#joannastern — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #joannastern, aggregated by home.social.
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Siri AI and The Spam Call Problem
Listening to podcasts after each WWDC is always a bit of information overload, but occasionally you catch a bit of analysis that seems perhaps pertinent.
One of the podcasts I listen to his John Gruber’s Talk Show Live event that he’s been hosting for a few years now. After his infamous Something Is Wrong In The State of Cupertino post last year, Apple execs stayed away after having been guests in years previous. They stayed away this year as well.
This year, like last, Gruber put together a panel that featured The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, now with her own gig, New Things With Joanna Stern. This year and last offered excellent commentary by both, and given the wait and see cynical posture I’ve adopted for all of Apple’s upcoming offerings, worth a listen.
One interesting tidbit stood out that I want to highlight in the context of my ongoing complaints and requests to Apple about making the handling of spam and unwanted phone calls easier.
Joanna seemed to be quite impressed with what she’s seen of Siri AI in the early going, citing a number of examples that she tried out during the event. The one that stood out to me is this:
I said, “What could I do that’s fun near the California Theater? I have some time to to kill,” and I don’t know if… I don’t know exactly what was the prompt or what was the thing, but it started suggesting things I could do locally. But also, it had access to my voicemail, so it knew that I had just gotten a message from my uncle who asked me to speak at his book club, and it said, “You… you could get back to my your uncle about his book club engagement, you would have some time to do that.” Okay, that’s crazy. It really is, right? And but what if that was sensitive information, right?
The key is Siri AI having access to voice mail. Regardless of however you feel about what data and info Siri AI needs to have about you to develop “Personal Context,” if Siri AI has access to your voice mail it seems it should be a relatively easy technological hop, skip, and jump to just automatically delete the flood of spam calls that have already figured out ways around any of the current wack-a-mole tricks that are being used.
Obviously the larger point Joanna makes about “Personal Context” and a new level of trust is spot on, and one many iPhone users will have to reckon with. But I’ll tell you this, if Siri AI can automatically banish to digital hell all of the fake calls that now use names to try and circumvent current spam call prevention I’ll be grateful.
The only reasons I can think of for Siri AI (or Google’s Gemini on Android phones) are business reasons and relationships with the mobile carriers. Apple’s “Personal Context” or Google’s “Personal Intelligence” are the names of the game, or so they claim. It seems logical to me that the technology exists to eradicate more of this curse that same technology makes possible and we all are prey to, whether it be phone calls, emails, or texts.
Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.
#ai #Apple #ArtificialIntelligence #chatgpt #google #iOS27 #JoannaStern #JohnGruber #NewThingsWithJoannaStern #NIlayPatel #SiriAI #Tech #technology #TheTalkShowLive #Writing #WWDC2026 -
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The episode concludes with Stern's transition to a critical observer and reviews her survival guide for the AI era. Her five rules advise people to maintain human judgment, avoid dating bots, protect data privacy, raise resilient children, and value unique life experiences over optimized simulations. -
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In vital contrast to these personal risks, the podcast highlights AI's life-saving capabilities when applied to objective data. Specifically, programs like Transpara AI serve as tireless "machine eyes" in radiology, screening dense breast tissue for cancer with 20% more accuracy than human doctors alone. -
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Listeners also learn about the phenomenon of "brain rot" observed in students who rely entirely on AI to write essays, noting that outsourcing structural thinking to automated text-prediction models actively erodes essential critical thinking and logical argument skills. -
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The narrative shifts into psychological vulnerabilities through Stern's exploration of "artificial intimacy," including her experience testing an AI boyfriend and an AI therapist. The episode warns that these frictionless, non-reciprocal digital interactions risk damaging our capacity to handle real human relationships. -
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The conversation addresses economic impacts, documenting instances where entry-level roles were automated away. The hosts argue that automating tasks like research or transcription removes the foundational "training grounds" that younger generations require to develop professional intuition and judgment. -
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The hosts delve into Moravec's Paradox, explaining why AI excels at highly abstract data analysis yet fails at simple physical tasks or common-sense reasoning. They introduce Stern's concept of the "four-step tax," which outlines the frustratingly repetitive human labor required to identify and correct an AI's factual errors. -
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The podcast highlights the contrast between AI's digital efficiency and its clunky physical execution. Listeners hear how Stern attempted to automate her home using tools like recipe-generating computer vision, a conversation-tracking bracelet, a chore robot named Neo, and an automated lawnmower that fell victim to basic navigation errors. -
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The discussion focuses on a massive, 365-day real-world experiment conducted by veteran tech journalist Joanna Stern. Beginning January 1, 2025, Stern actively wove AI into every aspect of her life, operating as the ultimate test subject to observe what happens when we surrender our independence to intelligent machines. -
JOANNA STERN'S YEAR OF LIVING ARTIFICIALLY
Welcome to the deep dive podcast. This episode explores how artificial intelligence is blurring the lines between the natural and programmed worlds, moving beyond mere tech hype to unpack what these rapidly evolving systems actually mean for everyday human routine, employment, and personal psychology.
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To see the original full experiment that inspired these concepts, you can watch Joanna Stern's AI Clone Experiment, which demonstrates exactly how her voice and video clones performed when tested against real-world challenges.
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Ultimately, the video delivers a powerful conclusion on the value of our analog lives. AI can automate the verbs of our existence, but it cannot experience the true meaning behind them. The real human being is the one navigating authentic relationships, feeling real emotion, and enjoying a simple, physical cup of tea. Turn off the simulation and embrace what makes us irreplaceable. -
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As the boundaries between real and simulated environments blur, the experiment uncovers a striking paradox. While advanced tools can replicate human actions, draft content, and process data with unbelievable speed, they completely flatten the authentic texture of real-world interactions. The sterile precision of a digital clone stands no match against human wit, nuance, and genuine connection. -
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This video dives deep into the "AI Zoo," exploring how different "species" of technology are rapidly reshaping our daily routines. From algorithms analyzing complex health data to virtual entities designed to mimic human communication, we look at the practical trials, humorous failures, and surprising successes of living alongside generative bots. The journey benchmarks machine capabilities directly against human experiences.
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What begins as a quest for ultimate productivity quickly evolves into a fascinating reality check on what it means to coexist with automation. -
A YEAR OF LIVING ARTIFICIALLY
Can an AI clone truly replace a human? Tech journalist Joanna Stern embarked on a profound, year-long experiment to test the absolute limits of artificial intelligence. By embedding AI into every corner of her life—from medical scans to her daily workflows—she attempted to offload the friction of existence onto digital avatars and automated agents.
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Joanna Stern Launches New Things
Discover something new
@joannasternhttp://warnercrocker.com/2026/04/22/joanna-stern-launches-new-things/
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Joanna Stern Joins NBC News as Chief Technology Analyst, Will Also Run Her Own Creator Venture
#Variety #News #JoannaStern #NBCNews #RebeccaBlumensteinhttps://variety.com/2026/tv/news/joanna-stern-joins-nbc-news-chief-technology-analyst-1236691309/
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NBC News Partners With Joanna Stern For Al And Technology Coverage
#News #Politics #ElectionLine #JoannaStern #NBCNews #RebeccaBlumensteinhttps://deadline.com/2026/03/joanna-stern-nbc-news-contributor-1236758096/
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Joanna Stern’s exit from The Wall Street Journal is a shock, and a sign of the times
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://nerds.xyz/2026/02/joanna-stern-wsj-exit/
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Exciting news... #JoannaStern is leaving the WSJ to start her consumer tech media company. She's one of the best writers in consumer tech (IMO) and it will be great to hopefully hear more from her...
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Don’t Trust Your iPhone’s Passcode to Keep Your Data Safe
https://lifehacker.com/don-t-trust-your-iphone-s-passcode-to-keep-your-data-sa-1850166806
#multifactorauthentication #computeraccesscontrol #technology2cinternet #identitymanagement #wallstreetjournal #operatingsystems #joannastern #computing #software #coinbase #password #security #keychain #iphone #findmy #icloud #venmo #raivo #ipad #ios -
Apple apologizes for failing MacBook keyboards yet again - Enlarge / The 2017 and 2018 15-inch MacBook Pros side-by-side. Each has a butterfly keyboard. (cred... more: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1482651 #butterflykeyboard #wallstreetjournal #joannastern #macbookair #macbookpro #applecare #macbook #apple #tech