Shell Game
Shell Game
Episode 6: The Future Isn't Real
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Episode 6: The Future Isn't Real

Evan explores how it will feel to live in a world of near-human imposters, by inflicting his on the people closest to him.

Shell Game Episode 6, our final episode of our first season, is out now!

While at times it may have seemed like I was just using my voice agent to mess around and have some fun—in fairness, many times I was—you’ve hopefully detected by now that we were also on an intentional journey over the course of the first five episodes. From a voice clone that knew nothing about me in its calls to customer service, to one built to tie up scammers. Then from an agent that could represent me in my most superficial conversation, to one that could express my inner life, and try and take on my job.

In the last episode, we arrive at our destination, where a cheshire cat awaits us, with a pair of questions. First, a general one: How do we grasp the benefits of new technologies, like AI voice, without simultaneously letting go of things that matter to us? And as a way of approaching that question, another: What does it feel like for the people closest to me to confront AI me, instead of me?

To answer them, I had to push this experiment as far as I was comfortable and then beyond. This was the hardest episode to make, for reasons that will become clear when you hear it. But I hope that you feel the way the three of us working on it have felt, that it will stick with you for a long time.

“I can still listen and provide some support,”

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.