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  "description": "A surreal but compelling LLM experiment with Age of Empires II; how a Texas city sold land meant for a park to a data center company; and the Madison Square Garden hack.",
  "path": "/podcast-if-ai-is-sentient-then-so-is-age-of-empires-ii/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-24T13:03:21.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.404media.co",
  "tags": [
    "Apple Podcasts",
    "Spotify",
    "YouTube",
    "⁠If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’⁠",
    "⁠A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Massive Data Center Instead⁠",
    "⁠Hackers Publish Knicks and Madison Square Garden Data Online⁠",
    "⁠Madison Square Garden Made Dossier on Activists Who Opposed Facial Recognition⁠"
  ],
  "textContent": "We start this week with Matthew’s story about a fascinating paper that argues if LLMs are sentient, then by those metrics so is the classic game Age of Empires II. After the break, Matthew tells us about a wild story out of Texas with a data center being built on land that was donated to be a park. In the subscribers-only section, we talk hacking and basketball.\n\nListen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts_,_**** Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. **If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.**\n\n  * ⁠If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’⁠\n  * ⁠A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Massive Data Center Instead⁠\n  * ⁠Hackers Publish Knicks and Madison Square Garden Data Online⁠\n  * ⁠Madison Square Garden Made Dossier on Activists Who Opposed Facial Recognition⁠\n\n",
  "title": "Podcast: If AI Is Sentient Then So Is 'Age of Empires II'",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-26T16:01:12.834Z"
}