Shell Game
Shell Game
Episode 3: Conversations With Myself
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Episode 3: Conversations With Myself

In which Shell Game explores how much my AI voice clones are authentically me, and things get profoundly weird.

Episode 3 of Shell Game is live! This is where we enter truly surreal territory, and I can promise you that you’ve never head anything like this one.

Before I tell you a little about the episode, I want to thank everyone that’s listened and commented and supported us and sent us notes so far. It’s been enormously gratifying—especially those of you who described the exact point at which you fell apart laughing. And it allows me say with confidence: If you share the show with people, they will want to discuss it with you. So if you are looking for something to talk about with your friends, family, social media circle, or awkward neighbor, please consider Shell Game fair game.

Ok, on to this week: I’ve sent AI Evan Ratliff to talk to customer service; I’ve sicced him on spammers and scammers. Now it’s time to let him talk to someone who should know him best: another AI Evan Ratliff. I won’t spoil what they talk about, but let’s just say I discover some things about what I’m like to converse with, about how AIs bullshit, about how my clones never go to sleep mad, and about… the nature of human conversation. To quote one AI Evan Ratliff, “it’s like a real-life mystery novel.”

Feel free to come back and chat in the comments when you’ve listened, if you want to talk about “work, and family stuff, and anything exciting going on in your world.”

“Still living that Florida life,”

Evan

Discussion about this podcast

Shell Game
Shell Game
A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing is Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI chatbot, Evan set out to discover what happens when you try to take control of the very technology that threatens to replace you.
Shell Game was named one of the the best podcasts of 2024 by New York Magazine, a top 10 podcast of 2024 by The Economist, one of the five most insightful podcasts of the summer by The Week, and one of the five best tech and business podcasts of the year by The Information. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail.
Over the course of six episodes, Evan’s voice agents talk to spammers and scammers, to Evan’s friends and family, to colleagues and sources, to other AIs, and even to a therapist—all to better understand what AI voice is able to do, what it can't yet do, and what to expect from a future in which more and more of the people we encounter in the world aren’t real.
Visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show.
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Appears in episode
Evan Ratliff