On “Superintelligent” this week, we dove headfirst into the counterintuitive overlap of design, politics, and tech. President Trump hired Airbnb’s co-founder to pretty up government websites. That sound like a joke, but at least he’s not tasked to decorate the White House like an Airbnb.
Another Trump initiative is to design government buildings in a classical, non-modern style, which raised the question: Why are modern buildings so fugly?
Our conversation meandered through the topics of Soviet brutalism, AI chatbots leaking secrets and pulling prompt injection tricks, and the wild rise of agentic browsers—like Comet—ready to both serve and scam us. (The more “intelligent” and agentic the tech, it seems, the more ways it finds to fib, glitch, and gobble up whatever data we throw at it.)
We also talked about talking — tech lingo, language woes, and translation tech that falls short exactly when you need it most.
Links
The beauty of concrete — https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-beauty-of-concrete/
Grok's first vibe-coding agent has a high ‘dishonesty rate' — https://www.pcmag.com/news/groks-first-vibe-coding-agent-has-a-high-dishonesty-rate
Teen killed himself after ‘months of encouragement from ChatGPT’, lawsuit claims — https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/27/chatgpt-scrutiny-family-teen-killed-himself-sue-open-ai
Mike Elgan — https://elgan.com/about
Emily Forlini — https://emilyforlini.com
Email Us: superintelligentpodcast@gmail.com
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates
03:01 Politics Meets Technology: Trump's New Appointment
05:56 Aesthetic Value in Government Buildings
09:02 The Evolution of Architecture and Design
11:55 The Role of AI in Cybersecurity
14:53 AI's Potential for Malicious Use
17:43 Language and AI: The Impact on Communication
20:49 The Influence of AI on Modern Vernacular
27:00 Humorous Slang and AI Terminology
28:58 Joy to Stuff Ratio: Materialism vs. Enjoyment
30:06 Glurge and Sentimental Stories
31:28 Texticated: The Dangers of Distraction
32:32 Mind Casting: The New Age of Self-Expression
34:24 The Statusphere: Social Media and Self-Reporting
37:05 AI Security Risks: Malicious Instructions in Photos
39:36 The Dishonesty of AI: A Growing Concern
42:23 Real Consequences of AI Misuse
44:43 Agentic AI: The Future of Coding Tools
46:10 AI Browsers: The New Frontier
50:36 The Risks of Agentic AI and Cybersecurity
54:47 Motorcycles and Chatbots: A Dangerous Ride
55:56 The Pitfalls of AI Writing Assistance
58:00 The Challenge of Accurate Information
01:00:26 The Future of Language Translation
01:01:53 Navigating Language Barriers in Travel
01:04:07 The Need for Language Learning
01:08:09 The Journey to Learning French
01:11:18 Cultural Expectations and Language Acquisition
Keywords
AI, technology, architecture, cybersecurity, language learning, Trump, design, malicious use, communication, travel
