Why Cute Mascots Are the New Faces of AI
WSJ Tech News Briefing

Why Cute Mascots Are the New Faces of AI

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 8, 202610 min
  • Technology

Along with new AI agents and tools, Meta Platforms, OpenAI, and Anthropic are rolling out mascots. It’s part of an effort to put a cuddlier face on AI tools amid the rise in anxieties about the technology. WSJ advertising editor Suzanne Vranica joins to discuss how fuzzy little guys could help make the technology feel less scary to skeptics. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 2 of 12 · 0:10

Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Thursday, October 8th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal.

.

possibly killing us all in the not-too-distant future, AI is becoming scary to a lot of people.

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:10
  • C10:48
  • B22:12
  • B24:23
  • B25:56
  • B26:16
  • B27:31
  • C19:03

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 35%A2 38%B1 14%B2 11%C1 1%
  • 88% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 175 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 45 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Thursday, October 8th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. Anxiety around AI is ramping up. From potential widespread job losses to the technology possibly killing us all in the not-too-distant future, AI is becoming scary to a lot of people. And that has many in the tech industry asking the same question. Will people like AI more

0:27

If it's cute, we seem to have rapidly entered the era of the stuffed animalification of AI. There's Meta's Muse Assistant, which looks like a furry toy Yeti. My Muse's name is Lizzie. Joey.

0:38

Chippy. Boba. Pee-key. Grumpy.

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (9 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy