Understood: Artificial Intimacy
By CBC
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Category: Technology
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Subscribers: 504
Reviews: 4
Episodes: 43
Lee
May 22, 2025
"Who Broke the Internet" is essential listening for anyone who's touched a piece of technology in the last 5 years. Doctorow is a philosopher on all things digital and thank you to the CBC for calling out the rise of enshittification!
Rebecca
May 28, 2024
Excellent reporting and a very interesting podcast! No matter what the topic is, I listen and know it's going to be good. 😊
Apr 5, 2023
ian
Mar 28, 2023
high quality, well produced, well narrated. i liked it a lot.
Description
What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot? From people who’ve married their bots or who grieve their loved ones with the help of AI, host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of the people who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds, and even beds. And asks what do we gain and what do we stand to lose? Our intimacy, our resilience, even our grasp on reality?
This latest season of Understood looks at who made the decisions that allowed chatbots to move way beyond digital assistants and into the most intimate parts of our lives.
Four episodes, releasing weekly starting Tuesday, May 19.
Understood takes you deep inside the seismic shifts reshaping our world right now. From online porn and crypto chaos to the rise of tech oligarchs, deepfake AI, and the broken promises of the internet — we explore the stories that define our digital age with hosts and characters embedded in the heart of the action.
Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried.
Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry.
Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power.
Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar.
Season 5 - Who Broke the Internet? The internet sucks now, and it happened on purpose.
Season 6 - The Making of Elon Musk: exploring the little known side of the polarizing billionaire
Season 7: Deepfake Porn Empire: the porn was fake. The fallout was real.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
|
E2: Grief Bots
|
May 26, 2026 |
|
E1: Love Bots
|
May 19, 2026 |
|
Introducing Understood: Artificial Intimacy
|
May 15, 2026 |
|
Deepfake Porn Empire | E4: The Fake Porn Pharmacist
|
Mar 10, 2026 |
|
Deepfake Porn Empire | E3: The Notorious D.P.F.K.S.
|
Mar 03, 2026 |
|
Deepfake Porn Empire | E2: So You’ve Been Deepfaked
|
Feb 24, 2026 |
|
Deepfake Porn Empire | E1: The Dawn of Fake Porn
|
Feb 17, 2026 |
|
Introducing Understood: Deepfake Porn Empire
|
Feb 13, 2026 |
|
The Making of Elon Musk | E4: The Great Trek
|
Oct 28, 2025 |
|
The Making of Elon Musk | E3: The Legion
|
Oct 21, 2025 |
|
The Making of Elon Musk | E2: Technocracy, Inc.
|
Oct 14, 2025 |
|
The Making of Elon Musk | E1: Escape from Pretoria
|
Oct 07, 2025 |
|
Introducing Understood: The Making of Elon Musk
|
Sep 26, 2025 |
|
Who Broke the Internet? | E4: Kick 'Em in the Dongle
|
May 26, 2025 |
|
Who Broke the Internet? | E3: In God We Antitrust
|
May 19, 2025 |
|
Who Broke the Internet? | E2: Ctrl, Ctrl, Ctrl
|
May 12, 2025 |
|
Who Broke the Internet? | E1: Don't Be Evil
|
May 05, 2025 |
|
Introducing Understood: Who Broke the Internet?
|
Apr 28, 2025 |
|
Céline Episode 4: The Céline-aissance
|
Nov 05, 2024 |
|
Céline Episode 3: The Globalization of Céline
|
Oct 29, 2024 |
|
Céline Episode 2: The U.S. Gamble
|
Oct 22, 2024 |
|
Céline Episode 1: Conquering Québec
|
Oct 15, 2024 |
|
Introducing Céline: Understood
|
Oct 08, 2024 |
|
BONUS: Modi’s weak win
|
Jun 05, 2024 |
|
Modi's India Episode 4: The Storyteller
|
May 27, 2024 |
|
Modi's India Episode 3: The Strongman
|
May 20, 2024 |
|
Modi's India Episode 2: Development Man
|
May 13, 2024 |
|
Modi's India Episode 1: Emperor of Hindu Hearts
|
May 13, 2024 |
|
Modi's India: Season 3 of Understood
|
Apr 24, 2024 |
|
The Pornhub Empire Episode 4: Cleanup crew
|
Apr 01, 2024 |
|
The Pornhub Empire Episode 3: Pornhub’s disgrace
|
Mar 25, 2024 |
|
The Pornhub Empire Episode 2: Pornhub goes mainstream
|
Mar 18, 2024 |
|
The Pornhub Empire Episode 1: Free porn for everyone
|
Mar 11, 2024 |
|
Introducing: The Pornhub Empire
|
Feb 22, 2024 |
|
Bonus: Click Here from Recorded Future News
|
Feb 21, 2024 |
|
The Naked Emperor BONUS | Guilty: The fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
|
Nov 06, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor BONUS: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried
|
Oct 02, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor BONUS: Binance and its CEO sued in major crypto case
|
Jun 08, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Episode 4: It Takes a Village
|
Apr 03, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Episode 3: Busted
|
Mar 27, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Episode 2: The Beginning of the End
|
Mar 20, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Episode 1: The Hype
|
Mar 13, 2023 |
|
The Naked Emperor Trailer – Season 1 of Understood
|
Feb 22, 2023 |