Stanford Radio

School's In with Dan Schwartz and Denise Pope :

"Student Social Activism, Past, Present and Future with guest Tom Ehrlich"

Promoting social change through the courage of student activism with guest Tom Ehrlich.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 25, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

"Monica Lam: Privacy in the age of virtual assistants"

Can we reap the benefits of artificial intelligence while also protecting our personal information?

From scheduling appointments to setting the thermostat to ordering pizza, virtual assistants are growing more commonplace by the day. Stanford professor Monica Lam says they will only become more entrenched as their capabilities grow and their voice-recognition skills become more accurate.

Such developments are welcomed by many who rely upon Alexa and Siri and other virtual assistants. But it is also troubling to those, like Lam, who worry that privacy concerns and lack of competition put too much power in the hands of a few companies. Lam is an advocate for a more open approach.

“If there is no open competition, then you are kind of stuck with whatever these platforms provide for you,” she tells host Russ Altman in the latest episode of The Future of Everything radio show from Sirius XM.

Lam thinks a lot about the future of privacy. She says we can have both the AI and privacy at the same time, but first she’d like more options in the marketplace and for those who dominate the market to be less insular than they are today. What’s needed is an “infrastructure of privacy” that returns control of data to the rightful owners: the users who created it in the first place. The key to that, she says, is choice.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 18, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

"Jeremy Weinstein: Technology in the public interest "

Political scientist Jeremy Weinstein has worked at both the White House and the United Nations. In both jobs, he encountered the ethical and policy concerns that new technologies can present to policymakers. As one example, he points to the fierce debate between Apple and national security experts over end-to-end encryption and the challenges investigators faced in accessing data on the iPhones of the perpetrators of a terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015.

He wants universities, like Stanford, to educate a new breed of engineer that he refers to as a “civic-minded technologist.” These engineers would consider ways in which technological advances could serve the public good, while also thinking critically about the impacts of new technologies on society.

In this spirit, Weinstein and two Stanford colleagues, Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami, have begun teaching a new course on the ethics and policy of technology to a large number of undergraduate CS majors. He says it’s critical that these nascent technologists learn from the start to think about the larger implications of their work – even before they write a single line of code. This is because code itself is not value neutral, and technologists must be able to recognize what values are being encoded in the programs they write as well as the competing values that might be traded off. This kind of preparation, he says, will help us as a society to more effectively realize the benefits and minimize the potential harms inherent in new technologies.

In his own research, Weinstein is applying his unique perspective to challenges of global poverty and human migration, where, he says, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing our understanding of two of society’s fundamental problems.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 18, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

School's In with Dan Schwartz and Denise Pope:

"Elementary Education and Literacy with guest Rebecca Silverman"

Rebecca Silverman discusses early literacy development in elementary school education

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 11, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

Stanford Legal with Pam Karlan & Joe Bankman:

"Fuel Economy Standards and the Law with guests Deborah Sivas & Ben DeGolia"

Cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But fuel economy standards intended to limit their impact have been challenged by the current administration, setting the stage for a legal battle. Tune in to a live taping of the Stanford Legal podcast as environmental law expert Professor Deborah Sivas and student Ben DeGolia discuss.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 11, 2019.

School's In with Dan Schwartz and Denise Pope:

"Autism Diagnosis and Treatment in Kids with guest Dennis Wall"

Dennis Wall talks about understanding levels of autism in kids through diagnosis and treatment.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 11, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

"Sharad Goel: How hidden bias affects the criminal justice system"

In-depth statistical analyses show time and again that subtle, unconscious bias is pervasive in the American justice system. The bigger question, however, is what to do about it?

Sharad Goel is an expert in computational social science – that is, using computers and data to examine and address policy issues. He says unconscious bias is subtle but entrenched in American life, and nowhere are the consequences more concerning than in criminal justice.

Goel has analyzed hundreds of millions of crime records to show, for instance, that black drivers are pulled over more than white drivers and that judges demand bail too often. He says the data suggest that up to 30 percent more people could be released on their own recognizance without adversely affecting crime rates.

Goel is developing risk assessment tools to assist in high-stakes decision making. He cautions, however, that algorithms are an aid, not a panacea. They should be used to inform decision making and to help decision makers to make fairer choices, but not to actually make the decisions.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 4, 2019.

Recorded live from the board by Stanford Video.

Stanford Pathfinders with Howard Wolf:

"Deep Space Travel and Beyond with Former NASA Astronaut Ellen Ochoa"

In an exclusive interview, former astronaut Ellen Ochoa talks about her pioneering journey into space.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on May 4, 2019.

Recorded at Stanford Video.

Stanford Legal with Pam Karlan & Joe Bankman:

"Artificial Intelligence & the Administrative State w/ guests David Engstrom & law student Cristina Ceballos"

Professor David Engstrom and law student Cristina Ceballos discuss artificial intelligence and whether it can help or hinder important decision making by the federal government?

Originally aired on SiriusXM on April 27, 2019.

Recorded by Stanford Video.

School's In with Dan Schwartz and Denise Pope:

"Live from Washington, DC: Developing Leaders of Education with U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan"

In a wide-ranging conversation, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., discusses how she became interested in politics, what it was like to teach high school chemistry and how to help develop educational leaders.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on April 27, 2019.