On today’s episode of Justice Matters, Mathias Risse speaks with Zoë Hitzig, former research scientist at Open AI who recently left the company due to ethical concerns about the way the company was developing its advertising strategy. She wrote about her decision to leave in a recent op-ed in the NY Times.

Zoë received her PhD in economics from Harvard in 2023 and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Her work centers on privacy, equity and transparency in markets and algorithms.

Their conversation touches on: Zoë’s journey from studying economics to working for Open AI, Open AI’s shift in motives from a non-profit to a for-profit company, what makes the data ChatGPT collects from its users different, concerns about advertising and user data in AI models, proposals for ethical practices, how OpenAI’s trajectory compares to Facebook, possible governance structures for AI companies, the role of competition in AI ethics, moral responsibility, and Zoë’s future research.

Zoë's recent op-ed in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/opinion/openai-ads-chatgpt.html