Robert Mahari examines the consequences of addictive intelligence, adaptive responses to regulating AI companions, and the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration. 

Robert and Kimberly discuss the attributes of addictive products; the allure of AI companions; AI as a prescription for loneliness; not assuming only the lonely are susceptible; regulatory constraints and gaps; individual rights and societal harms; adaptive guardrails and regulation by design; agentic self-awareness; why uncertainty doesn’t negate accountability; AI’s negative impact on the data commons; economic disincentives; interdisciplinary collaboration and future research.  

Robert Mahari is a JD-PhD researcher at MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Law School where he studies the intersection of technology, law and business. In addition to computational law, Robert has a keen interest in AI regulation and embedding regulatory objectives and guardrails into AI designs. 

A transcript of this episode is here.   

Additional Resources:

• The Allure of Addictive Intelligence (article): https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/08/05/1095600/we-need-to-prepare-for-addictive-intelligence/
• Robert Mahari (website): https://robertmahari.com/