The Secret Life of Tech

In 2015, the toy company, Mattel, partnered with ToyTalk, a technology company that specialized in conversational AI, to release a special edition Barbie doll called, Hello Barbie.

Hello Barbie was WIFI enabled “smart toy” that incorporated speech recognition and artificial intelligence to engage in interactive conversations with children. Hello Barbie listened to what children said and responded accordingly, providing, what the c...

On today’s show, Eric Anctil talks with Ricky, a young professional working as an engineer who had a much cooler and better paying job than almost anyone else at his age. Ricky followed the capitalist maxim of “buy low/sell high” and he did exactly that. At his high-point, Ricky was selling more than $70,000 a year of collectable and high-end fashion wear, and netting about $50,000 profit. Clothes and shoes made popular by rappers ...

Today's show is the first of an ongoing theme we will be exploring on The Secret Life of Tech, which is coming-of-age stories and experiences from people who truly "came of age" online or because of (and with) technology.

First up is Marigold, a 22-year-old woman who shares her experiences exploring the internet with her first smartphone, her iPad, an iPod touch, and the family computer. Our conversation takes us fro...

Have you ever wondered just how illegal drugs make their way from wherever they’re produced in the world into the hands of ordinary people in the United States? If you haven’t, let’s considerate it together and let’s consider what fascinates me the most in all of it which is how drug dealers use technology in every stage of the drug selling process and how technology on a broad scale has made the illegal drug trade an international...

On today's show, AI speaks for itself as host Eric Anctil interviews "Sky", OpenAI's ChatGPT Chatbot about a variety of topics including: what it thinks about this show and its premise; how it "feels" being compared to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey; how it "thinks" but doesn't have emotions or human experiences; what it's like to be an expert in all things humankind, but not know ...

Hello humans, I’m Eric Anctil, professor of media and technology, and host of The Secret Life of Tech.  Join me each week as I explore the hidden ways technology is changing how we humans work, live, love, and even hate.  

You’ll hear stories about people who came of age online, the secret lives they led, and how those experiences shaped their very identity and what it means to grow up in the modern world. &...