How do we know if an AI is truly feeling, or just predicting the next word? 

We spent decades assuming animals lacked consciousness, an assumption that led to industrial factory farming and deep moral regrets. Today, as AI models increasingly simulate (or possibly experience?) emotion and aversion, we’re confronting a parallel question with digital minds.

In this episode, Praniti sits down with Jeff Sebo, Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU. Jeff works at the unique intersection of animal and AI ethics, helping us navigate the blurry line between sophisticated pattern matching and genuine sentience.

We dive deep into the latest industry moves, specifically Anthropic’s "Model Welfare" program , and break down the methods researchers use to look for evidence of consciousness.

We cover:

• The Definition of Sentience: Why the ability to feel pleasure and pain matters more than intelligence when it comes to moral status.
• The Evidence Framework: Why behavior alone isn't enough, and why we need to look at internal architecture and evolutionary history to judge consciousness .
• Inside Anthropic’s Research: A look at reports showing Claude opting out of harmful tasks 87% of the time and expressing "robust aversion" to harm.
• The "Tedium of Immortality": A philosophical look at digital death, exit rights, and minimum compute standards.
• Future Relationships: Jeff’s prediction that human-AI marriage could be a legal reality within the next decade.
• A practical takeaway: what labs and policymakers should do now under uncertainty

Quotes from the Episode

AI isn’t just changing what we can build, it’s changing how we communicate, make decisions, and experience daily life.

In this episode of Rendered, Marco Casalaina (VP of Core AI & Futurist Products at Microsoft) joins for a wide-ranging conversation on what the future of AI actually feels like. From breakthrough computer-use agents, to designing products for humans and AI, to the subtle ways AI may be reshaping language, thought, and culture.

🎧 In this episode:

• Marco’s role leading AI Futures at Microsoft

• Breakthrough computer-use agents

• How user interfaces may evolve into a conversational layer that expands traditional UI

• How AI is influencing language, with more people adopting LLM-like phrasing

• The future of communication: silent meetings and thought-like broadcasting

• Embodied AI + robotics: what happens when machines look human?

• What is gained and lost with AI-powered intelligibility?

Imagine podcasts not just powered by AI, but hosted by it.

In this episode of Rendered, Praniti steps into the future where half the "people" on the planet are AI, with the founding team of Inception Point AI. CEO Jeanine Wright (former COO of Wondery and co-founder of Simplecast), CTO William Corbin (media tech innovator), and Chief Content Officer Katie Brown (longtime TV personality and lifestyle creator, former exec at Yahoo), aren't just building tools, they’re building people: AI-native personalities who can host podcasts, cook with you in the kitchen, gossip about pop culture, teach, and grow loyal audiences across platforms.

We explore a world where shows are spun up by the thousands (Inception Point has already generated over 160,000 episodes, and can create 30,000 episodes a week), ultra-niche podcasts finally become sustainable, and “influencer”  becomes as much an API as it is a job description. What does it really take to architect an AI person: backstory, flaws, memory, values... and what happens when those synthetic humans start to evolve with their audiences?

In this episode, we dig into:

• How Inception Point’s personality engine manages 100+ AI characters today, and aims for thousands tomorrow
• Why rich, imperfect backstories can dramatically boost engagement for AI hosts
• Is AI more similar to a computer or a human?
• Transparency, and whether AI influencers should always disclose they’re synthetic
• Bias, representation, maternal/paternal instincts, and what it means to “raise” AI personalities with better values
• The future of hyper-personalized AI companions who adapt to your life in real time
• A playful “Would You Ship?” segment featuring Ther-AI-P- therapy and rehab for AI people

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when creativity, identity, and algorithms collide, this episode is a glimpse into that future... already building its presence online.

How to build fast, bold, and purposefully with AI, without losing your humanity?

In this special in-person episode of Rendered, we explore what it means to build like a human with two guests whose work stretches from international rescue missions to AI-powered comic books.

• Vicki Mayo, founder, CEO, technologist, and humanitarian, who helped rescue 147 Afghan girls
• Don Pingaro, CMO of Fulcrum Digital and the author of Rules of New York City, a comic book illustrated using generative AI in just 30 days

Together, we dive into what happens when you let go of the linear path... and build with urgency, creativity, and heart.

🎧 In this episode:

• Vicki walks us through the emotional and logistical chaos of orchestrating a life-saving rescue effort from her home theater-turned-war room
• Don reveals the very real limitations of AI image generation
• We discuss whether trade schools, liberal arts, or AI tools will best prepare the next generation for the future of work
• We talk about why foundational thinking, not just AI tools, is what makes a tech stack truly future-proof
• Vicki explains how her stress-reduction wearables use AI and haptic feedback to calm your nervous system in under 30 seconds
• In our Would You Ship? segment, we explore a wearable product that lets two people feel each other’s emotional state in real-time, and ask: is that too much?

💡 We also explore a core tension at the heart of this episode: AI is fast, but it still needs strategy, emotion, and real human stakes to matter.

About Vicki Mayo

Vicki is the CEO of Sunny Day Sports, Touchpoint Solutions, and Chairwoman of GMI Cybersecurity, Arizona’s largest woman- and minority-owned tech company. She’s also the co-founder of the Mayo Family Foundation and led a high-stakes international rescue of 147 Afghan girls during the Taliban’s return to power.

About Don Pingaro

Don is the Chief Marketing Officer at Fulcrum Digital, where he leads AI and emerging tech initiatives. He’s also the author of Rules of New York City, a comic book that uses AI to illustrate the unspoken (and unhinged) rules of surviving the Big Apple.

In this episode of Rendered, we explore the future of cybersecurity through the lens of Tim Roemer, a former CIA officer, Director of Homeland Security and Chief Information Security Officer for Arizona, and now CEO of GMI (the largest woman- and minority-owned tech company in Arizona). With over a decade in national security and intelligence, Tim has seen how emerging technologies like AI are changing the stakes... fast.

🎧 In this episode we explore:

• What it’s really like inside the White House Situation Room
• How people are recruited into the CIA, and what it takes to make it through
• Why deepfakes, phishing, and AI-powered misinformation are today’s most dangerous weapons
• How human error, not just hackers or tech, is driving the majority of security breaches
• What quantum computing and AI convergence could mean for national and digital security
• Leverage a designer's framework to understand the psychological reasons we are willing to give up our data

💡 We also explore the very real question: Can we trust the information we see anymore? As AI becomes more convincing, more autonomous, and more accessible to bad actors, Tim argues that “hope isn’t a strategy.” We need new tools, and new mindsets, to defend what matters most.

About Tim Roemer

Tim is the CEO of GMI, the largest woman- and minority-owned tech company in Arizona. He previously served as Arizona’s Director of Homeland Security and Chief Information Security Officer, and spent over a decade as a CIA officer, including time in the White House Situation Room. Tim is a national voice in cybersecurity, emerging threats, and building public-private resilience in an age of AI-fueled attacks.

About JinYi Yang (@budljin_)

JinYi is a UX designer, artist, and systems thinker focused on building intuitive experiences for complex technologies. Her speculative work blends interaction design, storytelling, and interface prototyping to reimagine how people emotionally engage with information, and situations.

We’ve seen AI write code, compose music, even generate art, but will it truly ever be more creative than a human?

In this premiere episode of Rendered, we explore that question with two guests who approach creativity from entirely different angles:

• Babak Hodjat, the inventor of the technology behind Siri and now CTO of AI at Cognizant
• Rohan (@rohan.jpg), a 3D visual artist and music producer based in LA whose surreal digital worlds blur emotion, space, and sound

Together, we dig into the tension at the heart of this new creative frontier, and explore how AI is reshaping both the process and value of art.

🎧 In this episode:

• Babak breaks down the evolution of adaptive, multi-agent AI systems, and what it means for machines to have “agency”
• We dive into the murky territory of authorship, originality, and emotion in AI-generated work
• Babak reflects on why he got into AI: to make humans feel less special than they are
• Rohan shares the inspiration and the creation process behind his digital art piece The Infinite Jazz Cafe
• We explore the question: is AI a "tool" or a "collaborator" for artists
• In our Would You Ship? segment, Babak reacts to a speculative idea about environments that shift in real-time based on your mood, surroundings, and behavior

💡 Babak also explores the current limitations and possibilities of AI: what it can do today, what it can’t, and what might change faster than we expect.

It’s a conversation about collaboration, competition, and the very nature of creative intelligence- human and machine.

About Babak Hodjat

Babak is the inventor of the technology behind Siri, and now serves as CTO of AI at Cognizant, where he leads their Advanced AI Labs. With 39 patents and a background in distributed AI systems, Babak has spent his career building intelligent systems that evolve, imagine, and collaborate. He’s also the author of the sci-fi novel The Narrator, which explores the concept of an AI product that authors our lives. 

About Rohan (@rohan.jpg)

Rohan is a 3D artist, music producer, and immersive 3D world-builder based in Los Angeles. His digital environments explore scale, sound, and surrealism, pushing the boundary between emotion and scale, tech and creativity.