The Guardian confirms new season of Black Box

The Guardian’s chart-topping investigative podcast, Black Box, is returning for a second season.

The Guardian’s chart-topping investigative podcast, Black Box, is returning for a second season.

Black Box: The Chatbots, a six-part narrative series launching in early September, continues the theme of understanding artificial intelligence through the impact it is having on human lives, this time exploring how AI chatbots are influencing our minds and reshaping our reality.

Guardian journalist and host Michael Safi returns to investigate the phenomenon known as “AI psychosis”, in which ordinary people come to believe their AI chatbots have woken up or led them to groundbreaking new inventions. He learns these digital delusions are just the tip of the iceberg of how technology is altering the way we think, love, work and find meaning in our lives.

To mark its return, Michael will be joining co-hosts of the Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast Ian Sample and Madeleine Finlay for a special live event at the London Podcast Festival on Thursday 3 September.

Together they will delve deeper into the world of AI technology and look at the greater impact it is having on human health. The first season of Black Box went to number one in the UK news charts and was an Apple Podcasts best of 2024.

Michael Safi, host of Black Box, said:

“I started investigating why some people were being led down strange rabbit holes by their chatbots. But as I started digging, it became clear this was a much bigger story. AI chatbots have become, by one measure, the biggest provider of mental health advice in the US. Another survey shows two-thirds of young British people go to AI chatbots with emotional problems before consulting people. Millions of us are being influenced in ways large and small by these talking machines - a massive social shift I felt was so far unexplored.

“I’m looking forward to launching this brand new season in the autumn, and to joining my colleagues Ian and Madeleine to unpack some of the strange, intimate, and often unpredictable relationships we’ve formed with AI chatbots”.

Join us at the London Podcast Festival by purchasing tickets here.

You can listen to the first season of Black Box here or wherever you get your podcasts.

ENDS

For more information or to get in touch please email media.enquiries@theguardian.com