s an early example of what could become a new form of memoir or scrapbook for the 21st centu...

Many Indigenous languages are at risk of disappearing. 24-year-old inventor Danielle Boyer is on a mission to change that. She designed SkoBot, an interactive robot that teaches children her own native language, Anishinaabemowin. Danielle shares how she developed SkoBot, the ethical questions that came up along the way, and how she involved her own community in the process. You can read more about...

AI is being used right now by police officers across the United States to draft their reports — and it also has ramifications for prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and community members. Could this tool become the new norm? In part two of this special two-episode deep dive, host Clare Duffy gets a demo of how AI-drafted police reports work. And, she hears from a legal advocate about why this...

For the last year, officers in Fort Collins, Colorado, have used AI to draft police reports. In part one of this special two-episode deep dive, host Clare Duffy visits Fort Collins to meet the officers using this tool on the job. Plus, she digs into some of the legal and ethical questions this raises and hears from an executive at the company that makes the product about how they developed it — an...

The 2011 medical thriller Contagion had a big resurgence in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Scott Z. Burns, the screenwriter behind the film, started getting questions about a possible sequel. But he wasn’t quite sure where to start, so he decided to see if AI could help. After documenting the project in his new podcast on Audible, What Could Go Wrong?, Scott shares how he sees this contr...

In the past few years, the commercial spaceflight industry has taken off — literally. But is the industry just turning space into a playground for the ultrawealthy, or do these flights have benefits for the rest of us, too? And could commercial space travel one day be available to more than just the super rich? Lee Billings, a senior editor at Scientific American, shares some of the latest stories...