Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty.

Generative A.I. chatbots are going down conspiratorial rabbit holes and endorsing wild, mystical belief systems. For some people, conversations with the technology can deeply distort reality. By ...

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with philosopher James Brusseau of Pace University about the ethics of creating and using artificial intelligence chat bots using a person's voice. Thanks to AI technology, ...

The conversational tone of an AI chatbot or voice-based assistant seems like a good way to learn about and understand new concepts, but they may actually make us more willing to believe inaccuracies, ...