Every day, AI-powered tools are used to watch our movements; what we post online, where we go, and what we like. Imagine if we could flip this reality to watch those in power and hold them accountable. 

In this special bonus episode recorded live in November at Mozilla Festival in Barcelona, Bridget talks to two brilliant technologists about how AI can be used as a force for good to supercharge collective action, what it means to resist algorithmic oppression, build counter-narratives through data, and imagine AI that serves the public good. 

Mozilla Festival is an annual gathering of artists, programmers, coders, and many others who want to build a better digital world for us humans.  

Simona Levi is a theater director, techno political strategist and founder of Xnet, a Barcelona based activist network.  Since 2018 she has been designing and co-directing the Postgraduate Course in Technopolitics and Rights in the Digital Era, first at the Pompeu Fabra University, then at the University of Barcelona.

Airi Dordas is a designer and social innovator who uses storytelling, data, and art to spark civic imagination. She’s with Domestic Data Streamers. Her current project, Synthetic Memories, explores how AI can help us preserve and reinterpret collective memory.

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Today, we’re bringing you an episode from our friends at Techish, a podcast by two tech founders and investors talking about all things tech, pop culture, and life. It's equal parts ChatGPT, equal parts Cardi B. Starring Michael Berhane and Abadesi Osunsade.

In this episode of Techish, hosts Michael Berhane and Abadesi Osunsade dive into the wild story of the tech con artist who is fooling Silicon Valley startups, exposing some big cracks in how the industry hires. They also break down the rise of AI addictions, the emotional pull of chatbots, and round off with Grammarly's acquisition of Superhuman.

Stay in touch with the hashtag #Techish

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AI may be able to talk to animals, but at what cost to the planet. Who is making those decisions, and why it matters. From decoding whale language to protecting our oceans from unchecked offshore drilling, Bridget Todd talks to visionaries seeking to preserve our beautiful, fragile world.

Holly Alpine  left her job with Microsoft over the company’s role in providing fossil fuel companies with AI tools that could accelerate their production of oil and gas. 

As the AI and climate lead at Hugging Face, a platform for sharing open-source AI models, Sasha Luccioni calls for more transparency from tech companies about how much energy it takes to power AI. 

Aza Raskin, co-founder and president of the Earth Species Project, explains why using AI to decode animal communication could be the key to protecting our planet

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AI lives in my city, and probably yours too.  What does it mean for our neighborhoods, the people in them, and where data lives? Host Bridget Todd looks at how AI is changing our neighborhoods and who is behind it.  She meets people bringing hidden tech systems into the full view of citizens and decision makers.

Nat Palmer helped lead a campaign in Chicago to stop the city from using AI powered surveillance that brought armed police to their neighborhoods.

What will data storage look like in the future?  Marina Otero Verzier is an architect and researcher from Spain who examines sustainable new designs for data storage, from your living room to outer space.

Linda Dounia Rebeiz is an artist in Dakar, Senegal who didn’t like what she saw when she prompted generative AI to show her what her home city looks like. So she built her own training dataset.

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There are some good reasons to let AI into our brains. But how much do we know about the privacy of brain data? Host Bridget Todd explores how AI is interacting with our thoughts, memories and (dis)abilities, and what it all means for brain privacy. 

Ian Burkhart had an experimental brain implant that allowed him to move his hand and fingers after he was paralyzed in an accident. Now Ian leads a coalition to help others have the same opportunity.

Maria Paz Canales is a digital rights advocate who argues against creating a new set of rights focused solely on the privacy of brain data.

Pau Aleikum Garcia, co-founder of Domestic Data Streamers, uses generative AI to help people preserve their core memories.

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Will my new AI boyfriend be a green flag? Bridget Todd explores how encounters of love and sex are secretly shaped by data and algorithms. 

Love is intimate. It’s private. It’s human. So naturally tech companies see it as a money-maker. Host Bridget Todd uncovers the algorithmic racism and bias built into most popular dating apps, and meets the people who are coming up with better alternatives. 

Apryl Williams interviewed more than 100 dating app users for her book Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating and learned a lot about race-based discrimination in dating algorithms.

After he was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD early in the pandemic, Jamie Johnston founded Mattr, a dating app where neurodiversity is celebrated and people have a less addictive algorithmic dating experience.

Jen Caltrider led Mozilla's Mozilla's Online Product Reviews. She reviewed the privacy policies of dozens of dating apps and love robots and concluded this is an industry of spyware for our most intimate thoughts.

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Bridget Todd is on a journey to find out how AI affects us on a personal level. From her love life to her city, to the privacy of her memories, Bridget digs deep to uncover the relationship between us and AI.  She talks to people who question the status quo, and pour their hearts into shaping AI that will change our lives without invading our privacy.

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We’re excited to share that Mozilla's IRL podcast is a Shorty Awards finalist in the Science and Technology Podcast category! If you enjoy IRL you can show your support by voting for us.

The Shorty Awards recognizes great content by brands, agencies and nonprofits. It’s really an honor to be able to feature the voices and stories of the folks who are putting people over profit in AI. A Shorty Award will help bring these stories to even more listeners. 

How to vote

1. Go to mzl.la/shorty

2. Click 'Vote in Science and Technology Podcast'

3. create a username and password (it's easy, we promise!)

4. Come back and vote every day until April 30th

We believe putting people over profit is award-worthy. Don’t you?  Thanks for your support!

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From Hollywood to Hip Hop, artists are negotiating new boundaries of consent for use of AI in the creative industries. Bridget Todd speaks to artists who are pushing the boundaries.

It’s not the first time artists have been squeezed, but generative AI presents new dilemmas. In this episode: a member of the AI working group of the Hollywood writers union; a singer who licenses the use of her voice to others; an emcee and professor of Black music; and an AI music company charting a different path.

Van Robichaux is a comedy writer in Los Angeles who helped craft the Writers Guild of America’s proposals on managing AI in the entertainment industry. 

Holly Herndon is a Berlin-based artist and a computer scientist who has developed “Holly +”, a series of deep fake music tools for making music with Holly’s voice.

Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo creates video games and studies the intersection between AI and Hip Hop at Brown University. Her alias as a rapper is Sammus. 

Rory Kenny is co-founder and CEO of Loudly, an AI music generator platform that employs musicians to train their AI instead of scraping music from the internet.

*Thank you to Sammus for sharing her track ‘1080p.’ Visit Sammus’ Bandcamp page to hear the full track and check out more of her songs.*

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