Silicon Valley AI researchers discuss the future of AI and their plan if things go wrong. Highlights include concerns about AI in social media, dangers of leaked language models, increasing power and accessibility of AI, skepticism and voluntary commitments regarding AI in the US, urgency of global AI chip monitoring, and the importance of focusing on success in the future.

Jeffrey Ding, an academic researcher, and Karen Hao, a journalist, discuss the nuances of China's AI development, including advantages, limitations, and risks. They tackle topics such as China's surveillance and data collection edge, the relationship between Chinese companies and the government, concerns in AI development, challenges of coordination, and the complex AI competition between China and the US. They emphasize the importance of understanding China's progress and the potential for collaboration.

Esther Perel, acclaimed psychotherapist and relationship expert, discusses the rise of Artificial Intimacy and the impact of technology on relationships. They explore the limitations of AI-assisted therapy and the importance of genuine human connection. The speakers delve into the regressive nature of imaginary friends and the need to embrace the full range of human experiences. They also discuss the potential ramifications of virtual relationships and the importance of real human connection for mental and relational well-being.

We are on the cusp of an explosion of cheap,  consumer-ready neurotechnology - from earbuds that gather our behavioral data,  to sensors that can read our dreams. And it’s all going to be supercharged by AI. This technology is moving from niche to mainstream - and it has the same potential to become exponential. Legal scholar Nita Farahany talks us through the current state of neurotechnology and its deep links to AI. She says that we urgently need to protect the last frontier of privacy: our internal thoughts. And she argues that without a new legal framework around “cognitive liberty,” we won’t be able to insulate our brains from corporate and government intrusion.RECOMMENDED MEDIA The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology by Nita FarahanyThe Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselvesComputer Program Reveals What Neurons in the Visual Cortex Prefer to Look AtA study of macaque monkeys at Harvard generated valuable clues based on an artificial intelligence system that can reliably determine what neurons in the brain’s visual cortex prefer to seeUnderstanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhanAn influential work by a fixture in media discourseRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES The Three Rules of Humane TechTalking With Animals… Using AIHow to Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven HassanYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Social media was humanity’s ‘first contact’ moment with AI. If we’re going to create laws that are strong enough to prevent AI from destroying our societies, we could benefit from taking a look at the major lawsuits against social media platforms that are playing out in our courts right now.In our last episode, we took a close look at Big Food and its dangerous “race to the bottom” that parallels AI. We continue that theme this week with an episode about litigating social media and the consequences of the race to engagement in order to inform how we can approach AI harms. Our guest, attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett, left her predominantly defense-oriented practice to join the Social Media Victims Law Center in February 2022. Laura is literally on the front lines of the battle to hold social media firms accountable for the harms they have created in young people’s lives for the past decade. Listener warning: there are distressing and potentially triggering details within the episode.Correction: Tristan refers to the Social Media Victims Law Center as a nonprofit legal center. They are a for-profit law firm.RECOMMENDED MEDIA 1) If you're a parent whose child has been impacted by social media, Attorneys General in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Tennessee are asking to hear your story. Your testimonies can help ensure that social media platforms are designed safely for kids. For more information, please visit the respective state links.ColoradoNew HampshireTennessee2) Social Media Victims Law CenterA non-profit legal center that was founded in 2021 in response to the testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen3) Resources for Parents & EducatorsOverwhelmed by our broken social media environment and wondering where to start? Check out our Youth Toolkit plus three actions you can take today4) The Social DilemmaLearn how the system works. Watch and share The Social Dilemma with people you care aboutRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan MarronA Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances HaugenBehind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma with Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Larissa RhodesYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

In the next two episodes of Your Undivided Attention, we take a close look at two respective industries: big food and social media, which represent dangerous “races to the bottom” and have big parallels with AI.  And we are asking: what can our past mistakes and missed opportunities teach us about how we should approach AI harms? In this first episode, Tristan talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Michael Moss. His book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us rocked the fast food industry when it came out in 2014. Tristan and Michael discuss how we can leverage the lessons learned from Big Food’s coordination failures, and whether it’s the responsibility of the consumer, the government, or the companies to regulate. RECOMMENDED MEDIA Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked UsMichael’s New York Times bestseller. You’ll never look at a nutrition label the same way againHooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our AddictionsMichael’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public healthControl Your Tech UseCenter for Humane Technology’s recently updated Take Control ToolkitRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESAI Myths and MisconceptionsThe AI DilemmaHow Might a long-term stock market transform tech? (ZigZag episode) Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

What happens when creators consider what lifelong human development looks like in terms of the tools we make? And what philosophies from Sesame Street can inform how to steward the power of AI and social media to influence minds in thoughtful, humane directions?When the first episode of Sesame Street aired on PBS in 1969, it was unlike anything that had been on television before - a collaboration between educators, child psychologists, comedy writers and puppeteers - all working together to do something that had never been done before: create educational content for children on television. Fast-forward to the present: could we switch gears to reprogram today’s digital tools to   humanely educate the next generation? That’s the question Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, the Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content for the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street. RECOMMENDED MEDIA Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame StreetThis documentary offers a rare window into the early days of Sesame Street, revealing the creators, artists, writers and educators who together established one of the most influential and enduring children’s programs in television historySesame Street: Ready for School!: A Parent's Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5 by Dr. Rosemarie TruglioRosemarie shares all the research-based, curriculum-directed school readiness skills that have made Sesame Street the preeminent children's TV programG Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street co-edited by Shalom Fisch and Rosemarie TruglioThis volume serves as a marker of the significant role that Sesame Street plays in the education and socialization of young childrenThe Democratic Surround by Fred TurnerIn this prequel to his celebrated book From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Turner rewrites the history of postwar America, showing how in the 1940s and 1950s American liberalism offered a far more radical social vision than we now rememberAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanNeil Postman’s groundbreaking book about the damaging effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth centurySesame Workshop Identity Matters StudyExplore parents’ and educators’ perceptions of children’s social identity developmentEffects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children's learning in 15 countriesCommissioned by Sesame Workshop, the study was led by University of Wisconsin researchers Marie-Louise Mares and Zhongdang PanU.S. Parents & Teachers See an Unkind World for Their Children, New Sesame Survey ShowsAccording to the survey titled, “K is for Kind: A National Survey On Kindness and Kids,” parents and teachers in the United States worry that their children are living in an unkind worldRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESAre the Kids Alright? With Jonathan HaidtThe Three Rules of Humane TechWhen Media Was for You and Me with Fred Turner Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

You’re likely familiar with the modern zombie trope: a zombie bites someone you care about and they’re transformed into a creature who wants your brain. Zombies are the perfect metaphor to explain something Tristan and Aza have been thinking about lately that they call zombie values.In this Spotlight episode of Your Undivided Attention, we talk through some examples of how zombie values limit our thinking around tech harms. Our hope is that by the end of this episode, you'll be able to recognize the zombie values that walk amongst us, and think through how to upgrade these values to meet the realities of our modern world. RECOMMENDED MEDIA Is the First Amendment Obsolete?This essay explores free expression challengesThe Wisdom GapThis blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of themRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES A Problem Well-Stated is Half Solved with Daniel SchmachtenbergerHow To Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Steve HassanYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

There’s really no one better than veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher at challenging people to articulate their thinking. Tristan Harrris recently sat down with her for a wide ranging interview on AI risk. She even pressed Tristan on whether he is a doomsday prepper. It was so great, we wanted to share it with you here. The interview was originally on Kara’s podcast ON with Kara Swisher. If you like it and want to hear more of Kara’s interviews with folks like Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and others, you can find more episodes of ON with Kara Swisher here: https://link.chtbl.com/_XTWwg3kRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES AI Myths and MisconceptionsThe AI DilemmaThe Three Rules of Humane TechYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Democracy in action has looked the same for generations. Constituents might go to a library or school every one or two years and cast their vote for people who don't actually represent everything that they care about. Our technology is rapidly increasing in sophistication, yet our forms of democracy have largely remained unchanged. What would an upgrade look like - not just for democracy, but for all the different places that democratic decision-making happens?On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we’re joined by political economist and social technologist Divya Siddarth, one of the world's leading experts in collective intelligence. Together we explore how new kinds of governance can be supported through better technology, and how collective decision-making is key to unlocking everything from more effective elections to better ways of responding to global problems like climate change.Correction:Tristan mentions Elon Musk’s attempt to manufacture ventilators early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. Musk ended up buying over 1,200 ventilators that were delivered to California.RECOMMENDED MEDIAAgainst Democracy by Jason BrennanA provocative challenge to one of our most cherished institutionsLedger of HarmsTechnology platforms have created a race for human attention that’s unleashed invisible harms to society. Here are some of the costs that aren't showing up on their balance sheetsThe Wisdom GapThis blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of themDemocracyNextDemocracyNext is working to design and establish new institutions for government and transform the governance of organizations that influence public lifeCIP.orgAn incubator for new governance models for transformative technologyEtheloTransform community engagement through consensusKazm’s Living Room ConversationsLiving Room Conversations works to heal society by connecting people across divides through guided conversations proven to build understanding and transform communitiesThe Citizens DialogueA model for citizen participation in Ostbelgien, which was brought to life by the parliament of the German-speaking communityAsamblea Ciudadana Para El ClimaSpain’s national citizens’ assembly on climate changeClimate Assembly UKThe UK’s national citizens’ assembly on climate changeCitizens’ Convention for the ClimateFrance’s national citizens’ assembly on climate changePolisPolis is a real-time system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learningRECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESDigital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang They Don’t Represent Us with Larry LessigA Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate RaworthYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_