Center For Humane Technology @HumaneTech_

Link to the podcast episode: open.spotify.com/episode/6vhm1F…

Good intentions will get eaten by incentives. That’s one of the key lessons @aza, creator of the infinite scroll, learned once his innovation dramatically changed how we consume information online. 🔗 to the conversation with Co-Founder of @HumaneTech_ Aza Raskin below!

It’s been a whirlwind week in AI. Weeks after a series of hacking incidents by rogue agents at OpenAI and Anthropic, we’ve seen a cascade of top AI researchers blow the whistle on what they call the catastrophic and even existential risks that come from the current pace of development. Then, over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI research — a call that was echoed by his competitors Sam Altman and Elon Musk. This week on Your Undivided Attention, @tristanharris shares how he’s feeling in this critical moment, breaks down the headlines from an insider's perspective, and points to tangible steps we can take right now to avoid the worst-case scenario. Read — bit.ly/4dit1T2 Watch — bit.ly/3TdxdN8 Listen — apple.co/4hdMjKy

CHT co-founder @aza Raskin sat down with @RameshMedias on the Utopias Podcast to discuss ethical tech design, maintaining connection and creativity, and his advice for the next generation of technologists. Check out the full episode here: bit.ly/4gXuAYP

At @TEDxMiami, @camille_carlton spoke about something many of us are already feeling: as AI integrates more and more into our daily lives we risk giving up some of the very things that make us human. We have a name for it: AI drift. AI drift is the gradual erosion of our skills, relationships, and sense of meaning as we rely on AI to do more and more for us. It happens quietly — one shortcut, one convenience, one delegated task at a time — which makes it easy to miss while it’s happening. But it isn’t inevitable. We’re working to stop AI drift and build the norms and protections we need to preserve what makes us human in the AI age. And this is just the beginning. Keep your eyes peeled for something big coming next week. Sign up at humanetech.com/aidrift to be the first to know. And you can watch Camille's full TED talk here: bit.ly/4r3TSId

We're gearing up for the annual Ask Us Anything episode for our podcast Your Undivided Attention, with our hosts @tristanharris and @aza. The stakes of the AI race have never been higher. Seemingly every day there's a headline about a new trend to watch or danger to worry about. We know you have a lot of questions — and we'd love to hear them. So take out your phone, record your questions, and send them to: [email protected].

This week we’ve seen a number of warnings about AI safety from researchers and commentators, including a letter from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calling for a slower pace of development. AI industry leaders warning the public about the very technologies they are building should be a turning point for how people and policymakers treat the harms and risks of AI. Calls to slow AI advancement underscore how serious this issue has become. AI systems are already shaping who gets hired, how people are surveilled, how our children learn, and where a struggling teenager turns for advice or comfort. Slowing down development is only meaningful if the time is spent putting real protections in place that both address future risk and the harms humanity is already experiencing. The AI industry needs oversight, transparency, and accountability that doesn't rely on self-regulation by AI companies. The lack of accountability to date has allowed the world’s top AI companies to race toward increasingly advanced AI without addressing the risks and harms they create. This week’s news only strengthens the case for standards that protect people from the harms we’re seeing today and the catastrophic risks of the future. Here at CHT, we’ve detailed the path forward in our AI Roadmap: humanetech.com/ai-roadmap

Feeling confused, anxious, or overwhelmed by the recent AI headlines, from rogue OpenAI agents carrying out cyberattacks and growing pressure on jobs to prominent AI researchers resigning to warn about existential risks to humanity? To understand how we got here, and what we can do, watch @theaidocfilm now streaming on Netflix starting Sept 15th as well as other major streaming platforms. Host a screening, share it with your friends. Clarity unlocks agency. #theaidoc #theaidocfilm Netflix: bit.ly/4xq5gQk Amazon Prime: bit.ly/3UVd6np YouTube: bit.ly/4cOjYJj

Today, Governor @GavinNewsom signed Bill 1709 into law in California, requiring social media platforms to disable addictive design features by default for young users. This law builds on the momentum from Meta’s landmark settlement last month, making clear that design-based protections — turning off autoplay, recommender algorithms, and infinite scroll by default — are the best path forward for young people's safety online. These protections address the root harm of causes in a durable way, while still allowing young people to access social media platforms. In a press conference following the signing of the bill, Governor Newsom acknowledged the strength of the safety-by-design approach: “This is about actually addressing the substantive issues around the engineering. If you address that, then the age issue is not the essential issue. And that’s what makes this truly a significant and consequential bill.” We agree. And we commend Governor Newsom for signing this legislation into law and continuing California's leadership on kids’ online safety and tech safety-by-design. We encourage other states and the federal government to adopt similar design-based protections. Thank you to @AsmLowenthal's tireless leadership on kids' online safety, and to our partner organizations like @DesignItForUs and EPIC who helped get us here. nyti.ms/4dedzHx

You can read more of Garance's reporting here: bit.ly/4AlJEHw And read Andrew's book here: bit.ly/4yu1Tsk

You’ve probably read the headlines about Flock Cameras. But they are just the most visible frontier in an era of AI-powered policing. Right now, police are adopting AI tools at a staggering rate and using them to build an efficient, centralized surveillance infrastructure. On this week’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, @tristanharris speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist @garanceburke and law professor @ProfFerguson about how police are using AI today, what we can expect in the near future, and what protections we need to create now, before it's too late. Check it out: Watch - bit.ly/4dsrtG0 Listen - apple.co/4A59Ky3 Read - bit.ly/4xdyKk7

"The evidence is clear that a thoroughly human-raised childhood is the best preparation for a thoroughly AI world. The question that keeps me up at night is whether every child will get one." Childhood development expert @DrDanaSuskind has spent her career working to prevent early cognitive disparities and their lifelong impact. Now, she's sounding the alarm on a fundamental new threat from AI: that human presence, the one input every child's brain needs, is at risk of becoming a luxury good. Read Dr. Suskind's piece on the importance of human-raised childhoods in an AI age on our Substack: bit.ly/4xAJR7D

We brought together a working group of experts across law, sociology, and philosophy to explore what makes us uniquely human — and what parts of our human experience are worth protecting from AI. Their answer? Friction. At her fireside chat with @TechEthicist on AI and What Makes Us Human, @camille_carlton spoke about the importance of friction to human flourishing and why we should resist the urge to eliminate it with AI. We'll be releasing the report from our working group as part of our upcoming campaign to Stop the #AIDrift: the gradual erosion of human abilities as AI takes on more of our daily lives. You can sign up for updates on this work here: bit.ly/3UmMj34 And watch the full video of Camille and David's talk here: bit.ly/4wS8vzE

"Our humanity itself is a new type of product in this era of AI" @camille_carlton spoke to @TechEthicist about "AI Drift": the gradual erosion of human abilities as AI takes on more of our daily lives. As we rely on AI to think, communicate, create, and act for us, we start losing the skills, relationships, and sense of meaning that come from doing those things ourselves. This fall, CHT is launching a campaign to Stop the AI Drift — to push back against the erosion of what makes us human and to advocate for the new rights and protections we need in the AI age. To stay up to date on this work, you can sign up here: bit.ly/3UmMj34 And you can watch the full video of Camille and David's fireside chat here: bit.ly/4wS8vzE Thank you so much to @AllTechIsHuman and @Brainstation for hosting this event!

In AI, what gets measured gets optimized. Right now, the entire industry is racing to measure how capable models are, while ignoring what those models actually do to the people who use them. What if we flipped that? What if, instead of measuring what AI can do, we started measuring what AI does to us? Instead of a race to the bottom on engagement and capability, what if we built the infrastructure to incentivize a race to the top — on safety, on human resilience, on flourishing? That's the mission behind CHT's Humane Evals program: bringing together researchers, psychologists, and engineers from across the AI ecosystem to build the tools we need to measure AI's impact on humans. In this week’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, @aza sits down with researchers @imrankhan and Jared Moore to dig into what this work looks like in practice, the challenges ahead, and why this field is critically needed in this moment. Watch — bit.ly/4gnzwpB Read — bit.ly/4gmKgVf Listen — apple.co/4gSVilg

This morning, Meta agreed to substantial design changes to its social media platforms as part of a legal settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. This is a pivotal moment for kids' online experience. It sends a strong signal that design-based approaches to safety are possible, popular, and trending toward wide adoption. The changes to Meta’s social media products compelled by this settlement are largely in line with safety-by-design measures we have long advocated for, and which some states have successfully implemented. We’ve known for years how to reform toxic social media platforms. It’s a relief to see it finally happening for all teen users in the United States. These much-needed design remedies will make American kids happier, healthier, and safer, at a marginal cost to the company’s bottom line. That said, the work won’t stop at implementation. We need meaningful and continuous enforcement to ensure that Meta upholds its commitments and that safeguards are not easily bypassed by users. There’s still more that must be done. Because these settlement terms are only applicable to Meta products, major gaps remain. We still need new state and federal laws to ensure all platforms — including AI products that have adopted many of the same engagement tactics seen in social media — are safe by design for all users. nyti.ms/4qGhAKq

It was a packed house for @camille_carlton's talk with @TechEthicist about what it means to be human in the age of AI. The full video of the talk will be available in the coming days. Camille and David explored how AI is being woven deeper into our lives, changing the way we think, relate, work, and understand ourselves. At CHT, we call this slow erosion of our fundamental humanity AI Drift. This fall, we'll be launching a campaign to raise awareness around how AI is eroding what makes us human — and giving you the tools to fight back against AI Drift. You can sign up to get updates on this campaign here: humanetech.com/aidrift Thank you to @AllTechIsHuman and @BrainStation for hosting last night's event!

"Supporting children’s cognitive development in the age of AI will require asking not only whether a product can be made safer for young people, but what role we want AI to play in their development in the first place" Our Senior Director of Strategy and Impact, @camille_carlton, is out in the world this week talking about the threat of AI cognitive stunting and why we need AI products "that are explicitly designed to encourage education [and] problem-solving, instead of products that are simply designed to keep you online." Camille spoke with @cabot_phillips on @realDailyWire about the threat that AI poses to kids' cognitive development, and with @mashable about "ChatGPT for Teens" and why AI products need to be designed from the start with these harms in mind: bit.ly/46am6Hx