Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

The Online Date That's Too Good to be True

Single and looking for love, Dr Robert Epstein found himself chatting with a slim, attractive brunette online. She seemed perfect... perhaps even too good to be true.  Dr Epstein is an expert on artificial conversation - so surely he'd be the last person to fall for a computer? Chatbots fool us more often than we think... especially when they replicate our very worst conversational habits.   To read more on this topic try Brian Christian’s “The Most Human Human”. For a full list of sources go to <a href="https://timharford.com/">timharford.com</a>.  See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of “The Data Detective”) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser. New episodes every other Friday.