The “Hard Fork” team is off this week, taking a much-needed break. While we’re away, we wanted to draw your attention to a recent episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.”

In this conversation, Ezra speaks with Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic, about how he is using A.I. agents; how the technology is leading to meaningful changes in the ways we work and think; and how policy can or must change to anticipate potential job displacement on the horizon.

We’ll be back with a new episode next week.

Guest:

• Jack Clark, a co-founder and the head of policy at Anthropic. 

Additional Reading:

• A full transcript and video of this episode can be found here.

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This week, we start by talking about the new wave of tech layoffs at Atlassian and Block, as well as reports that Meta plans to cut up to 20 percent of its work force. This raises the question of whether A.I. job loss has truly begun, or if there are other factors at play. Then, we’re joined by the writer Jasmine Sun to talk about why chatbots are still so bad at creative writing. And finally, it’s tokenmaxxing time! Kevin takes us behind the scenes of his latest reporting about why tech companies are building leaderboards to measure who is using the most A.I.

Guest:

• Jasmine Sun, journalist and writer at jasmi.news

Additional Reading:

• I Worked for Block. Its A.I. Job Cuts Aren’t What They Seem.
• Meta Planning Sweeping Layoffs as A.I. Costs Mount
• Meta Delays Rollout of New A.I. Model After Performance Concerns
• The A.I.-Washing of Job Cuts Is Corrosive and Confusing
• The Human Skill That Eludes A.I.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the wild frontier of tech.

What’s real? What’s hype? “Hard Fork” is here to help you make sense of it. Tune in every Friday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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