The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce

On RNZ's "Nine to Noon" Mark gave host Kathryn Ryan an update on the US export controls on the "Fable 5" AI model - and how that's causing them trouble with their allies, who had already integrated it into workflows. Then they'll look at what happens when a security researcher goes rogue - threatening the world's fourth most valuable company. The episode includes the unpleasant story of how millio...

On Friday 12 June, AI powerhouse Anthropic cut off all access to their latest-and-greatest "Fable 5" AI model. Based on the incredibly powerful Mythos - which has the capacity to hack into almost any computer - Fable had safeguards to block that sort of use - or so Anthropic believed. A hack to 'jailbreak' Fable 5 went viral just a day after it went live - and very quickly, the White House got ala...

Host Kathryn Ryan in conversation with Mark, profiling the concerning capability of Anthropic's Mythos AI model to hack into the most protected systems - now it seems other AI models are just as powerful. RAMageddon could be on the way - with a major shortage of RAM forcing prices higher and why does ChatGPT have a goblin problem? Thanks to RNZ - Nine To Noon The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pes...

On "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan and Mark discuss Anthropic's latest 'Mythos' AI model,  considered so dangerous to cybersecurity the company has set up a cross-company partnership to work on patching all of the hacks it found. Will other companies be as responsible if similar, powerful models of AI are created? Ronan Farrow's  New Yorker  piece on Sam Altman paints him in a diab...

Leading AI firm Anthropic drew two red lines on their work with the newly renamed US 'Department of War': No mass surveillance of Americans, and no autonomous weapons. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth threatened to declare Anthropic a 'supply chain risk' (basically, an enemy of the state) unless they erased those red lines. Anthropic held fast - and that's changed the politics of AI. Plus: Let...

RNZ replay 30 January 2026 In conversation with RNZ "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan, we look at the recent massive layoffs at Amazon, France's social media laws for under 15s, Microsoft giving the keys to your data kingdom to the FBI, and what happens when an organisation tasked with maintaining the safety of the airways turns to a computer to 'flood the zone' with regulation? Thanks to RNZ - Nin...

Abby Bloom, Catherine Ball and I (along with Sally Dominguez) are heading back to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see the latest innovations in 'agetech' - technologies that help restore ability and increase agency as we age. Is agetech "the" solution to the crisis in care, or is it, instead, kit that helps support us as we transition toward a culture where care is a central and valu...

Abby Bloom wants us to face an uncomfortable truth: we need a lot more space and time for care in our culture. A rapidly aging population - living twenty to thirty years longer than the generations preceding - means we're going to have to rethink and redesign our lives, our work and our whole civilisation so that we don't disappear beneath a burden of care that no one can bear alone. How do we mak...

Could it be that the smartphone and social media brought us together only to make us completely intolerant? Research seems to be pointing that way - so what can we do? Also, fake receipts, fake voices and fake apologies - the more AI we use, the more we get faked out. Finally, 'mind captioning' - could bring a voice to those who can not use their own! Recorded live on Radio New Zealand's "Nine To...

While the US put its car in reverse (at speed!) and European automakers chased their own tails about whether or not to abandon ICEs, the Chinese put the pedal to the metal in their high-tourque EVs, leaving everyone one else in the dust. A once-in-a-lifetime platform transition - without any international competitors! Co-host Sally Dominguez, Special Correspondent Drew Smith and host Mark Pesce di...

What a difference a year makes. A transition to EVs that once seemed utterly inevitable has been thoroughly disrupted by a change of regime in the United States. Using every tool in its arsenal to bribe, cajole and even threaten its allies into dropping any support or incentives for electrification, the USA seems intent upon reviving a past where the internal combustion engine ruled unchallenged....

Can a big business transform its processes and workflows using AI? With very few successful examples to follow, how does the Big End of Town even get started? L'Oreal Groupe - the biggest beauty products firm on Earth - got started three years ago. We sit down with L'Oreal Groupe ANZ CEO Alex Davison to explore how they did it, why they did it - and how it's changed their business. L'Oreal is rate...

There's an elephant in the room along with artificial intelligence - its impact on the climate. Demand for electricity has skyrocketed as Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft build vast new data centres to handle the anticipated global demand for AI products and services. Is that wise? In conversation with legendary entrepreneur and ClimateSalad CEO Mick Liubinskas, we explore whether we'...

Massive increases in productivity lure businesses into adopting artificial intelligence. But what if pursuit of that elusive 'superprodctivity' produces exactly the opposite? A rebroadcast of Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon from16 October 2025, host Kathryn Ryan and I ask whether any business advantage can be gained by the 'promiscuous' use of AI. The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produ...

What would you do if you lost your job to an AI? Would you even know? It happened to me - and I didn't learn the truth for six months. In the aftermath I recognised how my work needed to change. That became the core of 'Building Resistance', a set of practices that help us focus on the most human elements of our work. Leaning into those - in this episode, you'll learn how - makes it harder to get...

While the US focuses on putting the brakes on 'woke AI' (whatever that is) the rest of the world's nations confront thorny questions about how to regulate a technology that's both moving very quickly and lacks any clear definitions. Could regulators strangle AI in the process of regulating it? Or will innovators it outpace all efforts to contain it?  At the intersection of commerce and geopol...

ALWAYS IMPERFECT Episode 3: A BETTER WAY Used well, artificial intelligence can automate labor-intensive and rote processes, freeing people for the work they want to do. That's the theory, anyway - but what about the practice? SUPAHMAN founder and CEO Dave Howden shares his experiences helping businesses adopt AI within their workflows - and admits, in order for that to work, he needs to be the 'd...

Can a computer program a computer as well as a human being can? Artificial intelligence enabled a quantum leap in the quality of the tools programmer use to write code - but they're delicate. Push them too hard and they break. Even when they work they can write reams of code that no human can make heads or tails of. John Allsopp joins us to investigate whether programmers will soon become obsolete...

Always Imperfect - Episode 1 - NO MAGIC WANDS Artificial intelligence may be amazing but it’s  always imperfect. Anyone trying to use AI professionally lands on the horns of a dilemma: will a productivity increase gained through automation represent any savings, after factoring in the extra supervision needed to use these amazing (but unreliable) new tools? In this mini series, we chat...

Whenever fellow futurist and longtime friend Rob Tercek and I (Mark Pesce) get together, we go crazy deep on the future: What happens when lazy humans outsource their thought process to machines? You get a society that vibes its way into a blurry, sub-optimal future. The surge of slop means that AI is creating more work for humans instead of stealing our jobs. I join Rob on his podcast The Futuris...

Mark joins RNZ Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan to delve into the sudden phenomenon of 'viral' AI videos - getting better at capturing your eyeballs. Did you see those cute bunnies bouncing on a trampoline? Never happened - but made you look. The fusion of TikTok and AI video looks to be potent - and addictive. Next up, shocking and sad story of Adam Raine, a 16 year old who confided his suicidal th...

On a recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, Mark rented an EV, drove to a rural town on the Mendocino coast, then drove back again. That trip taught Mark a lot about what it means to drive an EV - and how it changes both thinking and behaviour behind the wheel. Unless we fundamentally revise how we power personal transportation in the US (and Australia) along lines similar to those in China, t...

A recent study from MIT shows students tasked with writing essays showed significantly lower levels of brain activity when allowed to use ChatGPT. Mark Pesce reviews the implications of this finding with RNZ NineToNoon host Kathryn Ryan, going on to reveal how an internet filled with AI-generated content becomes increasingly 'toxic' for those same AIs. Plus, would you agree to be 're-animated' as...

RNZ NINE TO NOON: CAN CHATGPT MAKE YOU CRAZY? In conversation with host Kathryn Ryan, Mark highlights a number of reports indicating potentially very serious mental health issues associated with the use of chatbots like ChatGPT. These chatbots tend to be very agreeable - a quality known as 'sycophancy'. But being agreeable with someone's delusions only tends to reinforce them, potentially amplifyi...

From Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon: Meta - the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and much more besides - finds itself fighting for its life against a suit from the US Federal Trade Commission, charging abuse of monopoly power - because they acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in order to neutralise up-and-coming competitors. Even in Trump's America, that could result in the break-up of the t...