Dear AI Companies: Stop the “Doom Trolling” | AI Reality Check

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

(0:00) Stop the “doom trolling”

(6:53) Cal’s recent New York Times article

(9:00) Cal’s argument

(10:16) The 2nd option

(12:54) Conclusion

(15:58) Stop playing along with Doom Trolling game

(20:09) Use the term “doom trolling”

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/opinion/ai-dangerous-openai-anthropic.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/yuval-harari-ai-chatgpt.html

https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/opinion/anthropic-ai-claude-mythos.html

https://www.anthropic.com/institute/recursive-self-improvement

https://x.com/sapinker/status/2067231673268273547

https://x.com/edzitron/status/2067308832053936276

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices