The Tech Policy Press Podcast

In 2019, journalist Kashmir Hill had just joined The New York Times when she got a tip about the existence of a company called Clearview AI that claimed it could identify almost anyone with a photo. But the company was hard to contact, and people who knew about it didn’t want to talk. Hill resorted to old fashioned shoe-leather reporting, trying to track down the company and its executives. By January of 2020, the Times was ready to report what she had learned in a piece titled “The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It.” Three years later, Hill has published a book that tells the story of Clearview AI, but with the benefit of a great deal more reporting and study on the social, political, and technological forces behind it. It's called Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy As We Know It, just out from Penguin Random House.

This podcast explores the scale and influence of technology platforms, including the legal complexities of ride-hailing platforms in Colombia and the use of technology by immigrant communities. It also delves into the challenges of addressing data privacy and child protection in Big Tech, as well as the difficulties in implementing privacy laws in the United States.

Dr. Shelby Grossman discusses AI's ability to write persuasive propaganda. Dr. Kirsty Park and Steph Amunke highlight the shortcomings of the initial disinformation code of practice and the new strengthened code. The assessment of reporting requirements reveals that most platforms scored below adequate. The transition to a code of conduct in relation to the Digital Services Act is discussed. Addressing disinformation challenges and solutions, with the importance of regulating procedures and intervening at the economic and ecosystem level.

Paul Gowder, Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Research and Intellectual Life at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, discusses the governance problem of social media platforms and argues for worldwide direct democratic institutions. Topics covered include reimagining the future of social media platforms, academic background and the creation of the oversight board, harmful effects of surveillance capitalism, advantages and concerns of centralization and decentralization, and addressing the problem of Donald Trump and the Great Deplatforming.

Researchers Alina Leidinger and Richard Rogers discuss their study on search engine auto complete perpetuating stereotypes. The speakers explore the challenges of moderating gender stereotypes and the impact of search engine suggestions on people's thoughts and behavior. They also delve into the incorporation of AI terminology in journalism, clarifying terms in robotics and AI, and the use of language models and AI in journalism. Associated Press' new language guidance for covering AI is highlighted.

Cornell researchers Houston Claure and Malte Jung discuss the social consequences of 'machine allocation behavior' and how humans feel and behave differently when machines make decisions on resource allocation. Author Tom Kemp talks about his concerns on data collection and privacy in Silicon Valley, his involvement in privacy advocacy, and proposing a bill for better regulation of data brokers in California. The podcast also covers the lack of regulation on tech companies' information collection, solutions for addressing big tech dominance, and the importance of education and advocacy.

This week, Indian legislators approved a data protection law that will govern the processing of data in the country. The bill creates a data protection board and gives the government new powers, including to request information from companies and to issue orders to block content. While there is still work to do to determine how the law will be administered, it joins a range of new tech policy laws and regulations enacted against a backdrop of the increasing centralization of power in India’s government.To discuss the bill, Justin Hendrix is joined by Aditi Agrawal, an independent technology journalist based in New Delhi; Kamesh Shekar, a tech policy expert who leads the privacy and data governance vertical at The Dialogue, a think tank based in Delhi; and Prateek Waghre, the Policy Director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy organization based in India.

Lots of voices are calling for the regulation of artificial intelligence. In the US, at present it seems there is no federal legislation close to becoming law. But in 2023 legislative sessions in states across the country, there has been a surge in AI laws proposed and passed, and some have already taken effect. To learn more about this wave of legislation, I spoke to two people who just posted a comprehensive review of AI laws in US states: Katrina Zhu, a law clerk at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and a law student at the UCLA School of Law, and EPIC senior counsel Ben Winters.

A unique collaboration between social scientists and Meta to conduct research on Facebook and Instagram during the height of the 2020 US election has at long last produced its first work products. The release of four peer-reviewed studies last week in Science and Nature mark the first of as many as sixteen studies that promise fresh insights into the complex dynamics of social media and public discourse. But beyond the findings of the research, the partnership between Meta and some of the most prominent researchers in the field has been held up as a model. With active discussions ongoing in multiple jurisdictions about how best to facilitate access to platform data for independent researchers, it’s worth scrutinizing the strengths and weaknesses of this partnership. And to do that, Justin Hendrix is joined by one researcher who was able to observe and evaluate nearly every detail of the process for the last three years: the project's rapporteur, Michael Wagner, who in his day job is a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

In today’s podcast, Justin Hendrix talks with director, writer and actor Alex Winter, whose new documentary, The YouTube Effect, is in select theaters now and will be available on streaming platforms on August 8th. The film's creators assert that "the story of YouTube is the great dilemma of our times; the technology revolution has made our lives easier and more enriched, while also presenting dangers and challenges that make the world a more perilous place."