Keen On America

In an era where even toothpaste shopping can trigger an existential crisis, intellectual historian Sophia Rosenfeld explore how we became both imprisoned and freed by endless options. Her new book The Age of Choice traces our evolution from a world where nobility bragged about not having any choices to one where choice itself has become our modern religion. From voting booths to gender identity, from Amazon's infinite scroll to dating apps' endless swipes, Rosenfeld reveals how "freedom of choice" conquered modern life - and why having too many options might be making us less free than we’d like to think.

Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Rosenfeld:

* Choice wasn't always central to freedom: Historically, especially among nobility, freedom was associated with not having to make choices. The modern equation of freedom with endless choice is a relatively recent development that emerged alongside consumer capitalism and democracy.

* The transformation of choice from moral to preferential: There's been a fundamental shift from viewing choice primarily as a moral decision (like Hercules choosing between right and wrong paths) to seeing it as an expression of personal preference (like choosing between toothpaste brands). The mere act of having choice became morally significant, rather than actually making the "right" choice.

* Democracy's evolution transformed voting: The shift to secret ballots in the late 19th century marked a crucial change in how we exercise democratic choice, moving from communal decision-making to private, individual choice - a change that philosophers like John Stuart Mill actually opposed, fearing it would reduce democracy to consumer-style selection.

* Choice can work against collective good: While individual choice is celebrated as freedom, it can actually hinder addressing collective challenges like climate change or public health, where limiting individual choices might better serve the common good.

* The paradox of modern choice: While we've extended choice into previously unthinkable areas (gender identity, sexuality, family relationships), many people are simultaneously seeking ways to reduce choice overload - from AI recommendations to personal shoppers - suggesting we may have reached the limits of how much choice we can handle.

Sophia Rosenfeld is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual and cultural history with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy. Her newest book, to be published by Princeton University Press in February 2025, is entitled The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life. It explores how, between the 17th century and the present, the idea and practice of making choices from menus of options came to shape so many aspects of our existences, from consumer culture to human rights, and with what consequences. She is also the author of A Revolution in Language: The Problem of Signs in Late Eighteenth-Century France (Stanford, 2001); Common Sense: A Political History (Harvard, 2011), which won the Mark Lynton History Prize and the Society for the History of the Early American Republic Book Prize; and Democracy and Truth: A Short History (Penn Press, 2019). Her articles and essays have appeared in leading scholarly journals, including the American Historical Review, the Journal of Modern History, French Historical Studies, and the William and Mary Quarterly, as well as publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Dissent, and, frequently, The Nation. From 2013 to 2017, she co-edited the journal Modern Intellectual History. In 2022, A Cultural History of Ideas, a 6 volume book series covering antiquity to the present for which she was co-general editor with Peter Struck, appeared with Bloomsbury and won the Association of American Publishers’ award for best reference work in the humanities. Her writing has been or is being translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi, Korean, and Chinese. Rosenfeld received her B.A. from Princeton University and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, the Mellon Foundation, both the Remarque Institute and the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Paris, and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as visiting professorships at the University of Virginia School of Law and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris). Prior to arriving at Penn in January 2017, she was Professor of History at Yale University and, before that, the University of Virginia. She also served a three-year term from 2018 to 2021 as Vice President of the American Historical Association, where she was in charge of the Research Division. In 2022, she held the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North at the Library of Congress, and she was also named by the French government Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Among her other ongoing interests are the history of free speech, dissent, and censorship; the history of aesthetics (including dance); the history of political language; political theory (contemporary and historical); the history of epistemology; the history of information and misinformation; the history of the emotions and senses; the history of feminism; universities and democracy; and experimental historical methods.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democra...

According to Andrew Lipstein, here are 3 questions at the heart of his acclaimed new novel Something Rotten: a) What do we want masculinity to look like? b) What constitutes truth? c) How to present death in our culture?

Yeah, seriously big questions for anb ambitious novel. Set in Copenhagen, Something Rotten follows a canceled NPR host wrestling with masculinity in liberal society. Lipstein, a Brooklyn-based writer with three young boys (all under 3) and a Danish wife, offers his own insights into the cultural contrast between America and Denmark, on everything from social welfare to masculine ambition.

In contrast with Lipstein’s three points, here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation:

* On Writing Fiction vs. Nonfiction

* Lipstein finds writing nonfiction significantly more challenging and less enjoyable than fiction

* He estimates it takes him 2-3 times longer to write a single paragraph of nonfiction compared to fiction

* Despite the challenges, he's currently working on a nonfiction book about an undisclosed subject

* The Danish Social Model's Strengths and Limitations

* Denmark's welfare system and high taxation create a more egalitarian society where basic needs (healthcare, education) are met

* However, Danish society has a stronger conformist element compared to the US

* While the Danish model works well there, Lipstein believes it wouldn't translate directly to America due to the US's greater diversity and heterodox nature

* Views on Contemporary Masculinity

* The book explores tensions around masculinity in liberal society

* Lipstein observes that progressive circles lack a coherent, positive vision of masculinity

* He argues that while there are things individuals should apologize for, being male isn't one of them

* He notes that conservative visions of masculinity, while problematic, offer clarity that liberal versions often lack

* The Economics of Being an Author

* Writing novels alone typically doesn't provide enough income to support a family in expensive places like Brooklyn

* Lipstein appreciates not feeling pressure to write bestsellers since he doesn't rely solely on writing income

* He believes creating art primarily for money often leads to poor results

* Different Conceptions of Truth

* The novel explores contrasting views of truth: American (verifiable facts) versus a more values-based approach

* Lipstein suggests liberals often focus more on being "on the right side of history" than taking meaningful action

* Something Rotten examines how death's presence or absence affects people's relationship with truth and values

Andrew Lipstein is the author of Last Resort (2022), The Vegan (2023), and Something Rotten (2025). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and three sons.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

From Dylan to democracy, from Bobby Kennedy to Putin's Russia - this wide-ranging conversation with Michael Ignatieff riffs off “The Adults in the Room,” his latest essay for Liberties Quarterly. A liberal intellectual and politician who grew up enchanted by the Sixties counterculture, Ignatieff is deeply concerned by the American lurch into MAGAism. That said, however, the Canadian still seems (half) in love with the United States and hasn’t totally given up on what he calls liberalism's “incorrigible vitality”.

Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Ignatieff:

* Ignatieff sees the current global situation as potentially the biggest change since 1945, marked by a fundamental shift in America's approach to international relations under Trump - from viewing allies as sources of power to treating them as potential adversaries to be exploited.

* He describes a profound crisis in the international rules-based order, with institutions like the UN Security Council deadlocked, Geneva Conventions being ignored in current conflicts, and increasing reckless behavior by powers like Russia that threatens international stability and safety.

* Drawing from his experience as both a liberal intellectual and politician, Ignatieff traces the decline of the liberal coalition in America to growing class divides between credentialed elites and working people, as well as racial backlash to civil rights progress - while still defending liberalism's achievements in expanding inclusion and rights.

* Despite current challenges, Ignatieff maintains a deep faith in what he calls liberalism's "incorrigible vitality," seeing it not just as a political program but as a way of life based on civility, listening, and finding ways for people to live together despite differences.

* Ignatieff argues that middle powers like Canada, Denmark and others have a crucial role to play in helping to establish "deconfliction" protocols between major powers and rebuilding a minimal rules-based order to prevent catastrophic conflicts - not out of virtue but out of legitimate fear of what could happen without such guardrails.

Writer, historian, professor and politician, Michael Ignatieff was born in Canada, educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard and now lives and works in Vienna, Austria where he is a professor of history at Central European University. He is married to Zsuzsanna Zsohar and has two children. He has written biography, reportage, history, philosophy and his books have been published in many languages. His recurrent themes are the fate of human rights and liberal values in a time of convulsive change. His novel--Scar Tissue-- was nominated for the Booker Prize and his defense of academic freedom and liberal principles earned him the Dan David Prize in 2019.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

A new book by the Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr is always a major event. And today’s release of SUPERBLOOM: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart offers a prescient critique of our social media age. As Carr explains, our assumption that more communication leads to better understanding is fundamentally wrong. Instead, he suggests that excessive communication through digital platforms actually tears people apart. Carr’s use of the “Superbloom” metaphor refers to an actual 2019 event in Southern California where people flocked to photograph wildflowers for social media, trampling the actual flowers in pursuit of the perfect image. Carr uses this as a metaphor for how we increasingly experience reality through online media rather than directly. Carr challenges the idea that new communication technologies automatically bring people together, noting how previous innovations like the telegraph and telephone came with similar utopian promises that were never fulfilled. He argues that modern smartphones and social media have created an unprecedented environment where we're constantly connected and socializing, which conflicts with how humans evolved to interact in bounded, physical spaces. Rather than offering simple solutions, Carr advocates for more mindful technology use and speculates that future generations might reject constant digital connectivity in favor of more meaningful direct experiences.

Nicholas Carr writes about the human consequences of technology. His books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains and the forthcoming Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart, have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. He has recently been a visiting professor of sociology at Williams College, and earlier in his career he was executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. In 2015, he received the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity from the Media Ecology Association. He writes the Substack newsletter New Cartographies. A New York Times bestseller when it was first published in 2010 and now hailed as “a modern classic,” Carr’s The Shallows remains a touchstone for debates on the internet’s effects on our thoughts and perceptions. A second edition of The Shallows, updated with a new chapter, was published in 2020. Carr’s 2014 book The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, which the New York Review of Books called a “chastening meditation on the human future,” examines the personal and social consequences of our ever growing dependency on computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. His latest book, Utopia Is Creepy, published in 2016, collects his best essays, blog posts, and other writings from the past dozen years. The collection is “by turns wry and revelatory,” wrote Discover. Carr is also the author of two other influential books, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google (2008), which the Financial Times called “the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing,” and Does IT Matter? (2004).

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Is AI the latest chapter in our long history of creating an all-knowing God? AI ethicist Christopher DiCarlo certainly suspects it is. In his new book "Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, DiCarlo argues that we are creating AI systems with godlike capabilities that will eventually exceed all human intelligence through their ability to make unprecedented inferences and connections. Like so many other self-styled ethicists, DiCarlo emphasizes the urgent need to establish ethical guardrails and principles for AI development. He expresses both hope for AI's potential benefits, particularly in medicine, while warning about the risks of losing control of super intelligent systems that might, one day, develop their own ethical frameworks. Given that AI development is currently largely controlled by profit-driven companies and shaped by geopolitical competition rather than ethical considerations, DiCarlo advocates for raising public awareness and establishing robust international oversight bodies (similar to the IAEA for nuclear weapons) to govern AI development. He argues that AI's potential for systemic manipulation and control makes it potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons, as it wouldn't require human intervention for the technology to destroy humanity.

Christopher is a Senior Researcher at Convergence Analysis, an AI consultancy. He teaches in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto and The Life Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University and is a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University. He is the founder of Critical Thinking Solutions, the Ethics Chair for the Canadian Mental Health Association, a lifetime member of Humanist Canada, and an Expert Advisor for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Christopher has published three books, including an international best-seller. He has won several awards including TV Ontario’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer in Ontario Award and Canada’s Humanist of the Year.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s another anti tech book. In Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia, digital activist Mike Pepi argues that major tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Tesla, and OpenAI are all driven by "platform logic" - a business model focused on creating intermediary layers that mediate human activities while collecting data and maintaining control. While different tech leaders may have different political views, Pepi contends they are all ultimately "prisoners of the platform" driven by growth imperatives. Pepi distinguishes his critique from other tech criticism by arguing that even proposed solutions often fall into the "digital utopian" trap - the belief that better technology can fix technology's problems. Instead, he advocates for strengthening traditional institutions rather than trying to replace them with platforms. He cites journalism as an example where platforms have weakened traditional institutions rather than improved them. While not exactly anti-technology, Pepi believes that unchecked platform capitalism is problematic. He suggests that technology should be developed within institutional frameworks rather than allowing platforms to operate with minimal constraints. Convinced? If not, it’s probably because you, like everyone else, is a prisoner of platform capitalism.

Mike Pepi writes about art, culture, and technology. MHiswork has appeared in frieze, e-flux, Flash Art, Art in America, DIS Magazine, The Straddler, The New Inquiry, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, this is tomorrow, 艺术界 LEAP, the Apollo Magazine Blog, Spike Art, The Brooklyn Rail, Rhizome, and The New Criterion. He organized Cloud-Based Institutional Critique (CBIC), a reading group focused on emerging digital technologies and their relationship to cultural institutions. In 2015 he guest edited the Data Issue of DIS Magazine with Marvin Jordan. In 2018, I guest-edited a special issue of Heavy Machinery at SFMoMA's Open Space.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In Keith Teare’s That Was the Week newsletter for this week, he categorically asserts that there is no oligarchy in Trump’s America. Instead there are “just technologists with a passion for change and, of course, self-interest”. But I’m not so sure. So in this issue of our weekly show, Keith and I debate the nature of tech power in America. Keith argues argues against characterizing tech leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg, and Altman as oligarchs, claiming they're simply competing businessmen seeking influence rather than a unified controlling group. He views their alignment with Trump as a reaction to what he sees as over-regulation by the Biden administration. But regardless of whether tech leaders agree on everything, I argue, their enormous wealth and influence on what I call MAGA’s “national capitalism” effectively makes them an oligarchy. Indeed, they are, I think, a textbook example of Aristotle’s definition of “oligarchy” which he defined as "rule by the rich”.

Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

So what, exactly, is a philosophical life? According the University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard, author of the much acclaimed new book Open Socrates, it means being able to ask questions with the intuitive fluency of Socrates. In our conversation, Callard confesses her own hilarious early attempt to emulate Socrates by approaching strangers at the Art Institute of Chicago, and explains why it failed spectacularly. Callard offers the Socratic diagnosis that many of our current political and social divisions stem from a failure to be sufficiently inquisitive. Our conversation - which I also hope had a Socratic quality - presents philosophy not as an academic exercise, but as a vital way of engaging with others and understanding ourselves.

Agnes Callard is an American philosopher and an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago. She has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Point, and others.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is the last and amongst the liveliest of my interviews at Munich’s DLD Conference this year. An old friend who has appeared on KEEN ON several times before, Andrew McAfee is a MIT professor who co-wrote the 2014 classic The Second Machine Age. In our conversation, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the DLD Conference, McAfee reflects on the technological changes of the past 20 years,. He acknowledges that while he accurately predicted the broad trajectory of technological advancement, he underestimated AI's capabilities in areas like language processing and creative tasks. McAfee discusses the emergence of deep learning around 2012 and its evolution into today's generative AI. While maintaining overall optimism about technology's impact, he expresses concern about increasing social polarization and anxiety, particularly related to social media use, though he notes these trends actually preceded current technology. On economic matters, McAfee challenges the notion that tech innovation is stagnating, pointing to newcomers like Nvidia and OpenAI as evidence of continued inventive dynamism. He discusses Europe's technological lag behind the United States, citing regulatory challenges like GDPR as potential factors. Regarding climate change, McAfee believes technological solutions, particularly nuclear fusion, could address environmental challenges, though he acknowledges the severity of the crisis. He concludes by warning how traditional companies must adapt to survive in an era of rapid technological change, particularly facing competition from more agile, tech-savvy competitors.

Andrew McAfee (@amcafee) is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-founder and co-director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, and the inaugural Visiting Fellow at the Technology and Society organization at Google. He studies how technological progress changes the world. His next book, The Geek Way, will be published by Little, Brown in 2023. His previous books include More from Less and, with Erik Brynjolfsson, The Second Machine Age. McAfee has written for publications including Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He's talked about his work on CNN and 60 Minutes, at the World Economic Forum, TED, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, with Tom Friedman and Fareed Zakaria, and in front of many international and domestic audiences. He’s also advised many of the world’s largest corporations and organizations ranging from the IMF to the Boston Red Sox to the US Intelligence Community. McAfee and his frequent coauthor Erik Brynjolfsson are othe nly people named to both the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top management thinkers and the Politico 50 group of people transforming American politics.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Most of the breathless talk in snowy Munich at this year’s DLD conference, of course, was about the generative AI revolution. But amongst all the hype and glitz about our brave new AI future, Richard Socher stands out. Born in 1983 in Dresden, East Germany, the now Silicon Valley based Socher is amongst the headful of genuine pioneers who helped revolutionize natural language processing. In this conversation, he discusses his journey from being part of a small "heretical" group of researchers in 2010 who believed in using neural networks for natural language processing, to seeing his ideas become mainstream technology that even Munich and San Francisco taxi/Uber now discuss. Socher explains how he helped develop crucial concepts like word vectors and prompt engineering, which influenced the development of modern AI systems. He founded you.com, which focuses on providing accurate AI answers for knowledge workers and enterprises, differentiating itself from consumer-focused AI platforms. Regarding AI's future, Socher is particularly excited about its potential impact on scientific discovery, predicting major breakthroughs in fields like fusion energy and biology over the next 20 years. He acknowledges concerns about AI's impact on jobs but draws parallels to historical technological transitions, suggesting that while some jobs will disappear, new ones will emerge at "higher levels of abstraction. He also addresses criticisms about AI companies profiting from public knowledge, arguing that when technology becomes deeply ingrained, it typically leads to improved access to capabilities that were previously available only to the wealthy.

Richard Socher is the founder and CEO of you.com and co-founder and managing director at AIX Ventures. Richard previously served as the Chief Scientist and EVP at Salesforce. Before that, Richard was the CEO/CTO of AI startup MetaMind, acquired by Salesforce in 2016. Richard received his Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford. He is widely recognized as having brought neural networks into the field of natural language processing, inventing the most widely used word vectors, contextual vectors and prompt engineering. He has over 200,000 citations and served as an adjunct professor in the computer science department at Stanford.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.