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Machines Like Us

The Globe and Mail

Machines Like Us is a technology show about people.

We are living in an age of breakthroughs propelled by advances in artificial intelligence. Technologies that were once the realm of science fiction will become our reality: robot best friends, bespoke gene editing, brain implants that make us smarter.

Every other Tuesday Taylor Owen sits down with the people shaping this rapidly approaching future. He’ll speak with entrepreneurs building world-changing technologies, lawmakers trying to ensure they’re safe, and journalists and scholars working to understand how they’re transforming our lives.

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  • 24 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 44 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • #36
    Dec 16, 2025 · 44 min

    Wikipedia Won Our Trust. Can We Use That Model Everywhere?

    It was an idea that defied logic: an online encyclopedia that anyone could edit. You didn’t need to have a PhD or even use your real name – you just needed an internet connection. Against all odds, it worked. Today, billions of people use Wikipedia every month, and studies show it’s about as accurate as a traditional encyclopedia. But how? How did Wikipedia not just turn into yet another online cesspool, filled with falsehoods, partisanship and AI slop? Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales just wrote

  • #35
    Dec 2, 2025 · 53 min

    Could an Alternative AI Save Us From a Bubble?

    Over the last couple of years, massive AI investment has largely kept the stock market afloat. Case in point: the so-called Magnificent 7 – tech companies like NVIDIA, Meta, and Microsoft – now account for more than a third of the S&P 500’s value. (Which means they likely represent a significant share of your investment portfolio or pension fund, too.) There’s little doubt we’re living through an AI economy. But many economists worry there may be trouble ahead. They see companies like OpenAI –

  • #34
    Nov 18, 2025 · 51 min

    Can AI Lead Us to the Good Life?

    In Rutger Bregman’s first book, Utopia for Realists, the historian describes a rosy vision of the future – one with 15-hour work weeks, universal basic income and massive wealth redistribution. It’s a vision that, in the age of artificial intelligence, now seems increasingly possible. But utopia is far from guaranteed. Many experts predict that AI will also lead to mass job loss, the development of new bioweapons and, potentially, the extinction of our species. So if you’re building a technol

  • #33
    Nov 4, 2025 · 49 min

    How to Survive the “Broligarchy”

    At Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, the returning president made a striking break from tradition. The seats closest to the president – typically reserved for family – went instead to the most powerful tech CEOs in the world: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai. Between them, these men run some of the most profitable companies in history. And over the past two decades, they’ve used that wealth to reshape our public sphere. But this felt different. This wasn’t di

Showing 21–24 of 24 episodes