The Rip Current with Jacob Ward

AI is about to create an epidemic of addiction in this country and around the world, according to Zachary Gidwitz, founder of OpenRecovery. Could it also be our best shot at fighting back? In this episode of The Rip Current, I discuss the growing issue of addiction in America and the potential for AI tools to combat it with Gidwitz. Together we get into the rise of various forms of addiction, from fentanyl and gambling to social media and pornography. Gidwitz shares his vision of using AI not to replace human therapists but to guide individuals towards real human connection and effective recovery programs. He stresses the importance of tailoring interventions to individual needs and avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches. The conversation also explores the ethical considerations and challenges in using AI for such sensitive applications, emphasizing the need for transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Addiction is coming, team. Here’s hoping conversations like this can help get us out in front of it.

My recent trip to Brazil happened to coincide with the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and ever since I’ve been looking for the right person to explain how it is that a former military dictatorship is now the kind of democracy that actually brings a former leader to account. In this episode, Cristina Tardaguila, founder of the fact-checking organization Lupa, describes the rise and conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the impact of misinformation, and the growing (and now perhaps unstoppable) influence of China and Russia in Brazil. Cristina shares insights into the creation and evolution of Lupa, the complexities of Brazilian democracy, and the economic and political dynamics shaping the nation’s complicated future.

00:00 US Diplomacy and Brazil’s Geopolitical Landscape

02:17 Introduction to Lupa and Cristina Tardaguila

02:48 The Rise of Fact-Checking in Brazil

05:09 Global Populism and Bolsonaro’s Influence

07:02 The Hate Cabinet and Techno-Populism

10:56 Lupa’s Evolution and Business Model

12:58 COVID-19 and the Fight Against Misinformation

16:46 The Why of Disinformation

27:12 Bolsonaro’s Political Journey and Impact

33:52 The Aftermath of January 8th, 2023

34:40 Reflecting on the Insurrection

41:25 The Trial and Conviction of Bolsonaro

47:56 Brazil’s Political Future

51:49 China’s Influence in Brazil

59:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, an AI ethicist and the head of Humane Intelligence, is sick of all this complaining. Not because there isn’t plenty to complain about — in this episode we unpack a host of horrors that AI and the companies who make it are foisting on all of us — but because she believes that the fatalism of AI criticism inadvertently empowers powerful corporations. Dr. Chowdhury, who has worked at Accenture, Twitter, and served as a science envoy for the Biden administration, has an unusual background for an AI builder — political science and quantitative social sciences — and her work on the inherent biases within algorithms has led her to believe that the solutions are far more complicated than just switching the whole thing off. Enjoy!

When I first came on his show, Andrew Keen took a dim view of my ideas about how we might fight back against the psychological effects of AI in my 2022 book The Loop, and to be honest: he was kinda right. The “how to fight back” section of the book was thin, largely because I was hanging (and still hang) so much of my hopes on the idea that the courts will save us. So I asked him if he’d like to revisit our conversation on his show, and he graciously agreed. Here’s how it went!

AI is having a profound effect on love, work, and democracy...but do the people making it understand that?

AI ethics consultant Olivia Gambelin has been fighting to make her clients in Silicon Valley understand that good ethics are good business, and to make regulators in Europe see that good business can also have good ethics. It's a tough gig.

Gambelin, who advises both AI companies in Silicon Valley and regulators in Brussels, talks techno-solutionism, the challenges of implementing ethical AI practices when there's always that one evangelist in the room trying to go too far too fast, and her worries about what she considers the top truly unacceptable category of AI product out there today.

00:00 Introduction to Techno Solutionism

00:44 Meet Olivia Gambelin: AI Ethics Consultant

01:56 Olivia's Journey: From Bay Area to Brussels

08:19 The Role of Ethical Intelligence

14:38 Challenges in AI Implementation

21:50 The Future of AI in the Workplace

32:51 Introduction to AI Regulation in Brussels

34:05 Cultural Differences in AI Regulation

36:29 Challenges in European AI Literacy

38:32 Behavioral Science and AI Manipulation

44:22 Ethics in AI: Business vs. Regulation

51:17 The Need for AI Regulation in the US

56:00 Ethical Boundaries in AI Applications

01:00:53 Positive Applications of AI

01:05:18 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

A new California law, SB 53, was just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom today, Monday September 29th. It has the AI makers undoubtedly throwing their mushroom coffee across the room this afternoon, because now they’re hemmed in by the EU’s AI Act on one side, and the Golden State’s new law on the other. Here’s why it matters!

TikTok is no different than any other social media company (it wants to serve you irresistible content by predicting your tastes algorithmically), and its processes aren't either (it threw spaghetti and money against the wall until it stuck). But its status as a Chinese company, the first globally successful Chinese media export, and a deeply powerful geopolitical tool means it's the center of a battle over the future of the Internet. In her new book Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over Tiktok, Emily Baker-White describes her years covering the company. (She did it so well executives there even attempted to spy on her phone to find out who she was speaking to inside TikTok.) She tells the story of the most effective attention-grabbing algorithm ever devised — its strange beginnings, and the “messy” people who operate the levers behind its curtain — and explains the legal limbo in which it and its billions of users are now caught.

AI is making people crazy.

And I don’t mean in the sense that it’s driving tech observers like me crazy, with its reckless adoption path and dishonest marketing and screwy incentives. I mean it’s literally making otherwise reasonable people believe that their AI chatbots are lovers, or prisoners, or prophets of hidden wisdom.

In this hourlong conversation with tech educator Morten Rand-Hendricksen (his TikTok and his YouTube are worth a follow), we try to surround the topic from two sides. Mine is the psychological and ideological side, which I used to frame the thesis of my book The Loop: How A.I. is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back. Morten’s is the bits and bytes that have been assembled to give the impression that this language-mirroring system has somehow developed reasoning, and a personality, and special insight into who you are. He does a tremendous job here explaining why this simulation of companionship is so thin, and so powerful, and so dangerous. And he has some real tactics to share for all of us in fighting back.

Are you ready to get in a tube built by billionaires and stay there for nine months? Ready to live in caves on the other side? And who is in charge of this dreary outpost anyway? In this episode of The Rip Current, David Ariosto, author of Open Space: From Earth to Eternity, the Global Race to Explore and Conquer the Cosmos and host of the Space Minds podcast, joins Jake to explore the motivations behind private and state-funded space travel, the potential for settlements on the Moon and Mars, and the ethical implications of billionaire-led space enterprises. We talk about the fragility of the human body in space, the viability of actually governing space settlements, and the technological advancements driving the space industry. Who really holds the power in the final frontier?

00:00 Introduction to Space Exploration

00:30 The Rip Current: Big Invisible Forces

00:32 The Leap of Faith in Space

01:20 Guest Introduction: David Sto

03:22 The Commercialization of Space

05:57 Technological Advances and Market Potential

13:41 Geopolitical Implications of Space Exploration

21:50 Human vs. Robotic Space Missions

34:24 Facing Death: The Mindset of Test Pilots

35:52 Astronaut's Dream: Franklin Chang Diaz's Story

37:56 Psychological Impact of Space Travel

39:55 Billionaires in Space: Elon Musk and Beyond

41:48 NASA's Changing Role in Space Exploration

51:17 The Future of Space Colonization

59:44 The Vastness of Space and Human Survival

01:05:40 Conclusion: The Drive to Explore the Cosmos

Molly White, renowned crypto skeptic and creator of 'Web3 is Going Just Great' has spent the last few years documenting the intricate web of scams, hacks, and enormous losses that pervade the cryptocurrency industry. Molly considers crypto a solution in search of a problem, and of course now it's creating new problems, not least direct digital bribery of the President. In this episode we get into the difference between the technology and the business of crypto, the outrageous corruption it’s making possible, and the unsettling parallels between the current AI hype and past crypto promises.

For more of Molly White's work, subscribe to her newsletter Citation Needed!

Also, as you’ll hear in this episode, I’m considering renaming this whole enterprise — the newsletter and the show — so I’m not hiding what I do behind a needlessly esoteric brand name. The new name I’m considering is the name of a book I’m working on, Great Ideas We Should Not Pursue. So fair warning you may see me roll out a whole new thing in the coming weeks, don’t panic when you see a new name in your feed!