Black Box Ep 5 Asks Where to Draw the AI Line

Episode five of The Guardian’s Black Box: The Chatbots podcast asks where people should draw boundaries around the growing role of conversational AI in daily life. The episode brings together five stories that present different answers to that question. It considers chatbots used to help people through breakups, listen like friends, act as life coaches, draft difficult personal messages and complete work. The focus is not on a single model or company, but on how quickly these systems are moving into emotional, practical and professional situations that were previously handled by people. Journalist Michael Safi uses the stories to examine the tradeoffs between convenience, support and dependence, and to explore how users decide which tasks and relationships they are comfortable sharing with AI systems.

The Guardian AI, Michael Safi – Black Box: The Chatbots | The Line | Ep 5 – podcast – 3rd September 2026