Episodi

  • Suicides. Self harm. Depression and anxiety. The toll of a social media-addicted, phone-based childhood has never been more stark. It can be easy for teens, parents and schools to feel like they’re trapped by it all. But in this conversation with Tristan Harris, author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt makes the case that the conditions that led to today’s teenage mental health crisis can be turned around – with specific, achievable actions we all can take starting today.

    This episode was recorded live at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club.

    Correction: Tristan mentions that 40 Attorneys General have filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly fostering addiction among children and teens through their products. However, the actual number is 42 Attorneys General who are taking legal action against Meta.

    Clarification: Jonathan refers to the Wait Until 8th pledge. By signing the pledge, a parent promises not to give their child a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. The pledge becomes active once at least ten other families from their child’s grade pledge the same.

  • Beneath the race to train and release more powerful AI models lies another race: a race by companies and nation-states to secure the hardware to make sure they win AI supremacy.

    Correction: The latest available Nvidia chip is the Hopper H100 GPU, which has 80 billion transistors. Since the first commercially available chip had four transistors, the Hopper actually has 20 billion times that number. Nvidia recently announced the Blackwell, which boasts 208 billion transistors - but it won’t ship until later this year.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Chip War: The Fight For the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

    To make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips

    Gordon Moore Biography & Facts

    Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder behind Moore's Law, passed away in March of 2023

    AI’s most popular chipmaker Nvidia is trying to use AI to design chips faster

    Nvidia's GPUs are in high demand - and the company is using AI to accelerate chip production

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    Future-proofing Democracy In the Age of AI with Audrey Tang

    How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections? with Renee DiResta and Carl Miller

    The AI ‘Race’: China vs. the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao

    Protecting Our Freedom of Thought with Nita Farahany

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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  • What does a functioning democracy look like in the age of artificial intelligence? Could AI even be used to help a democracy flourish? Just in time for election season, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang returns to the podcast to discuss healthy information ecosystems, resilience to cyberattacks, how to “prebunk” deepfakes, and more.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page

    This academic paper addresses tough questions for Americans: Who governs? Who really rules?

    Recursive Public

    Recursive Public is an experiment in identifying areas of consensus and disagreement among the international AI community, policymakers, and the general public on key questions of governance

    A Strong Democracy is a Digital Democracy

    Audrey Tang’s 2019 op-ed for The New York Times

    The Frontiers of Digital Democracy

    Nathan Gardels interviews Audrey Tang in Noema

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    Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

    The Tech We Need for 21st Century Democracy with Divya Siddarth

    How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections? with Renee DiResta and Carl Miller

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • Was it political progress, or just political theater? The recent Senate hearing with social media CEOs led to astonishing moments — including Mark Zuckerberg’s public apology to families who lost children following social media abuse. Our panel of experts, including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, untangles the explosive hearing, and offers a look ahead, as well. How will this hearing impact protocol within these social media companies? How will it impact legislation? In short: will anything change?

    Clarification: Julie says that shortly after the hearing, Meta’s stock price had the biggest increase of any company in the stock market’s history. It was the biggest one-day gain by any company in Wall Street history.

    Correction: Frances says it takes Snap three or four minutes to take down exploitative content. In Snap's most recent transparency report, they list six minutes as the median turnaround time to remove exploitative content.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Get Media Savvy

    Founded by Julie Scelfo, Get Media Savvy is a non-profit initiative working to establish a healthy media environment for kids and families

    The Power of One by Frances Haugen

    The inside story of France’s quest to bring transparency and accountability to Big Tech

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    Real Social Media Solutions, Now with Frances Haugen

    A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

    Are the Kids Alright?

    Social Media Victims Lawyer Up with Laura Marquez-Garrett

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • Over the past year, a tsunami of apps that digitally strip the clothes off real people has hit the market. Now anyone can create fake non-consensual sexual images in just a few clicks. With cases proliferating in high schools, guest presenter Laurie Segall talks to legal scholar Mary Anne Franks about the AI-enabled rise in deep fake porn and what we can do about it.

    Correction: Laurie refers to the app 'Clothes Off.' It’s actually named Clothoff. There are many clothes remover apps in this category.

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    Revenge Porn: The Cyberwar Against Women

    In a five-part digital series, Laurie Segall uncovers a disturbing internet trend: the rise of revenge porn

    The Cult of the Constitution

    In this provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism

    Fake Explicit Taylor Swift Images Swamp Social Media

    Calls to protect women and crack down on the platforms and technology that spread such images have been reignited

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    No One is Immune to AI Harms

    Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

    Social Media Victims Lawyer Up

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • We usually talk about tech in terms of economics or policy, but the casual language tech leaders often use to describe AI — summoning an inanimate force with the powers of code — sounds more... magical. So, what can myth and magic teach us about the AI race? Josh Schrei, mythologist and host of The Emerald podcast, says that foundational cultural tales like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" or Prometheus teach us the importance of initiation, responsibility, human knowledge, and care. He argues these stories and myths can guide ethical tech development by reminding us what it is to be human.

    Correction: Josh says the first telling of "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" myth dates back to ancient Egypt, but it actually dates back to ancient Greece.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    The Emerald podcast

    The Emerald explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination

    Embodied Ethics in The Age of AI

    A five-part course with The Emerald podcast’s Josh Schrei and School of Wise Innovation’s Andrew Dunn

    Nature Nurture: Children Can Become Stewards of Our Delicate Planet

    A U.S. Department of the Interior study found that the average American kid can identify hundreds of corporate logos but not plants and animals

    The New Fire

    AI is revolutionizing the world - here's how democracies can come out on top. This upcoming book was authored by an architect of President Biden's AI executive order

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    How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections?

    The AI Dilemma

    The Three Rules of Humane Tech

    AI Myths and Misconceptions

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • 2024 will be the biggest election year in world history. Forty countries will hold national elections, with over two billion voters heading to the polls. In this episode of Your Undivided Attention, two experts give us a situation report on how AI will increase the risks to our elections and our democracies.

    Correction: Tristan says two billion people from 70 countries will be undergoing democratic elections in 2024. The number expands to 70 when non-national elections are factored in.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    White House AI Executive Order Takes On Complexity of Content Integrity Issues
    Renee DiResta’s piece in Tech Policy Press about content integrity within President Biden’s AI executive order

    The Stanford Internet Observatory
    A cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies, with a focus on social media

    Demos

    Britain’s leading cross-party think tank

    Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality by Renee DiResta

    Pre-order Renee’s upcoming book that’s landing on shelves June 11, 2024

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    The Spin Doctors Are In with Renee DiResta

    From Russia with Likes Part 1 with Renee DiResta

    From Russia with Likes Part 2 with Renee DiResta

    Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

    The AI Dilemma

    A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • You asked, we answered. This has been a big year in the world of tech, with the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence, acceleration of neurotechnology, and continued ethical missteps of social media. Looking back on 2023, there are still so many questions on our minds, and we know you have a lot of questions too. So we created this episode to respond to listener questions and to reflect on what lies ahead.

    Correction: Tristan mentions that 41 Attorneys General have filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly fostering addiction among children and teens through their products. However, the actual number is 42 Attorneys General who are taking legal action against Meta.

    Correction: Tristan refers to Casey Mock as the Center for Humane Technology’s Chief Policy and Public Affairs Manager. His title is Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Tech Policy Watch

    Marietje Schaake curates this briefing on artificial intelligence and technology policy from around the world

    The AI Executive Order

    President Biden’s executive order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of AI

    Meta sued by 42 AGs for addictive features targeting kids

    A bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general is suing Meta, alleging features on Facebook and Instagram are addictive and are aimed at kids and teens

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    The Three Rules of Humane Tech

    Two Million Years in Two Hours: A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari

    Inside the First AI Insight Forum in Washington

    Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

    The Tech We Need for 21st Century Democracy with Divya Siddarth

    Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone

    The AI Dilemma

    Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake

    Ask Us Anything: You Asked, We Answered

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • As AI development races forward, a fierce debate has emerged over open source AI models. So what does it mean to open-source AI? Are we opening Pandora’s box of catastrophic risks? Or is open-sourcing AI the only way we can democratize its benefits and dilute the power of big tech?

    Correction: When discussing the large language model Bloom, Elizabeth said it functions in 26 different languages. Bloom is actually able to generate text in 46 natural languages and 13 programming languages - and more are in the works.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Open-Sourcing Highly Capable Foundation Models

    This report, co-authored by Elizabeth Seger, attempts to clarify open-source terminology and to offer a thorough analysis of risks and benefits from open-sourcing AI

    BadLlama: cheaply removing safety fine-tuning from Llama 2-Chat 13B

    This paper, co-authored by Jeffrey Ladish, demonstrates that it’s possible to effectively undo the safety fine-tuning from Llama 2-Chat 13B with less than $200 while retaining its general capabilities

    Centre for the Governance of AI

    Supports governments, technology companies, and other key institutions by producing relevant research and guidance around how to respond to the challenges posed by AI

    AI: Futures and Responsibility (AI:FAR)

    Aims to shape the long-term impacts of AI in ways that are safe and beneficial for humanity

    Palisade Research

    Studies the offensive capabilities of AI systems today to better understand the risk of losing control to AI systems forever

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    A First Step Toward AI Regulation with Tom Wheeler

    No One is Immune to AI Harms with Dr. Joy Buolamwini

    Mustafa Suleyman Says We Need to Contain AI. How Do We Do It?

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • On Monday, Oct. 30, President Biden released a sweeping executive order that addresses many risks of artificial intelligence. Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, shares his insights on the order with Tristan and Aza and discusses what’s next in the push toward AI regulation.

    Clarification: When quoting Thomas Jefferson, Aza incorrectly says “regime” instead of “regimen.” The correct quote is: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. And as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered, and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regime of their barbarous ancestors.”

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    The AI Executive Order

    President Biden’s Executive Order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of AI

    UK AI Safety Summit

    The summit brings together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups, and experts in research to consider the risks of AI and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action

    aitreaty.org

    An open letter calling for an international AI treaty

    Techlash: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?

    Praised by Kirkus Reviews as “a rock-solid plan for controlling the tech giants,” readers will be energized by Tom Wheeler’s vision of digital governance

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    Inside the First AI Insight Forum in Washington

    Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • In this interview, Dr. Joy Buolamwini argues that algorithmic bias in AI systems poses risks to marginalized people. She challenges the assumptions of tech leaders who advocate for AI “alignment” and explains why some tech companies are hypocritical when it comes to addressing bias.

    Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and the author of “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines.”

    Correction: Aza says that Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, predicts superintelligence in four years. Altman predicts superintelligence in ten years.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini

    “The conscience of the AI revolution” explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls

    Coded Bias

    Shalini Kantayya’s film explores the fallout of Dr. Joy’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all

    How I’m fighting bias in algorithms

    Dr. Joy’s 2016 TED Talk about her mission to fight bias in machine learning, a phenomenon she calls the "coded gaze."

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    Mustafa Suleyman Says We Need to Contain AI. How Do We Do It?

    Protecting Our Freedom of Thought with Nita Farahany

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • This is going to be the most productive decade in the history of our species, says Mustafa Suleyman, author of “The Coming Wave,” CEO of Inflection AI, and founder of Google’s DeepMind. But in order to truly reap the benefits of AI, we need to learn how to contain it. Paradoxically, part of that will mean collectively saying no to certain forms of progress. As an industry leader reckoning with a future that’s about to be ‘turbocharged’ Mustafa says we can all play a role in shaping the technology in hands-on ways and by advocating for appropriate governance.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma

    This new book from Mustafa Suleyman is a must-read guide to the technological revolution just starting, and the transformed world it will create

    Partnership on AI

    Partnership on AI is bringing together diverse voices from across the AI community to create resources for advancing positive outcomes for people and society

    Policy Reforms Toolkit from the Center for Humane Technology

    Digital lawlessness has been normalized in the name of innovation. It’s possible to craft policy that protects the conditions we need to thrive

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    AI Myths and Misconceptions

    Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake

    The AI Dilemma

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • Last week, Senator Chuck Schumer brought together Congress and many of the biggest names in AI for the first closed-door AI Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. Tristan and Aza were invited speakers at the event, along with Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, and other leaders. In this update on Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Aza recount how they felt the meeting went, what they communicated in their statements, and what it felt like to critique Meta’s LLM in front of Mark Zuckerberg.

    Correction: In this episode, Tristan says GPT-3 couldn’t find vulnerabilities in code. GPT-3 could find security vulnerabilities, but GPT-4 is exponentially better at it.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    In Show of Force, Silicon Valley Titans Pledge ‘Getting This Right’ With A.I.
    Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and others discussed artificial intelligence with lawmakers, as tech companies strive to influence potential regulations

    Majority Leader Schumer Opening Remarks For The Senate’s Inaugural AI Insight Forum
    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opened the Senate’s inaugural AI Insight Forum

    The Wisdom Gap
    As seen in Tristan’s talk on this subject in 2022, the scope and speed of our world’s issues are accelerating and growing more complex. And yet, our ability to comprehend those challenges and respond accordingly is not matching pace

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    Spotlight On AI: What Would It Take For This to Go Well?

    The AI ‘Race’: China vs. the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao

    Spotlight: Elon, Twitter and the Gladiator Arena

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • Where do the top Silicon Valley AI researchers really think AI is headed? Do they have a plan if things go wrong? In this episode, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin reflect on the last several months of highlighting AI risk, and share their insider takes on a high-level workshop run by CHT in Silicon Valley.

    NOTE: Tristan refers to journalist Maria Ressa and mentions that she received 80 hate messages per hour at one point. She actually received more than 90 messages an hour.

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    Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates: The titans of tech will talk AI at private Capitol summit

    This week will feature a series of public hearings on artificial intelligence. But all eyes will be on the closed-door gathering convened by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

    Takeaways from the roundtable with President Biden on artificial intelligence

    Tristan Harris talks about his recent meeting with President Biden to discuss regulating artificial intelligence

    Biden, Harris meet with CEOs about AI risks

    Vice President Kamala Harris met with the heads of Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI as the Biden administration rolled out initiatives meant to ensure that AI improves lives without putting people’s rights and safety at risk

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    The AI Dilemma

    The AI ‘Race’: China vs the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao

    The Dictator’s Playbook with Maria Ressa

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • In the debate over slowing down AI, we often hear the same argument against regulation. “What about China? We can’t let China get ahead.” To dig into the nuances of this argument, Tristan and Aza speak with academic researcher Jeffrey Ding and journalist Karen Hao, who take us through what’s really happening in Chinese AI development. They address China’s advantages and limitations, what risks are overblown, and what, in this multi-national competition, is at stake as we imagine the best possible future for everyone.

    CORRECTION: Jeffrey Ding says the export controls on advanced chips that were established in October 2022 only apply to military end-users. The controls also impose a license requirement on the export of those advanced chips to any China-based end-user.

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    Recent Trends in China’s Large Language Model Landscape by Jeffrey Ding and Jenny W. Xiao

    This study covers a sample of 26 large-scale pre-trained AI models developed in China

    The diffusion deficit in scientific and technological power: re-assessing China’s rise by Jeffrey Ding

    This paper argues for placing a greater weight on a state’s capacity to diffuse, or widely adopt, innovations

    The U.S. Is Turning Away From Its Biggest Scientific Partner at a Precarious Time by Karen Hao and Sha Hua

    U.S. moves to cut research ties with China over security concerns threaten American progress in critical areas

    Why China Has Not Caught Up Yet: Military-Technological Superiority and the Limits of Imitation, Reverse Engineering, and Cyber Espionage by Andrea Gilli and Mauro Gilli

    Military technology has grown so complex that it’s hard to imitate

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    The Three Rules of Humane Tech

    A Fresh Take on Tech in China with Rui Ma and Duncan Clark

    Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • For all the talk about AI, we rarely hear about how it will change our relationships. As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, acclaimed psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel warns that there’s another harmful “AI” on the rise — Artificial Intimacy — and how it is depriving us of real connection. Tristan and Esther discuss how depending on algorithms can fuel alienation, and then imagine how we might design technology to strengthen our social bonds.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel

    Esther's debut work on the intricacies behind modern relationships, and the dichotomy of domesticity and sexual desire

    The State of Affairs by Esther Perel

    Esther takes a look at modern relationships through the lens of infidelity

    Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

    Listen in as real couples in search of help bare the raw and profound details of their stories

    How’s Work? with Esther Perel

    Esther’s podcast that focuses on the hard conversations we're afraid to have at work

    Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

    A young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the internet

    Her (2013)

    In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need

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    Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss

    The AI Dilemma

    The Three Rules of Humane Tech

    Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • We are on the cusp of an explosion of cheap, consumer-ready neurotechnology - from earbuds that gather our behavioral data, to sensors that can read our dreams. And it’s all going to be supercharged by AI. This technology is moving from niche to mainstream - and it has the same potential to become exponential.

    Legal scholar Nita Farahany talks us through the current state of neurotechnology and its deep links to AI. She says that we urgently need to protect the last frontier of privacy: our internal thoughts. And she argues that without a new legal framework around “cognitive liberty,” we won’t be able to insulate our brains from corporate and government intrusion.

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    The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology by Nita Farahany

    The Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves

    Computer Program Reveals What Neurons in the Visual Cortex Prefer to Look At

    A study of macaque monkeys at Harvard generated valuable clues based on an artificial intelligence system that can reliably determine what neurons in the brain’s visual cortex prefer to see

    Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan

    An influential work by a fixture in media discourse

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    The Three Rules of Humane Tech

    Talking With Animals… Using AI

    How to Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven Hassan

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • Social media was humanity’s ‘first contact’ moment with AI. If we’re going to create laws that are strong enough to prevent AI from destroying our societies, we could benefit from taking a look at the major lawsuits against social media platforms that are playing out in our courts right now.

    In our last episode, we took a close look at Big Food and its dangerous “race to the bottom” that parallels AI. We continue that theme this week with an episode about litigating social media and the consequences of the race to engagement in order to inform how we can approach AI harms.

    Our guest, attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett, left her predominantly defense-oriented practice to join the Social Media Victims Law Center in February 2022. Laura is literally on the front lines of the battle to hold social media firms accountable for the harms they have created in young people’s lives for the past decade.

    Listener warning: there are distressing and potentially triggering details within the episode.

    Correction: Tristan refers to the Social Media Victims Law Center as a nonprofit legal center. They are a for-profit law firm.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    1) If you're a parent whose child has been impacted by social media, Attorneys General in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Tennessee are asking to hear your story. Your testimonies can help ensure that social media platforms are designed safely for kids. For more information, please visit the respective state links.

    Colorado

    New Hampshire

    Tennessee

    2) Social Media Victims Law Center
    A non-profit legal center that was founded in 2021 in response to the testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen

    3) Resources for Parents & Educators

    Overwhelmed by our broken social media environment and wondering where to start? Check out our Youth Toolkit plus three actions you can take today

    4) The Social Dilemma
    Learn how the system works. Watch and share The Social Dilemma with people you care about

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    Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron

    A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

    Behind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma with Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Larissa Rhodes

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • In the next two episodes of Your Undivided Attention, we take a close look at two respective industries: big food and social media, which represent dangerous “races to the bottom” and have big parallels with AI.

    And we are asking: what can our past mistakes and missed opportunities teach us about how we should approach AI harms?

    In this first episode, Tristan talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Michael Moss. His book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us rocked the fast food industry when it came out in 2014.

    Tristan and Michael discuss how we can leverage the lessons learned from Big Food’s coordination failures, and whether it’s the responsibility of the consumer, the government, or the companies to regulate.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

    Michael’s New York Times bestseller. You’ll never look at a nutrition label the same way again

    Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

    Michael’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health

    Control Your Tech Use

    Center for Humane Technology’s recently updated Take Control Toolkit

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    AI Myths and Misconceptions

    The AI Dilemma

    How Might a long-term stock market transform tech? (ZigZag episode)

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

  • What happens when creators consider what lifelong human development looks like in terms of the tools we make? And what philosophies from Sesame Street can inform how to steward the power of AI and social media to influence minds in thoughtful, humane directions?

    When the first episode of Sesame Street aired on PBS in 1969, it was unlike anything that had been on television before - a collaboration between educators, child psychologists, comedy writers and puppeteers - all working together to do something that had never been done before: create educational content for children on television.

    Fast-forward to the present: could we switch gears to reprogram today’s digital tools to humanely educate the next generation?

    That’s the question Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, the Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content for the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

    This documentary offers a rare window into the early days of Sesame Street, revealing the creators, artists, writers and educators who together established one of the most influential and enduring children’s programs in television history

    Sesame Street: Ready for School!: A Parent's Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5 by Dr. Rosemarie Truglio

    Rosemarie shares all the research-based, curriculum-directed school readiness skills that have made Sesame Street the preeminent children's TV program

    G Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street co-edited by Shalom Fisch and Rosemarie Truglio

    This volume serves as a marker of the significant role that Sesame Street plays in the education and socialization of young children

    The Democratic Surround by Fred Turner

    In this prequel to his celebrated book From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Turner rewrites the history of postwar America, showing how in the 1940s and 1950s American liberalism offered a far more radical social vision than we now remember

    Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

    Neil Postman’s groundbreaking book about the damaging effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century

    Sesame Workshop Identity Matters Study

    Explore parents’ and educators’ perceptions of children’s social identity development

    Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children's learning in 15 countries

    Commissioned by Sesame Workshop, the study was led by University of Wisconsin researchers Marie-Louise Mares and Zhongdang Pan

    U.S. Parents & Teachers See an Unkind World for Their Children, New Sesame Survey Shows

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