Live with Kara Swisher

October 10, 2024 • by Marc Airhart

The award-winning author of “Burn Book” shares her perspectives on artificial intelligence, social media, big tech and government regulation.

Portrait of a woman wearing a business jacket and smiling

Kara Swisher. Photo credit: © Philip Montgomery / New York Magazine.


Kara Swisher, the one-of-a-kind tech reporter, podcaster and book author, dropped by The University of Texas at Austin’s Cactus Café for a spirited conversation with a live audience about her concerns over the concentration of power in a few big tech companies, the capacity of tech to be used as both a tool and a weapon, her embrace of self-driving cars and her belief that AI will never replace human creativity. 

Swisher is the host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher and the cohost of the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York magazine. Her latest best-seller is Burn Book, a memoir of her many years covering Silicon Valley.

A post by Kara Swisher on social media platform Threads that shows two photos from a live event and a comment that reads "Packed gang at UT Austin at the Cactus Cafe to talk Burn Book and AI. Great questions!

Dig Deeper

The Hammer of Witches, Wikipedia

Is it Time to Regulate AI?, AI for the Rest of Us (Sep. 12, 2024)

Episode Credits

Our co-hosts are Marc Airhart, science writer and podcaster in the College of Natural Sciences and Casey Boyle, associate professor of rhetoric and director of UT’s Digital Writing & Research Lab.

Executive producers are Christine Sinatra and Dan Oppenheimer. 

Sound design and audio editing by Robert Scaramuccia. Theme music is by Aiolos Rue. Interviews are recorded at the Liberal Arts ITS recording studio.

The cover photo of Kara Swisher for this episode is © Philip Montgomery / New York Magazine.

A man and a woman sit in armchairs on a stage and speak into handheld microphones

Casey Boyle (left), professor of rhetoric and writing at The University of Texas at Austin, interviews tech reporter Kara Swisher. Photo courtesy of Dan Oppenheimer.

About AI for the Rest of Us

AI for the Rest of Us is a joint production of The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Sciences and College of Liberal Arts. This podcast is part of the University’s Year of AI initiative. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, RSS, or anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also listen on the web at aifortherest.net. Have questions or comments? Contact: mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu 

Share


Two people look at a wall emblazoned with the words "AI for the rest of us"

Podcast

AI for the Rest of Us

Three speakers at a panel discussion

Podcast

Live Show: AI + Energy