Episode

What AI can and can't do for you (for now)

Podcast: Marketplace Tech
Published: May 12, 2026
Duration seconds: 404
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Canonical source: https://www.marketplace.org/episode/2026/05/12/what-ai-can-and-cant-do-for-you-for-now
Audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/marketplace/tech_report/2026/05/12/tech_20260512_0512_MP_TECH_pod_128.mp3?awCollectionId=mkp-MKPtech&awEpisodeId=01KR4BFABYK6G9N5DZ85CD70H6
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Markdown: /podcast/marketplace-tech-318132/what-ai-can-and-can-t-do-for-you-for-now.md

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Summary

Imagine if you invited robots - smart ones or “smart-ish,” at least - into every aspect of your life. Your emails and texts are all composed by an AI, the bots look at a photo of what’s in your fridge and figure out what you can make for dinner. They even become emotional support, providing advice and sometimes companionship. Journalist and founder of media company New Things, Joanna Stern, decided to try this and she wrote about it in her new book “I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI To Do Almost Everything.” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Stern about how AI did and didn’t help her and ultimately what she sacrificed by inviting AI into her life.