The Technically Human Podcast

In this episode of the show, I sit down with Dr. Mark Sagar to talk about his vision of an embodied form of AI.

Dr. Sagar is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Soul Machines, a company investigating how to use natural language processing with hyper-realistic visuals to create autonomously animated, emotionally dynamic Digital People. In addition to developing new technologies, the research seeks answers to big questions: should we be humanizing AI? How does feeding AI socio-emotional context help create rich, multimodal humanlike experiences, and at what point are we teetering on sentience? And what is really at stake the intersection of human cooperation with intelligent machines?

Dr. Mark Sagar is currently Director for the Auckland Bioengineering Institute's Laboratory for Animate Technologies. He is a two-time Oscar winner, in the categories of scientific and engineering awards, for his work creating realistic digital characters for the screen. The technology has been used in Spider-Man 2, Superman Returns, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Avatar. The technology he created emerged out of his research, completed in the late 1990s, in a landmark study that explored how to develop an anatomically correct virtual eye and realistic models of biomechanically-simulated anatomy. It was one of the first examples of how believable human features could be created on a screen by combining computer graphics with mathematics and human physiology.

 He is also the founder of the BabyX, a pioneering research initiative that  seeks to combine models of physiology, cognition and emotion with advanced lifelike CGI, in an attempt to create a new form of biologically inspired AI.

Dr. Sagar received his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Auckland, and was a post-doctoral fellow at M.I.T. In addition to his recognition by the Academy Awards, Dr. Sagar was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2019.

Hi Technically Human listeners. This is a show about ethics and tech, but it’s also a show about what it means to be human. There is no area of being human in this moment that technologies does not touch.

I know that many members of this listening community have been deeply affected by the loss of life and the brutality that began with the Hamas attack on Israel and is ongoing in Israel and in Gaza. This is not a show about my politics. But it is a show that strives toward the ideals of diverse representation, and bipartisan collaboration toward ethical and humanistic ends.

In this dark moment, I wanted to elevate one of our previous episodes featuring United Hatzalah. United Hatzallah is a volunteer-based organization which provides emergency medical response within minutes of any medical emergency for free. They are committed to saving human lives independent of race, religion, ethnicity, or national identity. They are non political and non religious. United Hatzalah volunteers respond to more than 675,000 calls per year throughout Israel and beyond its borders, saving lives every day. 

There are a lot of people in the region in need right now, and United Hatzallah is on the front lines. If you have the means, and if you want to support an organization that is working to save civilians lives, no matter what their religion, race, ethnic identity, or national identity might be, please consider supporting United Hatzallah.

Insight Partners, a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software and internet startups, is currently matching donations to United Hatzallah, up to $1,000,000. Please consider supporting this effort, if you have the means. The ideal of universal human rights is central to this show, and when I see the tech community driving toward that effort, I think it’s worth highlighting. That ideal is, and always has been, that human lives are human lives anywhere and everywhere, no matter which tribe they belong to, and that the global community has an obligation to protect those lives. 

Link to the donation site here: https://hedado.com/c/SoftwareinService 

And now, here is my episode featuring United Hatzallah, whose volunteers have been on the ground saving lives, as they have been doing since the organization was founded.

In today’s conversation, I sit down with Amy Kurzweil, the author of the new graphic memoir, Artificial: A Love Story.

Artificial: A Love Story tells the story of three generations of artists whose search for meaning and connection transcends the limits of life. The story begins with the LLM generated chatbot that Amy’s father, the futurist Ray Kurzweil, created out of his father’s archive, but the story doesn’t start and end there. Instead, the story takes us on a journey through new questions that technologies are asking about what it means to be human.  How do we relate to—and hold—our family’s past? And how is technology changing what it means to remember the past? And what does it mean to know--and to love--in the age of AI?

Amy Kurzweil is a New Yorker cartoonist and the author of two graphic memoirs: Flying Couch, a NYT’s Editor’s Choice and Kirkus “Best Memoir” of 2016, and Artificial: A Love Story, forthcoming October 2023. She was a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow with the American Academy in Berlin, a 2019 Shearing Fellow with the Black Mountain Institute, and she’s received fellowships from MacDowell, Djerassi, and elsewhere. Her work has been nominated for a Reuben Award and an Ignatz Award for “Technofeelia,” a four-part series with The Believer Magazine. Her writing, comics, and cartoons have also been published in The Verge, The New York Times Book Review, Longreads, Literary Hub, WIRED, and many other places. She’s taught writing and comics at Parsons The New School for Design, The Fashion Institute of Technology, Center for Talented Youth, Interlochen Center for the Arts, in New York City Public Schools, and in many other venues, and she currently teaches a monthly cartooning class to a growing community of virtual students all over the world.

Hi Technically Human listeners! I’m on vacation this week, and our team has pulled one of our favorite interviews, and definitely hands down our funniest from our archives to share with you—an episode with Dan Lyons on hat makes Silicon Valley funny--and how that humor gets at some of the deeply sobering realities of Silicon Valley culture.  If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the interview yet, I think you’ll enjoy it! I’ll be back next week with a brand-new episode of the show!

In this episode, I sit down with a personal hero, the iconic literary giant Dan Lyons. We discuss Dan's experience writing about tech culture for the hit HBO show "Silicon Valley," and Dan's own experience working in tech. We talk about what makes Silicon Valley funny--and how that humor gets at some of the deeply sobering realities of Silicon Valley culture. 

Dan Lyons is one of the best-known science and technology journalists in the United States. He was the technology editor at Newsweek, a staff writer at Forbes, and a columnist for Fortune magazine, while also contributing op-ed columns to the New York Times about the economics and culture of Silicon Valley. 

Dan is the author of two of the most important recent books about Silicon Valley: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble, an international best-seller, and Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us, which was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best business books of 2018. He is also the mastermind of the epic parody blog “The Fake Steve Jobs Blog.” 

Dan has been a consistent and vocal critic of racial, gender, and age bias in the technology industry, penning articles about "bro culture," worker exploitation, and the "hustle" mentality that leads to employee burnout. He has become a leading advocate for greater diversity in the technology industry and an early critic of the gig economy for its abuse of workers. His work helped draw attention to the brutal working conditions in Amazon warehouses. He has earned a reputation as a fearless critic of powerful interests in Silicon Valley, with a voice that sets him apart from the often fawning journalism that comes out of the technology space.

In this episode of Technically Human, I sit down with Dr. Julie Albright to talk about her new book: Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream. We talk about the way that digital culture is changing the American Dream for the next generation, we discuss how the internet is changing political culture, and Julie explains how our connections to our devices are changing the way we seek partnerships, form relationships, and how romance has been gamified in our world of online dating.

Dr. Julie Albright is a Sociologist specializing in digital culture and communications. She has a Masters Degree in Social and Systemic Studies and a Dual Doctorate in Sociology and Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California. Dr. Albright is currently a Lecturer in the departments of Applied Psychology and Engineering at USC, where She teaches master’s level courses on the Psychology of Interactive Technologies and Sustainable Infrastructure. 

Dr. Albright’s research has focused on the growing intersection of technology and social / behavioral systems.

She is also a sought after keynote speaker, and has given talks for major data center and energy conferences including SAP for Utilities, IBM Global, Data Center Dynamics and the Dept. of Defense. She has appeared as an expert on national media including the Today Show, CNN, NBC Nightly News, CBS, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR Radio and many others. 

Her new book, Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream (Random House/ Prometheus press), investigates the impacts of mobile - social- – digital technologies on society. 

Earlier this year, Consumer Reports, in collaboration with the Kapor Center, debuted "Bad Input," three short films that set out to explore and to create public awareness about how biases in algorithms/data sets result in unfair practices for communities of color, often without their knowledge.

In this episode of the show, I talk to Lily Gangas, Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Center, and Amira Dhalla, Director of Impact Partnerships and Programs at Consumer Reports, about the film and about state of AI at the intersection of race and equity, and the importance of educating the public if we want to see change in the future of AI and human values.

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. They do it by fighting to put consumers’ needs first in the marketplace and by empowering them with the trusted knowledge they depend on to make better, more informed choices.

The Kapor Center’s work focuses at the intersection of racial justice and technology to create a more inclusive technology sector for all. Founded by Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor, the center seeks to develop a vision and practice to make the tech industry more diverse and inclusive. The Kapor Foundation, alongside Kapor Capital, and the STEM education initiative SMASH, takes a comprehensive approach to expand access to computer science education, conduct research on disparities in the technology pipeline, support nonprofit organizations and initiatives, and invest in gap-closing startups and entrepreneurs that close gaps of access for all. The Kapor Center seeks to intentionally dismantle barriers to tech and deployment of technologies across the Leaky Tech Pipeline through research-driven practices, gap-closing investments, increased access to computer science education, supporting and partnering with mission-aligned organizations, advocating for needed policy change, and more. 

In today’s episode, I sit down with Vinhcent Le, Senior Legal Counsel of Tech Equity at the Greenlining Institute, an organization that works towards a future where communities of color can build wealth, live in healthy places filled with economic opportunity, and are ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change. We talk about the possibilities and limitations of regulation to address inequities in tech, the challenges of negotiating race in tech production, and how greenlining seeks to address a history of redlining.

Vinhcent Le (he/him/his) leads Greenlining’s work to close the digital divide, to protect consumer privacy, and to ensure algorithms are fair and that technology builds economic opportunity for communities of color. In this role, Vinhcent helps develop and implement policies to increase broadband affordability and digital inclusion as well as bring transparency and accountability to automated decision systems. Vinhcent also serves on several regulatory boards including the California Privacy Protection Agency.

Vinhcent received his J.D. from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. Prior to Greenlining, Vinhcent advocated for clients as a law clerk at the Public Defender’s Office, the Office of Medicare Hearing and Appeals, and the Small Business Administration.

In this episode of the show, I continue my deep dive into data, human values, and governance with an interview featuring Lauren Maffeo. We talk about the future of data governance, the possibilities of, and the catastrophe that Lauren thinks our society may need to experience in order to turn the corner on an data governance and ethics.

We’re back, after a long and restful break, with a brand new season of Technically Human! In our first episode of the season, I am joined by a guest cohost, Dr. Morgan Ames, for a conversation with Janet Haven, Executive Director of Data and Society. We talk about the movement to root data and AI practices in human values, the future of automation, and the pressing needs—and challenges—of data governance.

Janet Haven is the executive director of Data & Society. She has worked at the intersection of technology policy, governance, and accountability for more than twenty years, both domestically and internationally. Janet is a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises President Biden and the National AI Initiative Office on a range of issues related to artificial intelligence. She also acts as an advisor to the Trust and Safety Foundation, and has brought her expertise in non-profit governance to bear through varied board memberships. She writes and speaks regularly on matters related to technology and society, federal AI research and development, and AI governance and policy.

Before joining D&S, Janet spent more than a decade at the Open Society Foundations. There, she oversaw funding strategies and worldwide grant-making related to technology, human rights, and governance, and played a substantial role in shaping the emerging international field focused on technology and accountability.

Data & Society is an independent nonprofit research organization rooted in the belief that empirical evidence should directly inform the development and governance of new technologies — and that these technologies can and must be grounded in equity and human dignity. Recognizing that the concentrated, profit-driven power of corporations and tech platforms will not steer us toward a just future, our work foregrounds the power of the people and communities most impacted by technological change. Their work studies the social implications of data, automation, and AI, producing original research to ground informed public debate about emerging technology.

Dr. Morgan Ames is an adjunct professor in the School of Information and interim associate director of research for the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society (CSTMS) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches in Data Science and administers the Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies. She is also affiliated with the Algorithmic Fairness and Opacity Working Group (AFOG), the Center for Science, Technology, Society and Policy (CTSP), and the Berkeley Institute of Data Science (BIDS).

Welcome to the final episode of the "Technically Human" season!

We’re ending the season with an episode of the 22 lessons on ethics and technology series, with a conversation featuring Dr. John Williams about the global imagination of tech.

Dr. John Williams is a professor of English Literature at Yale University. His work is focused on international histories of technological/media innovation and the perceived difference of racial and cultural otherness. His book, The Buddha in the Machine: Art, Technology, and The Meeting of East and West (Yale University Press, 2014), examines the role of technological discourse in representations of Asian/American aesthetics in late-nineteenth and twentieth-century film and literature.  The book won the 2015 Harry Levin Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association. In the conversation, we explore the diverse international histories of technological innovation and how otherness and differences have been constructed across contexts and time.

The “22 Lessons in Ethical Technology” series is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Cal Poly Strategic Research Initiative Grant Award. The show is written, hosted, and produced by me, Deb Donig, with production support from Matthew Harsh and Elise St. John. Thanks to Jake Garner and Emma Zumbro for production coordination. Our head of research for this series is Sakina Nuruddin. Our editor is Carrie Caulfield Arick. Art by Desi Aleman.