The ghosts haunting AI storytelling

This Halloween, Thomas Germain and Jessica Maddox go ghost hunting inside the AI tools and social media we use every day.

Ask any AI assistant to tell you a story - there's a good chance it’ll be about a lighthouse keeper called Elias. Tom explains a Cornell study that found AI models from different companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and China’s biggest labs, kept returning to the same handful of words and names when asked for a story, and nobody can say for sure why. Jess tells us what happens when student essays sound suspiciously alike, and the pair ask what it means for human creativity if AI and our own writing start to blur together.

Then it’s off to TikTok for the creepy “if you’re seeing this, it was meant for you” videos. Jess explains “algorithmic conspirituality,” the idea that your 'For You' page knows you better than you know yourself, and why researchers say this thinking is more common than you might expect. Tom explains how the algorithm really works, and why a video that seems to predict the date it finds you isn’t magic. The pair also look at why anxious times seem to make us more superstitious, and why believing the machines are mystical could be dangerous path.

The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalist Thomas Germain and “professor of the internet” Jessica Maddox, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No jargon. Just two sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.

New episodes drop every Wednesday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”). To get in touch with the team: [email protected]

The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Becca Bryers Executive Producer: Joe Kent