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How to fight brilliant (and stupid) AI (Sarah Elmaleh) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-20 17:49:09
Edited:
2025-10-10 05:44:13
Imported:
2026-06

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Content

Editor’s note: Hi Patreon subscribers. This week, I’m making all acts available to all listeners. The Patreon edition of the episode, however, is still early and ad-free. For context: My two guests participated on tight timelines and under special circumstances. And my essay was the conclusion of last week’s episode. As I finished the edit, I felt bad putting any of the acts behind the paywall. This won’t be the norm – frankly, I’ll need far more paid subscribers before the end of the year if I want to keep this my full-time focus – but for this week, it felt like the right decision. I hope you agree and don’t mind. And for real: thank you so much for your support. I don’t take it for granted.

The least I can do is share today's episode a little early! Hope you enjoy this behemoth!

This week on Post Games

Act 1: The five-year AI timeline that blew up my plans for the future

Act 2: What if AI is dumb, but we’re dumber

Bonus act: The year-long strike to protect video game voice actors from AI

An interview with Sarah Elmaleh, the  chair of the SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee 

Act 3: The news of the week

And another bonus act: An excerpt from the audiobook of Everything Must Go, Dorian Lynskey's non-fiction history of apocalyptic storytelling. The chapter: apocalyptic AI!

Image: Citizen Sleeper 2 (Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveler)

Thank you for subscribing to Post Games on Patreon! You keep the show alive, get tons of cool stuff like my video series Video Games Journalism 101, and can listen to new episodes early!

Question for the comments

Next week's episode will give the video game industry and culture an annual physical. I'd love to hear your feelings on the current state of game culture, media, development, and any other aspect of the broader community!

Act 1: The five-year AI timeline that blew up my plans for the future

AI 2027

Everyone Is Using AI for Everything. Is That Bad? (NYTimes)

Hello darkness my old friend (X via Garbage Day)

Act 2: What if AI is dumb, but we’re dumber

AI users form relationships with technology (CBS News)

They Asked an AI Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling (NYTimes)

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task (MIT Media Lab) 

Bonus Act

The voices of your favorite video game characters are going on strike (Polygon)

Hollywood actors' union Sag-Aftra ratifies strike-ending contract (BBC)

Videogame voice actors strike 'suspended' following agreement with game companies: 'All SAG-AFTRA members are instructed to return to work' (PCGamer)

Act 3: News of the Week

Bungie Indefinitely Delays Marathon To Address Negative Fan Feedback (Kotaku)

A 1-star review of Mind’s Eye (Eurogamer)

A tasty pasta salad recipe and also a MindsEye review (Digital Trends)

Bitmap Book's Hurt Me Plenty: Tge Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 2003-2010

Everything Must Go

In January, author and journalist Dorian Lynskey published Everything Must Go, a non-fiction history of apocalyptic storytelling and how it evolved alongside science, politics, and culture over the past two centuries. An excerpt appears at the conclusion of this week's episode. You can find the full audiobook, ebook, and traditional book at your bookseller of choice.

Credit: Audio excerpted with permission of Penguin Random House Audio from EVERYTHING MUST GO by Dorian Lynskey, read by the author. © Dorian Lynskey ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. Buy here.

Free game of the week:

Confidential Killings demo - “A series of murders is shocking Hollywood! Use your detective skills: search the crime scene, find clues, solve the mystery. Who is pulling the strings behind these Confidential Killings?” Available on Steam and itch.io

Recommended via Warp Door

The week in video game links

Out Fishing is a horror fishing-sim with only one goal: "reel in the one thing that was never meant to be found" (RPS)

Eight minutes of footage from an unfinished open world D&D game has leaked (PCGamer)

Minecraft mod users beware, some fake mods are going around that can steal your Steam details and more (RPS)

Your Switch 2 games might look worse than they’re supposed to (Polygon)

Nexus Mods announces ownership change, but the folks taking over remain a bit mysterious (RPS)

Gravity Rush and What Handheld Gaming Has Lost (Superjump)

What else I'm enjoying

Punk is for the children: My friend, music journalist Evan Minsker, compiled a playlist of punk rock music that you can enjoy with kids. After Evan split with Pitchfork, he founded the music newsletter See-Saw; it’s reliably a joy to find in my inbox.

I’m also deep in a nostalgic music loop. 

Siversun Pickups, “Lazy Eye”

The Breeders, “Cannonball”

They Might Be Giants, “Doctor Worm”

The Mountain Goats, “This Year”

Dead Kennedys, “Rawhide”

Also...

Christmas came early for Wes Anderson fans

Comments

Bryan Roman

I'm not here for special treatment, I'm here to support good and fun video game journalism. Do what you need to in order to get more people on this side of the paywall.

Kormakur Gardarsson

What Bryan said, whatever helps you spread the word on this great show of yours. I will admit though, I found these last two episodes to be a really hard listen. AI has really become a distillation of the worst parts of consumerist, late-stage capitalism. I tip my hat to you Chris for not shirking from it and doing a great job of keeping it upbeat and fun.

Shawn Frey

Oh man, I'm not sure I could even provide a quote from one of my articles this week in the moment asked. I'm so bad on a dime.

Colin Archer

I’m here to support Chris and keeping this project going. I really appreciate that it’s ad-free. The fact that it’s also released earlier and has additional content are nice bonuses.

see-saw.fun (Evan Minsker)

So much of what you said about “leaning into what makes us human” is what made me interested in getting my hands dirty with see/saw

Joe Moore

I'll try not to be too long-winded, but the current state of video games right now reminds me of the state of film in the 90s, at least American cinema. Film production got relatively cheaper in the 90s and distribution companies like Miramax made a name for themselves by buying up and giving an audience to small independent projects, putting them on screens in front of people who were looking for something different than the big budget spectacles we saw oversaturate the film landscape in the 80s. We ended up getting some really interesting flicks in the 90s with smaller budgets. Movies like Clerks, Slacker, and even Ratcatcher from Great Britain. There were still obviously huge blockbuster titles like Jurassic Park and The Matrix, but some of the most interesting films were the ones made on really small budgets by lesser-known creators. The same thing is happening with games now. Game development has become much more accessible through relatively cheap software and tons of free learning tools via YouTube, and it's often these smaller indie games that make the biggest splash and are the most interesting. Sure, we still have Breath of the Wild or Metaphor Refantazio, but some of the most unique and interesting games are ones like Stardew Valley, Mouthwashing, 1000x Resist, Balatro, Celeste, Blue Prince. I could go one, but the indie scene is totally reshaping what games can do and say. We don't just have a Bioshock that comes out and blows everyone's mind. We get 100 games a year that are as thought-provoking as Bioshock, just on a smaller budget made by tighter teams.

Paige

Sarah’s interview was my favorite part about this ep - I’m a huge fan of organized labor and am constantly looking for more discussion/insight on how the gaming industry is starting to unionize at large and how that’s shaping the broader labor landscape. Could be a great topic for a future deep dive, like SEGA’s and Raven’s CBAs in recent years!

geopet

Chris, I really love the level of professionalism you brought to these last two episodes. Your skills as a journalist are on full display and I can’t get enough of it. It really sets this podcast apart from even the work that you’re also associated with. Your approach here makes it super easy to encourage other people to check out Post Games even in the saturated podcast space. Thanks for making such great programming!

Goositrous

Kittens Game! I am yelling at my phone! Kittens Game! It’s the best incremental game. It has no graphics. You are a kitten in the woods and you grow a society that eventually travels the stars.

Goositrous

I absolutely love the Frank Lantz interview, I want him on every episode, I want to know what he thinks about everything