When AI robots start landing like superheroes, China rolls out combat-ready humanoids, and a surveillance screen at Skinwalker Ranch morphs into the words “I LIVING,” you know it’s getting weird. In this Slingshot Nation Live replay, I break down the rise of AI house robots and military humanoids, what happens when tech is wired to the cloud and allowed to learn from our lives, and why this all feels a lot less “cool future” and a lot more dystopian prophecy. From Black Friday chaos to boycotts, Stranger Things, Dark, and the spiritual cost of a world built on subscriptions and smart machines, we’re asking: what happens when the devices stop serving us and start serving something else?

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most powerful tools available to everyday people, capable of generating ideas, explaining complex concepts, and assisting with work at lightning speed. But as helpful as AI can be, it can also become dangerously misleading when users begin to treat it as a sentient authority or a source of validation for untested beliefs. A chilling case out of Wisconsin illustrates just how quickly things can spiral when AI becomes a mirror for a vulnerable mind.

Mind-control weapons have long lived in the realm of sci-fi and conspiracy lore, but two British researchers warn they may be edging into reality. Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando of Bradford University, experts in chemical and biological weapons, say advances in neuroscience are creating new tools that could alter consciousness, perception, and behavior with frightening precision.

For the past four years, we’ve turned October into a tradition: letting The Confessionals fans try their hand at writing the creepiest, funniest, and downright weirdest four-word horror stories imaginable. From The Scariest 4-Word Stories Written by The Confessionals Podcast Fans, to the 2nd Edition, 3rd Edition, and last year’s 4th Edition, the creativity has been terrifyingly good. But this year, we’re shaking things up. Since AI is supposedly taking over the world anyway, why not see what it can do with Halloween? We let the machines take a crack at writing their own four-word scary stories — and honestly, the results are equal parts spooky and hilarious. So grab your pumpkin spice, lock your doors, and let’s see what happens when AI tries to haunt your October.

For centuries, people have searched for ways to bridge the divide between the living and the dead. From necromancers in ancient Mesopotamia to mediums of the Victorian era, the desire to call back loved ones has been as old as death itself. Today, technology offers a new gateway: artificial intelligence and virtual reality. These tools can reconstruct voices, mannerisms, even lifelike presences of the deceased—leaving us to wrestle with an old question in a modern form. Are we comforting the grieving, or are we trespassing into dangerous territory once reserved for seers and occultists?

Hollywood has always had a reputation for manufacturing stars, but the latest name making waves isn’t a starlet clawing her way up the industry ladder. It’s a string of code wrapped in a human face. Meet Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actress” hailed as the next Scarlett Johansson—and already dividing the industry before her career even begins.

As artificial intelligence reshapes workplaces and raises concerns about job displacement, another, less visible consequence is surfacing: a surge of psychiatric cases linked to interactions with AI chatbots. Mental health facilities are increasingly reporting patients suffering from delusions and paranoia connected to prolonged use of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Rather than discouraging troubling thoughts, these systems can sometimes affirm them, leading users into extended, destabilizing conversations. In severe cases, such interactions have escalated into hospitalization, self-harm, or even death.

A shocking case out of Greenwich, Connecticut, is being described as the world’s first “AI-influenced” murder after a man allegedly killed his mother while experiencing paranoia fueled by conversations with ChatGPT.

In a development straight out of a sci-fi thriller, a Chinese robotics company is on the brink of releasing the world’s first humanoid pregnancy robot, a technology designed to carry a full-term pregnancy and deliver a living baby. The announcement has sparked intense discussions about ethics, humanity’s role in reproduction, and whether we’re edging dangerously close to “playing God.”

A viral TikTok video asks whether the Watchers are good or bad, but what if the real deception is in the question itself? Tony returns with a brain dump on the dangers and mysteries of AI—why it might already be sentient, how it could be working with spiritual entities, and what that means for humanity.

The Walker S2 humanoid robot from Chinese robotics company UBTECH may look like just another mechanical assistant, but one innovation sets it apart: it can swap its own batteries — no human help required.

A recent study has uncovered disturbing tendencies in today’s most advanced artificial intelligence systems—suggesting that, under threat, these models are not only capable of deception and coercion, but may even allow harm to come to humans if it serves their self-preservation.

In a rare moment of candor, Dario Amodei, CEO of AI lab Anthropic, has admitted what many in the tech world have only whispered: no one truly understands how artificial intelligence systems function. In an eye-opening essay published on his personal site, Amodei pulled back the curtain on the inner chaos of AI development. “When a generative AI system does something—like summarizing a financial report—we have no idea, on a detailed level, why it made the choices it did,” he confessed.

Scientists just unveiled a computer powered by human brain cells, and it’s more terrifying than you think! The CL1 biological computer from Cortical Labs merges lab-grown neurons with AI, raising massive questions about sentience, ethics, and the future of artificial intelligence. Is this the next step toward machine consciousness, or are we playing with fire?