Stay ConnectedJoin co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin every other Thursday to understand how new technologies are shaping the way we live, work, and think.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by our Senior Producer Julia Scott and our Executive Producer Josh Lash. We are a member of the TED Audio Collective.
Copyright: © 2019-2025 Center for Humane Technology
[This episode originally aired on August 17, 2023] For all the talk about AI, we rarely hear about how it will change our relationships. As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, acclaimed psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel warns that there’s another harmful “AI” on the rise — Artificial Intimacy — and how it is depriving us of real connection. Tristan and Esther discuss how depending on algorithms can fuel alienation, and then imagine how we might design technology to strengthen our social bonds.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Esther's debut work on the intricacies behind modern relationships, and the dichotomy of domesticity and sexual desire
The State of Affairs by Esther Perel
Esther takes a look at modern relationships through the lens of infidelity
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
Listen in as real couples in search of help bare the raw and profound details of their stories
Esther’s podcast that focuses on the hard conversations we're afraid to have at work
A young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the internet
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss
The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
CORRECTION: Esther refers to the 2007 film Lars and the Real Doll. The title of the film is Lars and the Real Girl.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Today, the tech industry is the second-biggest lobbying power in Washington, DC, but that wasn’t true as recently as ten years ago. How did we get to this moment? And where could we be going next? On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Daniel sit down with historian Margaret O’Mara and journalist Brody Mullins to discuss how Silicon Valley has changed the nature of American lobbying.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government - Brody’s book on the history of lobbying.
The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America - Margaret’s book on the historical relationship between Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill
More information on the Google antitrust ruling
More information on the SOPA/PIPA internet blackout
Detailed breakdown of Internet lobbying from Open Secrets
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
U.S. Senators Grilled Social Media CEOs. Will Anything Change?
Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake
The Race to Cooperation with David Sloan Wilson
CORRECTION: Brody Mullins refers to AT&T as having a “hundred million dollar” lobbying budget in 2006 and 2007. While we couldn’t verify the size of their budget for lobbying, their actual lobbying spend was much less than this: $27.4m in 2006 and $16.5m in 2007, according to OpenSecrets.
The views expressed by guests appearing on Center for Humane Technology’s podcast, Your Undivided Attention, are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CHT. CHT does not support or oppose any candidate or party for election to public office
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
It’s been a year and half since Tristan and Aza laid out their vision and concerns for the future of artificial intelligence in The AI Dilemma. In this Spotlight episode, the guys discuss what’s happened since then–as funding, research, and public interest in AI has exploded–and where we could be headed next. Plus, some major updates on social media reform, including the passage of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act in the Senate.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The AI Dilemma: Tristan and Aza’s talk on the catastrophic risks posed by AI.
Info Sheet on KOSPA: More information on KOSPA from FairPlay.
Situational Awareness by Leopold Aschenbrenner: A widely cited blog from a former OpenAI employee, predicting the rapid arrival of AGI.
AI for Good: More information on the AI for Good summit that was held earlier this year in Geneva.
Using AlphaFold in the Fight Against Plastic Pollution: More information on Google’s use of AlphaFold to create an enzyme to break down plastics.
Swiss Call For Trust and Transparency in AI: More information on the initiatives mentioned by Katharina Frey.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
War is a Laboratory for AI with Paul Scharre
Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis
Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake
The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Clarification: Swiss diplomat Nina Frey’s full name is Katharina Frey.
The views expressed by guests appearing on Center for Humane Technology’s podcast, Your Undivided Attention, are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CHT. CHT does not support or oppose any candidate or party for election to public office
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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
Clarification: President Biden’s executive order only applies to labs that receive funding from the federal government, not state governments.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
A free, plain text version of the Shelley’s classic of gothic literature.
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.
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.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy
Talking With Animals... Using AI
Synthetic Humanity: AI & What’s At Stake
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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.”
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
A report co-authored by Petra about Canada’s use of AI technology in their immigration process.
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
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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
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_
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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_
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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_
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
