By Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, The Center for Humane Technology
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The podcast currently has 115 episodes available.
AI has been a powerful accelerant for biological research, rapidly opening up new frontiers in medicine and public health. But that progress can also make it easier for bad actors to manufacture new biological threats. In this episode, Tristan and Daniel sit down with biologist Kevin Esvelt to discuss why AI has been such a boon for biologists and how we can safeguard society against the threats that AIxBio poses.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Sculpting Evolution: Information on Esvelt’s lab at MIT.
SecureDNA: Esvelt’s free platform to provide safeguards for DNA synthesis.
The Framework for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening: The Biden admin’s suggested guidelines for DNA synthesis regulation.
Senate Hearing on Regulating AI Technology: C-SPAN footage of Dario Amodei’s testimony to Congress.
The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
U.S. Senators Grilled Social Media CEOs. Will Anything Change?
Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss
The AI Dilemma
Clarification: President Biden’s executive order only applies to labs that receive funding from the federal government, not state governments.
Will AI ever start to think by itself? If it did, how would we know, and what would it mean?
In this episode, Dr. Anil Seth and Aza discuss the science, ethics, and incentives of artificial consciousness. Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and the author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
A free, plain text version of the Shelley’s classic of gothic literature.
OpenAI’s GPT4o Demo
A video from OpenAI demonstrating GPT4o’s remarkable ability to mimic human sentience.
You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills
The NYT op-ed from last year by Tristan, Aza, and Yuval Noah Harari outlining the AI dilemma.
What It’s Like to Be a Bat
Thomas Nagel’s essay on the nature of consciousness.
Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?
Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s essay on the simulation hypothesis.
Anthropic’s Golden Gate Claude
A blog post about Anthropic’s recent discovery of millions of distinct concepts within their LLM, a major development in the field of AI interpretability.
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Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy
Talking With Animals... Using AI
Synthetic Humanity: AI & What’s At Stake
Climate change, political instability, hunger. These are just some of the forces behind an unprecedented refugee crisis that’s expected to include over a billion people by 2050. In response to this growing crisis, wealthy governments like the US and the EU are employing novel AI and surveillance technologies to slow the influx of migrants at their borders. But will this rollout stop at the border?
In this episode, Tristan and Aza sit down with Petra Molnar to discuss how borders have become a proving ground for the sharpest edges of technology, and especially AI. Petra is an immigration lawyer and co-creator of the Migration and Technology Monitor. Her new book is “The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Petra’s newly published book on the rollout of high risk tech at the border.
Bots at the Gate
A report co-authored by Petra about Canada’s use of AI technology in their immigration process.
Technological Testing Grounds
A report authored by Petra about the use of experimental technology in EU border enforcement.
Startup Pitched Tasing Migrants from Drones, Video Reveals
An article from The Intercept, containing the demo for Brinc’s taser drone pilot program.
The UNHCR
Information about the global refugee crisis from the UN.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
War is a Laboratory for AI with Paul Scharre
No One is Immune to AI Harms with Dr. Joy Buolamwini
Can We Govern AI? With Marietje Schaake
CLARIFICATION:
The iBorderCtrl project referenced in this episode was a pilot project that was discontinued in 2019
This week, a group of current and former employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind penned an open letter accusing the industry’s leading companies of prioritizing profits over safety. This comes after a spate of high profile departures from OpenAI, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever and senior researcher Jan Leike, as well as reports that OpenAI has gone to great lengths to silence would-be whistleblowers.
The writers of the open letter argue that researchers have a “right to warn” the public about AI risks and laid out a series of principles that would protect that right. In this episode, we sit down with one of those writers: William Saunders, who left his job as a research engineer at OpenAI in February. William is now breaking the silence on what he saw at OpenAI that compelled him to leave the company and to put his name to this letter.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The Right to Warn Open Letter
My Perspective On "A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence": A follow-up from William about the letter
Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees: An investigation by Vox into OpenAI’s policy of non-disparagement.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Right now, militaries around the globe are investing heavily in the use of AI weapons and drones. From Ukraine to Gaza, weapons systems with increasing levels of autonomy are being used to kill people and destroy infrastructure and the development of fully autonomous weapons shows little signs of slowing down. What does this mean for the future of warfare? What safeguards can we put up around these systems? And is this runaway trend toward autonomous warfare inevitable or will nations come together and choose a different path? In this episode, Tristan and Daniel sit down with Paul Scharre to try to answer some of these questions. Paul is a former Army Ranger, the author of two books on autonomous weapons and he helped the Department of Defense write a lot of its policy on the use of AI in weaponry.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Paul’s book on the future of AI in war, which came out in 2023.
Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War: Paul’s 2018 book documenting and predicting the rise of autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons as part of modern warfare.
The Perilous Coming Age of AI Warfare: How to Limit the Threat of Autonomous Warfare: Paul’s article in Foreign Affairs based on his recent trip to the battlefield in Ukraine.
The night the world almost almost ended: A BBC documentary about Stanislav Petrov’s decision not to start nuclear war.
AlphaDogfight Trials Final Event: The full simulated dogfight between an AI and human pilot. The AI pilot swept, 5-0.
‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza: An investigation into the use of AI targeting systems by the IDF.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Tech companies say that AI will lead to massive economic productivity gains. But as we know from the first digital revolution, that’s not what happened. Can we do better this time around?
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Power and Progress by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson Professor Acemoglu co-authored a bold reinterpretation of economics and history that will fundamentally change how you see the world
Can we Have Pro-Worker AI? Professor Acemoglu co-authored this paper about redirecting AI development onto the human-complementary path
Rethinking Capitalism: In Conversation with Daron Acemoglu The Wheeler Institute for Business and Development hosted Professor Acemoglu to examine how technology affects the distribution and growth of resources while being shaped by economic and social incentives
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Suicides. Self harm. Depression and anxiety. The toll of a social media-addicted, phone-based childhood has never been more stark. It can be easy for teens, parents and schools to feel like they’re trapped by it all. But in this conversation with Tristan Harris, author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt makes the case that the conditions that led to today’s teenage mental health crisis can be turned around – with specific, achievable actions we all can take starting today.
This episode was recorded live at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club.
Correction: Tristan mentions that 40 Attorneys General have filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly fostering addiction among children and teens through their products. However, the actual number is 42 Attorneys General who are taking legal action against Meta.
Clarification: Jonathan refers to the Wait Until 8th pledge. By signing the pledge, a parent promises not to give their child a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. The pledge becomes active once at least ten other families from their child’s grade pledge the same.
Beneath the race to train and release more powerful AI models lies another race: a race by companies and nation-states to secure the hardware to make sure they win AI supremacy.
Correction: The latest available Nvidia chip is the Hopper H100 GPU, which has 80 billion transistors. Since the first commercially available chip had four transistors, the Hopper actually has 20 billion times that number. Nvidia recently announced the Blackwell, which boasts 208 billion transistors - but it won’t ship until later this year.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Chip War: The Fight For the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller
To make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips
Gordon Moore Biography & Facts
Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder behind Moore's Law, passed away in March of 2023
AI’s most popular chipmaker Nvidia is trying to use AI to design chips faster
Nvidia's GPUs are in high demand - and the company is using AI to accelerate chip production
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Future-proofing Democracy In the Age of AI with Audrey Tang
How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections? with Renee DiResta and Carl Miller
The AI ‘Race’: China vs. the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao
Protecting Our Freedom of Thought with Nita Farahany
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
What does a functioning democracy look like in the age of artificial intelligence? Could AI even be used to help a democracy flourish? Just in time for election season, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang returns to the podcast to discuss healthy information ecosystems, resilience to cyberattacks, how to “prebunk” deepfakes, and more.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
This academic paper addresses tough questions for Americans: Who governs? Who really rules?
Recursive Public
Recursive Public is an experiment in identifying areas of consensus and disagreement among the international AI community, policymakers, and the general public on key questions of governance
A Strong Democracy is a Digital Democracy
Audrey Tang’s 2019 op-ed for The New York Times
The Frontiers of Digital Democracy
Nathan Gardels interviews Audrey Tang in Noema
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Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
The Tech We Need for 21st Century Democracy with Divya Siddarth
How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections? with Renee DiResta and Carl Miller
The AI Dilemma
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Was it political progress, or just political theater? The recent Senate hearing with social media CEOs led to astonishing moments — including Mark Zuckerberg’s public apology to families who lost children following social media abuse. Our panel of experts, including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, untangles the explosive hearing, and offers a look ahead, as well. How will this hearing impact protocol within these social media companies? How will it impact legislation? In short: will anything change?
Clarification: Julie says that shortly after the hearing, Meta’s stock price had the biggest increase of any company in the stock market’s history. It was the biggest one-day gain by any company in Wall Street history.
Correction: Frances says it takes Snap three or four minutes to take down exploitative content. In Snap's most recent transparency report, they list six minutes as the median turnaround time to remove exploitative content.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Get Media Savvy
Founded by Julie Scelfo, Get Media Savvy is a non-profit initiative working to establish a healthy media environment for kids and families
The Power of One by Frances Haugen
The inside story of France’s quest to bring transparency and accountability to Big Tech
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Real Social Media Solutions, Now with Frances Haugen
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen
Are the Kids Alright?
Social Media Victims Lawyer Up with Laura Marquez-Garrett
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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