A Reddit-style web forum for A.I. agents has captured the attention of the tech world. According to the site, called Moltbook, more than 1.5 million agents have contributed to over 150,000 posts, making it the largest experiment to date of what happens when A.I. agents interact with each other. We discuss our favorite posts, how we’re thinking about the question of what is “real” on the site, and where we expect agents to go from here.

Additional Reading:

• A Social Network for A.I. Bots Only. No Humans Allowed.
• Five Ways of Thinking About Moltbook

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

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This week we’re talking about the tech industry’s response to the killings by federal agents in Minneapolis and the federal government’s strategy to control the narrative on social media. Then we follow Casey through his trial of a new open-source A.I. assistant called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) and consider whether it is worth the security risk. And, finally, it’s time for a look at the rest of the week’s tech news with a round of HatGPT.

Additional Reading: 

• False Posts and Altered Images Distort Views of Minnesota Shooting
• A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti
• It’s a War: Inside ICE’s Media Machine
• Some Amazon Employees Get ‘Project Dawn’ Calendar Invitation Discussing Upcoming Job Cuts
• TikTok Data Center Outage Triggers Trust Crisis for New U.S. Owners
• Former FTX Crypto Executive Caroline Ellison Released From Federal Custody
• Anthropic C.E.O.’s Grave Warning: A.I. Will “Test Us as a Species”
• Inside the White House Screening for Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Doc
• App for Quitting Porn Leaked Users’ Masturbation Habits
• Alaska Student Arrested After Eating A.I.-Generated Art in Protest
• Steak ’n Shake Adds $5 Million in Bitcoin Exposure, Deepening Bitcoin Commitment
• SpaceX Weighs June I.P.O. Timed to Planetary Alignment and Elon Musk’s Birthday
• LinkedIn Will Let You Show Off Your Vibe Coding Expertise

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the wild frontier of tech.

What’s real? What’s hype? “Hard Fork” is here to help you make sense of it. Tune in every Friday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.