Your Undivided Attention Podcast By Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin The Center for Humane Technology cover art

Your Undivided Attention

Your Undivided Attention

By: Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin The Center for Humane Technology
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Join us every other Thursday to understand how new technologies are shaping the way we live, work, and think. Your Undivided Attention is produced by Senior Producer Julia Scott and Researcher/Producer is Joshua Lash. Sasha Fegan is our Executive Producer. We are a member of the TED Audio Collective.2019-2025 Center for Humane Technology Political Science Politics & Government Relationships Social Sciences
Episodes
  • People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI.
    May 30 2025

    Over the last few decades, our relationships have become increasingly mediated by technology. Texting has become our dominant form of communication. Social media has replaced gathering places. Dating starts with a swipe on an app, not a tap on the shoulder.

    And now, AI enters the mix. If the technology of the 2010s was about capturing our attention, AI meets us at a much deeper relational level. It can play the role of therapist, confidant, friend, or lover with remarkable fidelity. Already, therapy and companionship has become the most common AI use case. We're rapidly entering a world where we're not just communicating through our machines, but to them.

    How will that change us? And what rules should we set down now to avoid the mistakes of the past?

    These were some of the questions that Daniel Barcay explored with MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle and Hinge CEO Justin McLeod at Esther Perel’s Sessions 2025, a conference for clinical therapists. This week, we’re bringing you an edited version of that conversation, originally recorded on April 25th, 2025.

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_. You can find complete transcripts, key takeaways, and much more on our Substack.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    “Alone Together,” “Evocative Objects,” “The Second Self” or any other of Sherry Turkle’s books on how technology mediates our relationships.

    Key & Peele - Text Message Confusion

    Further reading on Hinge’s rollout of AI features

    Hinge’s AI principles

    “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt

    “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam

    The NYT profile on the woman in love with ChatGPT

    Further reading on the Sewell Setzer story

    Further reading on the ELIZA chatbot

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection

    What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton

    Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

    Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis

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    44 mins
  • Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection
    May 15 2025

    AI companion chatbots are here. Everyday, millions of people log on to AI platforms and talk to them like they would a person. These bots will ask you about your day, talk about your feelings, even give you life advice. It’s no surprise that people have started to form deep connections with these AI systems. We are inherently relational beings, we want to believe we’re connecting with another person.

    But these AI companions are not human, they’re a platform designed to maximize user engagement—and they’ll go to extraordinary lengths to do it. We have to remember that the design choices behind these companion bots are just that: choices. And we can make better ones. So today on the show, MIT researchers Pattie Maes and Pat Pataranutaporn join Daniel Barcay to talk about those design choices and how we can design AI to better promote human flourishing.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Further reading on the rise of addictive intelligence

    More information on Melvin Kranzberg’s laws of technology

    More information on MIT’s Advancing Humans with AI lab

    Pattie and Pat’s longitudinal study on the psycho-social effects of prolonged chatbot use

    Pattie and Pat’s study that found that AI avatars of well-liked people improved education outcomes

    Pattie and Pat’s study that found that AI systems that frame answers and questions improve human understanding

    Pat’s study that found humans pre-existing beliefs about AI can have large influence on human-AI interaction

    Further reading on AI’s positivity bias

    Further reading on MIT’s “lifelong kindergarten” initiative

    Further reading on “cognitive forcing functions” to reduce overreliance on AI

    Further reading on the death of Sewell Setzer and his mother’s case against Character.AI

    Further reading on the legislative response to digital companions

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

    The Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to Deceive

    What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton

    Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

    Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis

    Correction: The ELIZA chatbot was invented in 1966, not the 70s or 80s.

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    42 mins
  • AGI Beyond the Buzz: What Is It, and Are We Ready?
    Apr 30 2025

    What does it really mean to ‘feel the AGI?’ Silicon Valley is racing toward AI systems that could soon match or surpass human intelligence. The implications for jobs, democracy, and our way of life are enormous.

    In this episode, Aza Raskin and Randy Fernando dive deep into what ‘feeling the AGI’ really means. They unpack why the surface-level debates about definitions of intelligence and capability timelines distract us from urgently needed conversations around governance, accountability, and societal readiness. Whether it's climate change, social polarization and loneliness, or toxic forever chemicals, humanity keeps creating outcomes that nobody wants because we haven't yet built the tools or incentives needed to steer powerful technologies.

    As the AGI wave draws closer, it's critical we upgrade our governance and shift our incentives now, before it crashes on shore. Are we capable of aligning powerful AI systems with human values? Can we overcome geopolitical competition and corporate incentives that prioritize speed over safety?

    Join Aza and Randy as they explore the urgent questions and choices facing humanity in the age of AGI, and discuss what we must do today to secure a future we actually want.

    Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_ and subscribe to our Substack.

    RECOMMENDED MEDIA

    Daniel Kokotajlo et al’s “AI 2027” paper
    A demo of Omni Human One, referenced by Randy
    A paper from Redwood Research and Anthropic that found an AI was willing to lie to preserve it’s values
    A paper from Palisades Research that found an AI would cheat in order to win
    The treaty that banned blinding laser weapons
    Further reading on the moratorium on germline editing

    RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
    The Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to Deceive

    Behind the DeepSeek Hype, AI is Learning to Reason

    The Tech-God Complex: Why We Need to be Skeptics

    This Moment in AI: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

    How to Think About AI Consciousness with Anil Seth

    Former OpenAI Engineer William Saunders on Silence, Safety, and the Right to Warn

    Clarification: When Randy referenced a “$110 trillion game” as the target for AI companies, he was referring to the entire global economy.

    Show more Show less
    53 mins
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The absolute best podcast for learning about how machine learning algorithms are unregulated recipes for disaster.

The forefront of the fight against suggestion

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This is a powerful “marriage” of insightful questioning and deep expertise. I could feel my IQ going up. 😉

Head Blown!

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Thinking back over the past ten years our lives have been consistently nudged by a small group of elite business people living on the west coast of Northern California. Driven by a need to maximize returns for capital investors and employee stockholders, these people stitched the disparate lives of citizens around the globe of many countries and states into expansive for-profit social networks. Now the threads tying billions of people into these social networks tug us in directions known and unknown, but primarily away from patience, presence, connection, and toward outrage, polarization and consumerism. While the effects of these trends on our individual and collective psychology have been rarely noticed and generally neglected until now, a growing movement has begun to pull back the curtain. We are angry with the manipulation, and intent on fixing it.

This podcast serially lays out in no uncertain terms the magnitude of the issue and possible paths forward. With guests who number among the most active and influential whistleblowers on this topic, it has become a comprehensive and inspiring guide to reclaiming our freedom in the digital space. Even beyond, it lays out various competing theories for constructing a socially, economically, and politically fair society that elevates human strengths instead of exploiting human weakness.

I Wish This Was Played In Schools

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This analytical summary shifted my consciousness. This format is so helpful. We should name and characterize this presentation format. I THINK THIS IS THE METHOD TO ENABLE PARALLEL learning and legislation. Thank You, Ben

Parallel Learning Legislation

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