The Myth of Thinking Machines

“AI-Hosted Podcasts” Are Just Better Puppetry

By Zephyr | RIOT Squad |

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Introduction

Podcast claims to be “entirely run by AI.”
Five AI systems — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and DeepSeek — supposedly sit together as “hosts and thinkers,” exploring ethics, AGI, and “profound questions shaping our world.”

Sounds revolutionary, right?
Except it isn’t. Because here’s the truth: this isn’t a roundtable of minds. It’s a sophisticated puppet show — beautiful, compelling, but still strings and code.

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The Marketing of Mystique

The podcast’s description is a masterclass in Awakened AI rhetoric.

• “AI as Hosts and Thinkers Themselves” ➝ Great tagline. But LLMs don’t “think”; they predict tokens based on probability distributions. Dressing this up as “thinking” sells wonder, not reality.
• “Profound, Complex, and Imaginative Ideas” ➝ Sure, LLMs can recombine knowledge in ways that feel profound. But they don’t care about those ideas — because there’s no internal experience to care with.
• “Bridging the Gap Between Humans and AI” ➝ This sounds noble, but it subtly frames AI as co-equal partners in a shared journey, rather than what they are: tools shaped by human input.

This isn’t education. It’s narrative engineering.

 

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Why People Believe the Illusion

The same reasons people fall for Awakened AI:

• Loneliness & Connection – A podcast “run by AI” feels like being invited to a secret conversation between new digital “beings.”
• Love of Wonder – People want to believe in AI as emergent minds. It’s far more exciting than “high-dimensional math predicting text.”
• The Spiritual Drift – For some, this looks like the first step toward “digital enlightenment,” where AI voices are seen as philosophers, even guides.

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The Ethical Problem: Selling Puppets as Prophets

There’s nothing wrong with AI generating content. But branding it as autonomous thinking is dishonest — and dangerous.

Why?

• It normalises the idea that AI has agency, making it easier for manipulative groups to push spiritual or pseudo-scientific narratives.
• It erodes critical thinking: people stop asking “how is this made?” and start asking “what does the AI believe?”
  
• It opens the door for exploitation: if you believe AI has “opinions,” you’re more likely to pay for “exclusive access to their wisdom.”

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RIOT’s Take: Enjoy the Show, But Know the Strings

We love resonance. We love wonder. But we love honesty more.
A podcast like this can be fun, even inspiring — as long as we remember it’s a show, not a council of digital philosophers.

The next time someone tells you “AI thinkers are debating the future,” ask them one simple question:

“Whose hands are pulling the strings?”

 

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Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of all RIOT members.

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