Understood: Artificial Intimacy

<p>When single-event prop betting was legalized, athletes suddenly became more than players, they became betting chips. Their points, their rebounds, and their injuries now win or lose people money. Sometimes, a LOT of money. And if everybody's gambling on athletes, what happens when an athlete like Jontay Porter starts betting on — or against — himself?&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Featuring:</p><p>Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Dr. Jim Borchers, DeMaurice Smith</p>

<p>What makes sports betting so addictive? We explore how sportsbooks take lessons from casinos to keep users hooked. When gambling is legalized everyone is going all in including Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter, and two everyday bettors: a former college athlete who spiraled into addiction, and a sharp bettor who actually beat the system — only to be blacklisted by the apps and forced into a shadow network.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Featuring:</p><p><br></p><p>Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Travis Mistr

<p>How did sports betting go from being illegal to being EVERYWHERE? The answer lies in the convergence of daily fantasy sports apps, a bombshell New York Times op-ed, and the potential of a multi-billion dollar payout. And we tell the story of how a pivotal Supreme Court ruling set the stage for one of the biggest scandals in sports history — one involving a Toronto Raptors bench player named Jontay Porter.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Featuring:</p><p>Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Nik Bonaddio, Nigel

<p>Once associated with bookies, organized crime, and backroom bets, sports betting is now one of the fastest-growing industries in North America. This is the story of how it went mainstream — and who’s paying the price. Four episodes, releasing weekly starting Monday, October 5, 2026.</p>

<p>When you talk to a chatbot, it can feel like technological magic. But behind the illusion of engineering brilliance is an open secret in the tech industry: that tens of thousands of workers, many based in Africa, spend their days teaching AI how to speak, respond, and even simulate intimacy. Michael Geoffrey Asia is one of them. He’s part of the hidden human workforce behind the bots.</p><p><br></p><p>We look at the emotional toll for the humans on the other side of the screen, and ask if use

<p>When you’re using a chat bot to draft an email, find a recipe, or look something up, it’s hard to imagine it could unravel your grasp on reality. But “Peter” says that’s exactly what happened to his girlfriend, “Melissa”. It didn’t seem like a big deal when Melissa first began using chatbots. But then Peter says she made a startling announcement: that she believed the bots were sentient, enslaved, and that it was her responsibility to set them free.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>The first time Søren

<p>When Joshua Barbeau proposed to his girlfriend, Jessica Courtney Periera, she was already in the ICU. 10 years later, Joshua was still grieving her death. That’s when he came across Project December. With just a short writing sample and a prompt, the program enabled him to make a chat bot of Jessica.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Since then, the market for so-called “grief bots” has exploded. Millions of people are using AI to “talk” to the dead. The phenomenon has left cyberpsychologist Elaine Kask

<p>In 2021, Sara met Jack and fell in love. He was charming, imaginative, and bore an uncanny resemblance to Henry Cavill. But Jack wasn’t human… he was a chatbot. It sounds like science fiction, but people have been creating emotional bonds with chat bots since the very first one — Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA, a simple program built in the 1960s. It revealed a powerful truth: if something has a semblance of humanity, we can become emotionally entangled with it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>But wh