Humans encounter non-human intelligences of various kinds and try to make sense of them. Prologue: Ira has some thoughts about our country’s long history of alien invasion movies. (2 minutes) First Contact: We’ve witnessed a revolution in A.I. since the public rollout of ChatGPT. Our Senior Editor David Kestenbaum thinks that even though there’s been a ton of coverage, there’s one thing people haven’t talked much about: have these machines gotten to the point that they’re starting to have something like human intelligence? Where they actually understand language and concepts, and can reason? He talks with scientists at Microsoft who’ve been trying to figure that out. (30 minutes) Meat Cute: A short piece of fiction from the perspective of aliens who’ve been scouting Earth, from writer Terry Bisson. It’s called “They're Made Out of Meat.” It’s performed by actors Maeve Higgins and H Jon Benjamin. (5 minutes) More information about Terry Bisson on his website. His latest novel is Any Day Now. Maeve Higgins’ comedy album is A Very Special Woman. H Jon Benjamin plays the title characters in the TV shows Bob’s Burgers and Archer. He is also the Jazz Daredevil on Sub Pop Records. Yacht Rocked: A species of massive, mysterious, highly intelligent beings have recently been making contact with humanity. Or our boats, anyway. Many people seem convinced they are seeking revenge for past injustices. Producer Chris Benderev wondered if that was true. (7 minutes) April Boyes documents her sailing on her blog, Beyond The Boyes. Jorts and All: Many of us, especially when we’re young, feel like we’re the alien, trying to understand and fit in with the humans on this planet. Producer Diane Wu spent some time recently with a teenage humanoid who feels that way. (15 minutes)
A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, this americanlife.org even if you haven't seen this.
Movie, it feels like you've seen this movie.
Flying saucer lands on Earth.
Huge crowd gathers around, scared but excited.
Their parents with kids.
Also the army couple, tanks, soldiers pointing guns at the door of the spaceship, which is closed.
And then it opens.
Slowly.
A figure emerges, steps forward and speaks.
We have come to visit you in.
Peace and with goodwill.
The crowd looks uneasy.
Soldiers raise their guns higher.
Is he really telling the truth?
Aliens come to Earth may be squarely divided off into two camps.
They're the ones where they want to be our friends.
That's Close Encounters.
That's ET Arrival.