Futuristic Lawyer

Africa plays a much more important role in the development of AI, than most people are aware of.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone is home to more than 70% of global cobalt production, a mineral used in semiconductor manufacturing and the energy storage technologies that power AI datacenters.

In spite of Africa’s rich soil which enables modern technologies, Africans tend to be underrepresented or left out of global conversations about AI. Why is that?

African visionaries and change-makers are trying to change status quo with a community-centered approach to technology mirroring the African saying “Ubuntu” which means “I am because we are”.

I learned all of this and more in my recent conversation with Rebecca Mbaya.

You can find the time stamps to our conversation on YouTube and on your favorite streaming service.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

Charlie Guo is the author of Artificial Ignorance. In my humble opinion, the best weekly breakdown of AI news on Substack.

I recently had a chat with Charlie about how AI will impact the profession of software engineering among other related topics.

You can find time stamps for our conversation below (easier to navigate on YouTube, link here, or on various streaming services)

00:00 Friendly introduction

01:05 What made Charlie go into writing about AI?

02:32 What has changed in AI over the last 2.5 years?

04:13 Who will AI benefit the most?

06:03: How will AI impact the work of software engineers?

08:01 The major concern about AI’s impacts on coding

10:22 How Charlie uses AI in his writing process

12:06 Vulnerability in vibe coding

13:20 The longer trajectory of AI development

18:06 How GPT-4, GPT-5, Claude and Grok 4 compares to each other as writing assistants

22:40 Near-term future of AI agents

30:08 AI impact on social media

32:00 Should young people still pursue software engineering as a career path?

34:42 Why AI writing is uninteresting

38:16 Raising a child in the age of AI

43:03 Outro

Links to further reading

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence by Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen (August 2025)

MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing by Sheryl Estrada/Fortune (August 2025)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

In this episode, we get to know Natalia Cote-Munoz.

Natalia used to work for the Biden administration and is now exploring her interest in AI. Based on Natalia’s unique perspective and insights, we discuss the following topics:

* The strategy laid out in America’s AI Action Plan

* How Trump is approaching AI vs. how the Biden/Harris administration would

* The focus on getting rid of “woke AI”

* Why the Trump administration is advocating for open-source AI

* Comparison with the AI strategies of Europe and China

You can check out Natalia’s work on Substack below.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

Today my guest is Maalvika.

Maalvika is an expert on the intersection of digital media and culture - both from her academic studies and experience as a viral creator on TikTok.

We discuss how social media and dating apps are impacting the youth, both positively and negatively, and how a new generation of people can learn to thrive in the challenging environment a handful of profit-seeking tech companies are building.

In my own work, I try to understand how algorithms on social media and dating apps are impacting society. In my latest post, I went deep on how these algorithms have created the so-called incel culture. Give it a read, if you haven’t already, and don’t be afraid to mark your interest with a like or a comment. The house appreciates it.

In my talk with Maalvika I was particularly interested in learning more about what these issues look like from a feminine perspective, and from someone who speaks the language of Generation Z.

If you want to learn more about Maalvika, you can find her publication on Substack below 👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

NOTE: If you are listening to this podcast, you can skip ahead to the second part of the conversation at the 32:18 mark.

Here is my talk with prompt artists and AI power user, Daniel Nest.

You may know Daniel from Why Try AI, a popular ressource on Substack with pratical tips and tricks on how to use AI tools for non-technical readers.

In the first part of our conversation, Daniel offers a demo of ChatGPT’s image capabilities and Sora (00:00-32:18).

Surprise, I am personally not a big user of AI tools. If you are like me, definitely check out the first part of our podcast. Daniel’s demonstration of how ChatGPT’s image generator and Sora work is both engaging and eye-opening.

In the second part, we discuss the implications of this new technology from a legal, ethical, and philosophical perspective (32:18-1:06:54).

If you have any comments and inputs to the second part, I am very interested in hearing from you. Please respond in the comments or message me directly on Substack, LinkedIn or e-mail at futuristiclawyer at gmail .com.

Finally, you can check out Why Try AI below if you are looking for no-nonsense advice on how to use AI tools in daily life 👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

Michelle Nie is a consultant and researcher working at the intersection of technology and society with a keen interest in AI policy and governance. She is currently engaged as a EU Tech Policy Fellow at the Open Markets Institute, Co-Founder of Women in Safety and Ethics (WISE), and the Curriculum Lead at General-Purpose AI Policy Lab

In this episode you will learn among other things:

👉 Why whistleblower protection is important in the AI industry.

👉 What some of the most pressing AI risks are.

👉 Why regulation can enable innovation.

👉 How AI leads to a concentration of power.

👉 What the public can do to mitigate BigTech’s concentration of power.

👉 Why Michelle is hopeful about EU’s antitrust enforement.

👉 How the tech community and tech vibes are different in Paris compared to SF.

See Michelle’s website here and subscribe to her work on Substack below while you are at it👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

Baldur Bjarnason aka “Web dev at the end of the world” is an experienced web developer, author, and online writer based in Hveragerði, Iceland.

I have followed Baldur’s newsletter for a while now and enjoyed and found inspiration in his commentary, link dumps, and obligatory photos of cats and nature in Iceland. Baldur has very recently started a YouTube channel which is why I thought it would be a perfect timing to discuss the world situation on Futuristic Lawyer podcast.

We mainly talk about how (a) business leaders, (b) software developers, (c) politicians at the EU-level can approach AI, and namely the commercial pressure from the market to adopt AI as much and as quickly as possible.

Baldur is an informed AI skeptic and I concur with many of his viewpoints. Although I don’t think AI as a techno-political movement is inherently worthless, the excessive hype about AI on the internet and in capital markets is bound to end sourly for all -unfortunately.

I hope this conversation can contribute to taming the hype and unrealistic expectations.

Check out Baldur Bjarnason’s books 👇

Out of the Software Crisis ”Software projects keep failing, not because we don’t have the right team or tools but because our software development system is broken. Out of the Software Crisis is a guide to fixing your software projects with systems-thinking making them more resilient to change and less likely to fail.”

Yellow”Yellow is a short ebook (around 90 pages).

In it, I outline some of the core principles that drive my work using casual and approachable language, even when I’m covering potentially complex topics such as Gall’s Law or loose coupling.”

The Intelligence Illusion ”What are the major risks to avoid with generative AI? How do you avoid having it blow up in your face? Is that even possible?

The Intelligence Illusion (Second Edition) is an exhaustively researched guide to the risks of language and diffusion models.”

Bad Writing”Twenty-five years of writing on digital transformation, digital publishing, innovation, and software development”

See Baldur’s website 👉 https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/

See Baldur’s YouTube Channel 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@BaldurBjarnason

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

To better understand the digital ecosystem in China, including how netizens use social media, and how Chinese people think about the implications of living in a digital age, I allied myself with Xinrou Shu.

Xinrou is a former fashion writer and current freelance journalist based in China. She writes about the Internet, youth culture, and how China’s digital ecosystem affects people. Her work has appeared in award-winning publications, including South China Morning Post, Rest of World, Sixth Tone, The China Project, RadiiCo, Salon.com, and more.

Some of my main takeaway from the conversation:

* In China you have to use your phone to do everything, more so than in Western countries.

* Social media algorithms are strongly monitored in China, and therefore less polarizing and less differentiated. However, users on platforms such as RedNote rely heavily on euphemisms and coded language to bypass censorship restrictions.

* Seniors in China are among the heaviest users of social media, namely infinite short-video scrolling in the style of TikTok. Not like western countries, where the youth are mainly exposed.

* Many people were left traumatized after the COVID lockdown restrictions when they were forced to spent many weeks inside their homes, often without enough food. It was common to use WeChat for trading food coupons. Seniors in China became much more familiar with social media during the time.

* Emigration spiked during and after the COVID lockdown in Shanghai, and it changed a lot of people’s view on the government.

* Public institutions in China have embraced generative AI, likely more effectively than in Western countries. It’s the norm for government officials to use DeepSeek for writing daily reports and doing research.

* AI companies in China, such as the the Six Tigers, are on the same mission as the major AI labs in the United States. Short term business interests are highly prioritized.

Check out Xinrou’s website 👉 https://xinroushu.com/

And find her on Xitter 👉 https://twitter.com/Xinrou6

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

Today I am joined by Katalina Hernández who investigates matters of AI governance, safety, and privacy on Stress-Testing Reality Limited while working as a Data Protection Officer for a large European multi-national company.

We discuss Europe’s position in the business of AI contra the United States, how it chooses to regulate its AI industry, the complexity of EU’s digital laws, Katalina’s journey into AI governance, and more.

We could have talked for much longer about superintelligence and AI alignment research which is among Katalina’s core interests. That must wait for another episode. If you want to learn more about these topics, subscribe to receive Katalina’s work in your inbox below 👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com

If we follow reputable news sources these days, we are presented with a dark and gloomy vision of the world. Europe is at war with Russia while the US appears strongly committed to rapidly transform itself from a global peacemaker to an autocratic pariah state. History seems to be reversing course, moving us back to a bygone, expansionist era that is now broadcasted through social media, instead of noisy radio signals and black-and-white televisions.

While it’s important to acknowledge and articulate these dark political turns, there are also a plethora of positive stories out there we are rarely exposed to. They don’t nearly sell as many newspaper subscriptions or draw as much attention on social media. These are the unheard stories we focus on in today’s conversation.

Sam Matey works as an environmental scientist, climate journalist, and geospatial data analyst.

In our conversation, we talk about Sam’s life as a digital nomad, how to deal with social media, how AI will affect climate change, and how we can remain hopeful and optimistic for the future.

Check out The Weekly Anthropocene to receive news roundups on climate and biodiversity progress, interviews with people working to make the future of humanity and its biosphere brighter, and much more 👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.futuristiclawyer.com