Unprompted

Sometimes chatbots can feel so real- like you’re talking to a person. But we all know they’re not human. So, what happens when we ask these bots to help us understand actual people? In today's episode, Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences Oriel FeldmanHall breaks down how AI interprets social situations, and why that can be dangerous.

To watch this conversation, visit the ARIA Institute Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ARIAInstitute

Unprompted is a project of ARIA, the NSF AI Research Institute on Interactions for AI Assistants housed at Brown University. To learn more about ARIA, go to https://aria.brown.edu/.

To learn more about Oriel's work, visit https://www.feldmanhalllab.com

What happens when people use AI chatbots not just as assistants, but as companions that offer emotional and mental health support? On today’s episode we hear first-hand experiences and discuss some of the issues that can arise - from shame to sycophancy - with our guest, Briana Vecchione, a researcher at Data & Society Research Institute.

To watch this conversation, visit ARIA's Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ARIAInstitute

To find out more about Briana's research, visit her website: https://brianavecchione.org/

To learn more about ARIA, the National Science Foundation AI Institute on Interactions for AI Assistants housed at Brown University, go to aria.brown.edu

Theme music for Unprompted is by the Blue Dot Sessions.

We had a conversation about AI in August, and already some parts of it are feeling out of date. The news around AI is moving so fast, it can feel hard to keep up. So how dangerous is it really? And how can we control it? We bring Professor David Danks back for a follow-up conversation to help us sort through these questions.

This episode was recorded on September 22, 2026.

To watch this conversation, visit ARIA's Youtube page.

To find out more about David's research, you can visit his website.

To learn more about ARIA, the National Science Foundation AI Institute on Interactions for AI Assistants housed at Brown University, go to aria.brown.edu

How are people thinking about Artificial Intelligence? To find out, we talked to some students and staff at Brown University. A lot of them said, I feel like AI is being forced on me. I can't avoid it.

Where does this feeling come from? And what can we do about it? On this episode, we talk to David Danks, a Professor of Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Science at the University of Virginia, to put all of this in perspective.

This episode was recorded on August 26, 2026. Tomorrow we’ll be releasing a follow-up conversation with David where we hear his reactions to the most recent news about AI.

To watch this conversation, visit ARIA's Youtube page.

You can read David's paper on AI Hyping here, and find his full website here.

To learn more about ARIA, the National Science Foundation AI Institute on Interactions for AI Assistants housed at Brown University, go to aria.brown.edu

It seems like Artificial Intelligence chatbots and tools are coming at us faster and faster. What if we took a step back to ask what it's doing to us, and how we can make it better?

This is Unprompted, where host Megan Hall talks to AI researchers and everyday people about how we can keep humans at the center of the AI we're building. Check out the first episode tomorrow.