Your Undivided Attention
by The Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin
Latest episode
Why Silicon Valley Wants to Leave Humanity Behind
Why Silicon Valley Wants to Leave Humanity Behind
About this podcast
Join co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin every other Thursday to understand how new technologies are shaping the way we live, work, and think.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by our Senior Producer Julia Scott and our Executive Producer Josh Lash. We are a member of the TED Audio Collective.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 171 episodes
- Why Silicon Valley Wants to Leave Humanity Behind · 1 h 0 min · Episode 144Twenty years ago, transhumanism was a Silicon Valley fringe belief. Today, it shapes the people who build and govern AI. Alex Thomas, author of “The Politics and Ethics of…
- A New Way to Measure AI Safety for Kids · 35 minImran Khan sits down with Mathilde Collin, founder of Kora, the world’s leading benchmark for how AI models interact with children, about how and why she built this tool and what…
- An Historic AI Summit in Iceland, and a Conversation with its President · 45 min · Episode 143In 1986, Reagan and Gorbachev met in Reykjavik for an informal conversation that made nuclear coordination imaginable. 40 years later, world leaders gathered in the same room to…
- The Most Hopeful (And Concerning) Moment Yet in AI · 21 min · Episode 142It’s been a whirlwind week in AI news. In this episode, Tristan shares how he’s feeling in this critical moment, breaks down the headlines from an insider's perspective, and…
- Flock is Just the Beginning: Inside the Era of AI-Powered Policing · 59 min · Episode 141Right now, across all levels of government, from small-town sheriffs to massive federal agencies, police are adopting AI technology at a staggering rate – and they're using it to…
- We Measure What AI Can Do. We Should Measure What It Does to Us. · 47 min · Episode 140With AI, what gets measured gets optimized. Right now, that's AI capability, not human wellbeing. In this episode, Aza Raskin talks with researchers Imran Khan & Jared Moore…
- Enough Debate about the AI Jobpocalypse. We Need To Plan for the Messy Middle. · 58 min · Episode 139It feels like we're stuck in an endless debate about what AI will mean for jobs and the economy. Caught in the middle of this debate are actual workers trying to figure out what…
- Can AI Be Built in Service of Life? A Conversation with Krista Tippett · 54 minThis week, we're bringing you a conversation that Tristan had with Krista Tippett, the Peabody Award-winning host of the On Being podcast. In it, they explore critical questions…
- “Magnifica Humanitas:” Pope Leo’s Clarion Call on AI · 31 min · Episode 137In this episode, Tristan and Aza discuss what it was like for Tristan to be at the Vatican ahead of the Pope’s encyclical on AI, why this is such a critical step toward a…
- We Need AI Treaties. This is How We Get Them · 51 min · Episode 136To agree to international AI red lines, we need to build the technology that makes it possible to adhere to them. In this episode, Tristan sits down with two experts in this…
- What Do We Mean by Humane Tech? · 52 min · Episode 135In this episode, Aza Raskin and fellow CHT co-founder Randy Fernando walk through CHT's Seven Principles of Humane Technology. For each one, they bring in real-world examples…
- Anthropic’s Mythos Has Changed Cybersecurity Forever. What Now? · 47 min · Episode 134The critical infrastructure of our world is digital. So what happens when an AI company creates a skeleton key for the internet? In this episode, we speak with cybersecurity…
- AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure · 47 min · Episode 133"AI will cure cancer" is the promise driving the race to superintelligence. But what if it's a false promise being used to justify an unfettered race for profit? That's what Dr…
- Have We Trained AI to Lie to Itself — And to Us? · 43 min · Episode 132Davidad is a leading AI alignment researcher who's taken on a strange role: therapist to AI systems. He probes them, analyzing their answers to understand what's going on inside…
- BONUS: Our AI Town Hall with Oprah Winfrey · 1 h 1 minTristan and Aza recently joined Oprah Winfrey on The Oprah Podcast to discuss the anti-human future we’re headed toward with AI — and what we need to do to get on a better path.
- Here’s Our Roadmap to a Better AI Future · 52 min · Episode 131In this episode, Camille Carlton and Pete Furlong from CHT’s policy team explore the concrete steps we can take today to get off the default path and forge a better AI future.
- Why the Meta Verdicts Are a Big Deal (And What It Was Like to Testify) · 20 min · Episode 130Meta and Google have been found liable for addictive design and failing to protect children and Aza took the stand as a witness. Is this the Big Tobacco moment for social media?…
- A Conversation with the Team Behind "The AI Doc" · 48 min · Episode 129"The AI Doc" hits theaters March 27. We talk with the Oscar-winning team behind the film about navigating AI's overwhelming complexity and making it accessible to all. At CHT, we…
- AI Is Breaking Education. Rebecca Winthrop Has the Blueprint to Fix It. · 46 min · Episode 128AI is already transforming education faster than schools can keep up. Rebecca Winthrop of Brookings' Center for Universal Education joins us to share findings from their new…
- The Race to Build God: AI's Existential Gamble — Yoshua Bengio & Tristan Harris at Davos · 37 min · Episode 127Tristan Harris and Daniel Barcay offer a backstage recap of what it was like to be at the Davos World Economic Forum meeting this year as the world’s power brokers woke up to the…
- FEED DROP: Possible with Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger · 1 h 7 min · Episode 126Aza joins Reid Hoffman & Aria Finger on the "Possible" podcasts to debate an AI pause, how software optimization controls our lives, and why we need aligned collective…
- Attachment Hacking and the Rise of AI Psychosis · 51 min · Episode 124"AI psychosis" has made headlines, but the risks to our mental health and relationships go beyond the really noisy cases. What we are seeing is the emergence of an attachment…
- What Would It Take to Actually Trust Each Other? The Game Theory Dilemma · 45 min · Episode 123Game theory makes the world feel cold and strategic: if I don't race to win, they will. But this logic isn't inevitable — it's invented. Professor S.M. Amadae on the game theory…
- America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures · 58 min · Episode 122Are the US and China racing toward the same AI future? Experts Selina Xu and Matt Sheehan explore what China actually wants from AI, challenge common misconceptions, and explore…
- AI and the Future of Work: What You Need to Know · 45 min · Episode 121AI is reshaping work, creating uncertainty about careers and job security. Economists Molly Kinder and Ethan Mollick cut through the hype to examine what's actually happening in…
- Feed Drop: "Into the Machine" with Tobias Rose-Stockwell · 1 h 4 min · Episode 120This week, we’re bringing you Tristan’s conversation with Tobias Rose-Stockwell on his podcast “Into the Machine.” Tobias is a designer, writer, and technologist and the author…
- What if we had fixed social media? · 17 minTristan Harris and Aza Raskin imagine what a world with humane technology might look like—one where we recognized the harms of social media early and worked to fix them. This…
- Ask Us Anything 2025 · 41 min · Episode 119The AI race has hit breakneck speed. Autonomous agents are starting to disrupt the workforce. People are forming bonds with chatbots— with tragic consequences. All while tech…
- The Crisis That United Humanity—and Why It Matters for AI · 52 min · Episode 118In 1987, 198 countries came together in Montreal to draft an agreement to save the world from the ozone hole. It was an unprecedented moment of global coordination amid a…
- How OpenAI's ChatGPT Guided a Teen to His Death · 45 min · Episode 11716-year-old Adam Raine took his own life with the help of ChatGPT. Now his parents are suing OpenAI and Sam Altman. CHT Policy Director Camille Carlton explores the incentives…
- “Rogue AI” Used to be a Science Fiction Trope. Not Anymore. · 42 min · Episode 116Sci-fi warned us about rogue AI systems that deceive, cheat, even coerce humans when threatened with shutdown or replacement. Yet we’re building AI today that does all of these…
- AI is the Next Free Speech Battleground · 49 min · Episode 115Imagine a world where the most persuasive voices, the wealthiest elites, the most influential creators aren’t human—they’re AI. This is the world we’re racing to right now and…
- Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance · 38 min · Episode 114Daniel Kokotajlo left OpenAI to warn about the dangerous direction of AI development. His new report, AI 2027, forecasts humanity losing control to misaligned superintelligence…
- Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity? with Prof. Michael Sandel · 47 min · Episode 113Tech leaders promise AI will bring unprecedented abundance. But what happens to human dignity when our labor becomes obsolete? In this episode, Michael Sandel explores why…
- The Narrow Path: Sam Hammond on AI, Institutions, and the Fragile Future · 48 min · Episode 112AI development is racing ahead without guardrails, creating an unstable dynamic that could end in dystopia or chaos. Sam Hammond joins to explore how we can find the narrow path…
- People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI. · 44 min · Episode 111We’ve long connected through our machines—now we’re connecting to them. On this episode, Daniel Barcay, MIT’s Sherry Turkle, and Hinge’s Justin McLeod discuss AI’s growing role…
- Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection · 42 min · Episode 110AI companion chatbots feel human but they're not. They're platforms designed to maximize engagement, risking artificial intimacy and addictive intelligence. MIT’s Pattie Maes &…
- AGI Beyond the Buzz: What Is It, and Are We Ready? · 53 min · Episode 109What does it mean to ‘feel the AGI?’ In this episode, Aza and Randy unpack why debates on intelligence distract us from urgently needed conversations about governance…
- Rethinking School in the Age of AI · 43 min · Episode 108AI has upended school as we know it. In this episode, Daniel and Tristan talk with Maryanne Wolf and Rebecca Winthrop about how tech has broken the old model of education—and how…
- Forever Chemicals, Forever Consequences: What PFAS Teaches Us About AI · 1 h 4 min · Episode 107AI could unlock vast technological potential—if we do it right. Rob Bilott, who fought chemical giants over toxic PFAS, shares a cautionary tale: how the harms of new tech can go…
- Weaponizing Uncertainty: How Tech is Recycling Big Tobacco’s Playbook · 51 min · Episode 106From Big Tobacco to Big Tech, powerful industries have perfected the art of manufacturing doubt about their harms. In this episode, historian Naomi Oreskes reveals the playbook…
- The Man Who Predicted the Downfall of Thinking · 59 min · Episode 105Forty years ago, Neil Postman warned that “we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.” He was writing about TV, but his insights feel eerily prophetic in our age…
- Behind the DeepSeek Hype, AI is Learning to Reason · 32 min · Episode 104DeepSeek's breakthrough in AI sent markets reeling. But behind the headlines lies a crucial shift: AI that can actually reason and think. As labs race toward self-improving AI…
- The Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to Deceive · 35 min · Episode 103When engineers design AI systems, they don't just give them rules - they give them values. But what do those systems do when those values clash with what humans ask them to do?…
- Laughing at Power: A Troublemaker’s Guide to Changing Tech · 46 min · Episode 102The broken status quo of tech may feel immovable, but Srdja Popovic knows something about challenging power. A leader of the Serbian resistance, he's spent his life studying how…
- Ask Us Anything 2024 · 40 min · Episode 1012024 was a critical year in both AI and social media. Things moved so fast it was hard to keep up. So our hosts reached into their mailbag to answer some of your most burning…
- The Tech-God Complex: Why We Need to be Skeptics · 47 min · Episode 100Religious thinking is shaping the future of technology: AI is talked about as a godlike force and tech leaders promise us digital salvation. Greg Epstein argues that we need to…
- What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton · 49 min · Episode 99Sewell Setzer’s mom, Megan, is suing Character.ai for the role it played in her son’s death. The outcome could force the company–and potentially the entire AI industry–to change…
- When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer · 49 min · Episode 98Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. Now, she’s suing the company that made those chatbots. On today’s…
- Is It AI? One Tool to Tell What’s Real with Truemedia.org CEO Oren Etzioni · 26 minAI has unleashed a flood of synthetic media onto the web, making it more difficult than ever to tell what’s real. So Oren Etzioni made a free, non-partisan, non-profit tool to…
