Exploring the Origins of the Attention Economy

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The chapter delves into the early stages of understanding the attention economy, tracing back to the speaker's time at Google in 2011. It discusses the societal implications of tech companies' relentless pursuit of capturing and monetizing attention, highlighting concerns about the impact on human attention spans.

When Tristan Harris co-founded the Center for Humane Technology in 2018, he was trying to educate tech leaders and policymakers about the harms of social media.

But today, he’s sounding the alarm about a different technology — one that he says could pose an existential threat to the entire world …

Artificial intelligence.

This week on How I Built This Lab: the first of a two-episode series in which Tristan and Guy examine the serious risks posed by the rapid development and deployment of AI — and what we can do to make sure this powerful technology is used for good.

You can learn more about “The Social Dilemma,” the 2020 Emmy-winning docudrama featuring Tristan, here: https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/.

This episode was researched and produced by Alex Cheng with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

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