Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman

Human Agency in a Digital World with Marcus Fontoura

Dec 11, 2025
Marcus Fontoura, a Technical Fellow at Microsoft and author of 'Human Agency in a Digital World,' dives into the pressing question of maintaining human control over technology. He discusses the transition from passive users to active participants in automation and the importance of ethics in design. Marcus raises concerns about AI's impact on engineering careers and stresses the need for teamwork diversity to prevent fragility. He emphasizes focusing AI on real human issues while encouraging tech professionals to engage in public policy discussions.
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INSIGHT

AI Is Evolution, Not Instant Revolution

  • AI progress is an evolution built on decades of prior work rather than a sudden revolution.
  • Massive data and compute accelerate progress but the foundations mirror earlier advances in search and translation.
INSIGHT

Resilience Comes From Designing For Failure

  • Resilient digital systems assume unreliable parts and engineer resiliency on top.
  • This differs from traditional engineering which aims to build immovable, monolithic robustness.
ADVICE

Be Intentional About What AI Should Do

  • Design AI systems to amplify human values and preserve activities we deem inherently human.
  • Decide which tasks you willingly delegate to AI and which you intentionally keep for human participation.
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