Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

Why do some nations fail in their lurch towards liberty while others succeed? James Robinson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 19 of Brave New World to explain why there is no simple answer to that question -- but the balance between the state and society is central to understanding it. Also discussed: the developing challenge of Big Tech. Useful resources: 1. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty -- Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 2. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty --  Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 3. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age -- Episode 18 of Brave New World.

The first machine age was about mechanical machines. We now live in a time of thinking machines. Erik Brynjolfsson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 18 of Brave New World to talk about the impact of AI on productivity and inequality -- and to explain why he remains optimistic about the prospects for humans in the AI era.   Useful resources: 1. The Second Machine Age -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. 2. Erik Brynjolfsson's website, SSRN page and Google Scholar page. 3. The coming productivity boom --  Erik Brynjolfsson and Georgios Petropoulos 4. Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock & Chad Syverson. 5. The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies --  Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock and Chad Syverson. 6. How Should We Measure the Digital Economy? -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Avinash Collis. 7. GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Avinash Collis, W. Erwin Diewert, Felix Eggers & Kevin J. Fox. 8. Digital Capital and Superstar Firms -- Prasanna Tambe, Lorin Hitt, Daniel Rock & Erik Brynjolfsson. 9. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work -- Congressional Testimony of Erik Brynjolfsson (September 24, 2019). 10. Do Digital Platforms Reduce Moral Hazard? The Case of Uber and Taxis -- Meng Liu, Erik Brynjolfsson and Jason Dowlatabadi. 11. Does Machine Translation Affect International Trade? -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Xiang Hui & Meng Liu. 12. The Economics of Superstars -- Sherwin Rosen. 13. General Purpose Technologies "Engines of Growth?" -- Timothy F. Bresnahan & Manuel Trajtenberg. 14. Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism -- Anne Case and Angus Deaton. 15. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren -- John Maynard Keynes. 16. Understanding QE in the New World -- Episode 10 of Brave New World (w Paul Sheard). 17. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 18. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway).

How do we come upon our morality? How much of our moral judgement is intuitive and how much is learned? Moral philosopher Peter Railton joins Vasant Dhar in episode 17 of Brave New World to talk about his thinking in this area -- and also how the fields of ethics and AI are colliding. Useful resources: 1. Facts, Values, and Norms: Essays toward a Morality of Consequence -- Peter Railton.  2. Moral Learning: Conceptual foundations and normative relevance -- Peter Railton. 3. Ethical Learning, Natural and Artificial -- Peter Railton. 4. Ethics of Artificial Intelligence -- S Matthew Liao (Editor) 5. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian). 6. Are We Becoming a New Species? -- Episode 12 of Brave New World (w Molly Crockett). 7. Samuel Moyn on Humane War -- Episode 16 of Brave New World. 8. Human-level performance in 3D multiplayer games with population-based reinforcement learning -- Max Jaderberg et al. 9. A multi-agent reinforcement learning model of common-pool resource appropriation -- Julien Perolat et al.

Is a humane war a contradiction in terms? Can rules be made and followed that limit the damage that wars do, or will that make conflict perpetual? Is it necessary and moral for the USA to continue to be the policeman of the world? Samuel Moyn joins Vasant Dhar in episode 16 of Brave New World to tackle the thorny ethical and practical questions around warfare and terrorism as technologies become more precise and lethal. Useful resources: 1. Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War -- Samuel Moyn. 2. Samuel Moyn's books on Amazon.

The internet began with an Age of Innocence, which gave way to the Age of Commerce, driven by the advertising model. Nandan Nilekani joins Vasant Dhar in episode 15 of Brave New World to describe how we have now entered the Age of Geopolitics, in which nation states are jostling for power with big tech companies, while tailoring regulation based on their needs and aspirations. They also discuss Nandan's pioneering role in building India's data empowerment architecture -- which the rest of the world can learn from in designing systems that empower individuals as well as societies. Useful resources: 1. Nandan Nilekani's books on Amazon. 2. “Rogue Intermediaries”: Designing Equitable Digital Playgrounds -- Arun Mohan Sukumar. 3. Agile Tech Regulation -- Rahul Matthan. 4. Why anti-trust is antiquated for Big Tech -- Charles Assisi.

Is our democracy in peril? What role has the media played in this? What should we do about it? Ali Velshi joins Vasant Dhar in episode 14 of Brave New World to discuss the subtleties of bias, fake news, information consumption and what to do about social media. Useful resources: 1. Ali Velshi on Twitter and Instagram. 2. Understanding QE in the New World -- Episode 10 of Brave New World (w Paul Sheard). 3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 4. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian). 5. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).

As artificial intelligence gets more and more powerful, the need becomes greater to ensure that machines do the right thing. But what does that even mean? Brian Christian joins Vasant Dhar in episode 13 of Brave New World to discuss, as the title of his new book goes, the alignment problem. Useful resources: 1. Brian Christian's homepage. 2. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values -- Brian Christian. 3. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions -- Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. 4. The Most Human Human -- Brian Christian. 5. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 6. Are We Becoming a New Species? -- Episode 12 of Brave New World (w Molly Crockett). 7. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn) 8. Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation -- Norbert Wiener. 9.Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies -- Nick Bostrom. 10. Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control -- Stuart Russell. 11. OpenAI. 12. Center for Human-Compatible AI. 13. Concrete Problems in AI Safety -- Dario Amodei, Chris Olah, Jacob Steinhardt, Paul Christiano, John Schulman, Dan Mané. 14. Machine Bias -- Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner. 15. Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores -- Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, Manish Raghavan. 16. Algorithmic Decision Making and the Cost of Fairness -- Sam Corbett-Davies, Emma Pierson, Avi Feller, Sharad Goel, Aziz Huq.. 17. Predictions Put Into Practice -- Jessica Saunders, Priscillia Hunt, John S. Hollywood 18. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets -- Donald MacKenzie. 19. An Anthropologist on Mars -- Oliver Sacks. 20. Deep Reinforcement Learning from Human Preferences -- Paul F Christiano, Jan Leike, Tom B Brown, Miljan Martic, Shane Legg, Dario Amadei for OpenAI & Deep Mind.

Social media is changing human behavior. How and why are humans being transformed by algorithms? Molly Crockett joins Vasant Dhar in episode 12 of Brave New World to describe her work at the meeting place of technology and morality. Useful resources: 1. Molly Crockett at Yale, Oxford Neuroscience, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Crockett Lab. 3. Moral outrage in the digital age -- MJ Crockett. 4. The MAD Model of Moral Contagion: The Role of Motivation, Attention, and Design in the Spread of Moralized Content Online -- William J Brady, MJ Crockett and Jay J Van Bavel. 5. Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments -- Jim AC Everett, David A Pizarro and MJ Crockett. 6. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 7. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 8. A computational reward learning account of social media engagement -- Björn Lindström and others. 9. The Alignment Problem -- Brian Christian. 10. You and the Algorithm: It Takes Two to Tango -- Nick Clegg. 11. Moral Learning: Conceptual foundations and normative relevance -- Peter Railton. 12. The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles -- Jean-François Bonnefon, Azim Shariff and Iyad Rahwan. 13. Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks -- William J Brady and others.

In these polarised times, what should the colleges of tomorrow look like? Michael S Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 11 of Brave New World to discuss his vision for liberal education. We should empower individuals, he says, by designing for serendipity. Useful resources: 1. Safe Enough Spaces -- Michael S Roth. 2. Beyond the University -- Michael S Roth. 3. ‘Minds Wide Shut’ Review: Dogma, Division and Distrust -- Michael S Roth. 4. Forgiveness in an age of cancel culture -- Michael S Roth. 5. Higher Education Must Stand Up for Voting Rights -- Michael S Roth. 6. Reasoning in Rough Times -- Michael S Roth. 7. A Focus on Critical Feeling -- Michael S Roth. 8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).

Covid was a shock to the global economy. Policy makers have responded with Quantitative Easing. Paul Sheard joins Vasant Dhar in episode 10 of Brave New World to discuss the nuances of QE and its possible impacts. Also discussed: the role of monetary policy in this changing tech landscape, helicopter money and the big question of the 21st century. (Listen to find out!) Useful resources: 1. Quantitative Easing - Explaining It and Dispelling the Myths -- Paul Sheard. 2. MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) – What Is It and Can It Help? -- Paul Sheard. 3. Don’t Lose Sleep Over Mounting Government Debt -- Paul Sheard. 4. A More Robust Macroeconomic Policy Framework Is Needed -- Paul Sheard. 5. The Economic Impact of AI -- Paul Sheard. 6. Bank of International Settlements: Central bank digital currencies: foundational principals and core features. 7. Group of Thirty: Digital Currencies and Stablecoins: Risks, Opportunities, and Challenges Ahead.