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When social media is at its best, we get genuine human connection, built-in audiences, and exciting avenues for creativity and exchange. But our current social platforms are built on a surveillance model, where our data is used to predict our behavior, show us ads, and train the algorithms that keep us perpetually on the platform. It’s time to explore a new vision for social media, where we don’t have to give up on privacy in order to connect. 
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In this episode, Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Collective, talks to prominent critics of existing social media — and the people actively reimagining it, with truly private messaging, hyperlocal communities, and renewed sense of control over our own social data. Guests include Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, whose 2021 leaks made national news and put the social media giant in the Congressional spotlight; scholar and internet activist Ethan Zuckerman; President of the Signal Foundation Meredith Whittaker; Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue, and Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain.

What does it take to build technology for good? Season 1 journeyed into the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence with Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Collective as he unpacked how this transformational technology can be developed and deployed with society’s best interests at its core. 
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Raffi engaged experts in the field on how to harness the incredible potential of AI while mitigating its risks. Season 2 explores the most valuable resource on our planet… data. Raffi invites listeners to become curious and informed about their data in order to build a better collective future. It’s more important than ever to educate ourselves on the benefits and tradeoffs of new technology — what’s at stake, but also what is possible.  
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The future is unknown, but we are technically optimistic.

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Where we break down transformational technology and ask how it can be developed and deployed with society’s best interests at heart.

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Technically Optimistic

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How to save social media

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The artificial intelligence landscape is filled with opportunity and risk. On the one hand, AI holds the promise of productivity, accessibility, and medical marvels. On the other, AI is feared as a threat to our social fabric. Depending on who you listen to, AI is either our path to a renaissance or the road to our ruin.
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The outcome is in the balance, which is why in the first episode of Technically Optimistic, host Raffi Krikorian speaks with John Markoff, journalist and author, about the history of AI; Suresh Venkatasubramanian, coauthor of the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and professor of computer science at Brown, about ethics; and Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic, about AI’s impact on society. 
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In this wide-ranging episode, Krikorian, Emerson Collective’s Chief Technology Officer, explores the nuances and subtleties of the technological revolution we’re living through—to ask probing questions about the changes underway and understand what may happen and why it matters.

[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 1

AI is at a crossroads. How did we get here?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1687985546/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically-Optimistic-Transcript-Ep1.pdf

Historically, Silicon Valley has managed to perform a delicate dance with regulation. However, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence has brought forth an urgent question: given what we know about privacy, social media, data security, and so much else, should we regulate this technology this time around?
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In this two-part episode of Technically Optimistic, we delve into questions of power and what it would take to create guardrails for AI to ensure a prosperous and safe society. What is the balance of society, technology, and the law? What are the rules of the road, and who gets to write them? To address these questions, host Raffi Krikorian talks to Tristan Harris, founder of the Center for Humane Technology; human rights activist Sam Gregory, founder of Witness; Suresh Venkatasubramanian, professor of computer science; and Meredith Broussard, author and data scientist. Together, they explore the big, thorny questions of responsibility, privacy, creativity, and risk.

[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 2

Part 1: Rules of the Road: Who has the power to regulate AI?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1689022471/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically-Optimistic-Transcript-Ep2-Part1.pdf

The questions we face around who can govern AI are complex. If we want to reap the rewards of this technology, what – if any – regulatory solutions are needed to offer us the best outcomes? And who has the power to set these new rules in motion? 
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In Part 2 of this two-part episode of Technically Optimistic, we talk with the diverse thinkers who are proposing ways forward for AI governance and explore whether these solutions allow for innovative possibilities while also mitigating potential harm. What kinds of governance can we expect in the future, and how far from reality are our most idealistic proposals? Most importantly: is regulation even the best solution? To address these questions, host Raffi Krikorian talks to U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO); Tristan Harris, founder of the Center for Humane Technology; Congressman Jay Obernolte (R-CA); Phil Howard, Oxford professor and member of the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE); Ian Bremmer, author and political scientist; and Suresh Venkatasubramanian, professor of computer science. Together, they explore what it might mean to codify a regulatory system that creates safety without stifling ingenuity.


[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 3

Part 2 - Rules of the Road: What might regulating AI look like?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1689367372/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically-Optimistic-Transcript-Ep2-Part2.pdf

Can we use AI as a tool that enriches learning, rather than replacing it? We're seeing AI rapidly revolutionize the classroom and it's poised to completely transform both education and learning itself. But, how can we also ensure that everyone has access to the basics of tech and AI literacy so that we can all, every one of us, reap the benefits of AI and understand its nuances?
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In this episode, we explore the potential of AI to enrich learning, and discuss how we can ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from this technology with student advocate Sneha Revanur; Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy; Pat Yongpradit, Director of Education at [code.org](https://code.org "https://code.org"); Teemu Roos, professor at the University of Helsinki and leader of the AI Education program at the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence; and machine learning pioneer Professor Tom Mitchell. Together, they discuss the ways in which AI will shape education—and future generations.

[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 4

What Does AI have to teach us?

Education and AI: What does AI have to teach us?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1690044500/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically-Optimistic-Transcript-Ep4.pdf

We often speak about the AI revolution as though it were something that might happen in the far future. But, what about today, when AI is modifying our culture, society, and the economy as we speak? In this episode, we consider how AI is currently creating massive shifts, and the potential benefits and challenges we face right now. 
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Is AI revitalizing the economy, or is it on track to displace countless workers? Will AI render filmmakers and writers obsolete, or are we at the beginning of a modern-day cultural renaissance? And is AI being used to help preserve Indigenous cultures, or is it a tool to harvest their data for corporate gain? 
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To address these questions, host Raffi Krikorian speaks with Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Digital Economy Lab; Justine Bateman, actor, director, writer and producer; Ari Melenciano, artist and creative technologist; and Keolu Fox, assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego and co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Futures Institute. Together, they chart a path to help us navigate AI in the current moment.

[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 5

On Strike! How will AI impact the economy, culture, and the future of creativity?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1690572928/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically_Optimistic_Transcript_-_Episode_5.pdf

In the final episode of our limited series on AI, we look at the big issues of accountability and responsibility. How should we allocate the responsibilities for managing this technology? Who will decide when AIs are doing more harm than good? Will we be looking to private companies or depending on public servants? And what will be left for individual citizens to decide?
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To help unlock solutions to the growing challenge of AI responsibility, host Raffi Krikorian speaks with Maria Ressa, Nobel Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of Rappler; scientist and inventor Rosalind Picard from MIT’s Media Lab; James Manyika, Senior Vice President of Research, Technology, and Society at Google; Kyunghyun Cho, Professor of Computer Science and Data Science at New York University; Stanford Internet Observatory Research Manager Renee DiResta; and Professor and data journalist Meredith Broussard. Together, they discuss different approaches to AI responsibility, and look at what the future could hold for ethical accountability.


[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic Episode 6

AI and Accountability: Who is responsible for managing AI?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1691194507/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically_Optimistic_Transcript_-_Episode_6.pdf

The second season of Technically Optimistic is all about your data. Who’s taking it? What are they doing with it? And how can you gain back some control?
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Join host Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Collective, down this road. It’s going to lead to some predictable places — like AI and social media — but also to stories about health care, political campaigning, and criminal justice reform.

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Season Two is all about your data

How has our data become the world’s most valuable resource?  What privacy tradeoffs are we making when we engage with personalized apps, recommendations, and always-connected smart devices? Is our personal data being used to make things better, or to make tech giants even more powerful? And what do “cookies” have to do with all this?
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Host Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Collective, chats with experts about data’s role in AI, “big data” and the data economy, surveillance capitalism, and much more. Guests include AI researcher Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute; data scientist Chris Wiggins, co-author of How Data Happened; media scholar, tech writer, and internet activist Ethan Zuckerman; engineer and inventor of the cookie Lou Montulli; and Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain. 


[Podcast 3x4] Technically Optimistic S2 E1 - Full Height Video

How your behavior became the world’s biggest resource

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1713982059/cdn/Podcast/Technically%20Optimistic/Transcripts/Technically_Optimistic_Transcript_-S2_Episode_1.pdf

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A podcast about what it takes to make transformational social change.
On Almost There, a new podcast from Emerson Collective, poet and lawyer Dwayne Betts talks to creative problem solvers, all [Fellows at Emerson Collective](https://www.emersoncollective.com/programs/#fellowships)—architects, doctors, writers, voyagers, organizers, and artists—about their approach to making meaningful social change. 
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In each episode, we’ll learn about the journeys that have led our guests to the questions driving their work: How do we keep our families and communities healthy? How do we build a fairer immigration system and promote civic participation? How can we stay alert to the beauty around us and harness human ingenuity to protect our planet? The conversations on Almost There will explore these pressing questions and new possibilities.

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How do we remember the darkest parts of our collective past—from slavery in the U.S. to the Holocaust in Germany—while moving steadily forward? This question has driven poet and journalist Clint Smith to travel the U.S. and cross oceans in search of places, stories, and public memorials that deepen our shared understanding of what human beings have done to each other, and how we can collectively heal. He is the author of the book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, and the new book of poems, Above Ground. 
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In the premiere episode of Almost There, Dwayne and Clint discuss places across the U.S. that successfully—and not-so-successfully—confront the history of slavery; what Clint learned visiting Holocaust memorials in Germany for his Atlantic cover story; and Clint’s formative experience as a high school English teacher. Plus, Dwayne reads one of Clint’s new poems.

Almost There - Clint Smith

How to tell ourselves the truth about the history of slavery

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1687222136/cdn/Podcast/Almost%20There/Transcripts/Almost_There_-_Transcript_-_Clint_Smith.pdf

Before Michael Murphy became an architect, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. For the next eighteen months, as his father was treated, they worked together to restore their old family home. When the house was completed, his father’s cancer was in remission, and he told Michael that the project saved his life. 
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Today, as the founder of MASS Design Group and lead designer on projects like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, Michael is committed to making buildings that can heal, reshaping our understanding of what architecture can do for our health and for the planet. As Michael says, “If architecture can change our health and can keep us alive, it has to be a right.” 
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In this episode, Dwayne and Michael discuss the perverse architecture of prisons and hospitals; their collaboration designing the first-of-its-kind “Freedom Library” bookshelf for prison dormitories; and the lasting impact of the great Dr. Paul Farmer, who co-founded Partners in Health, on Michael’s design thinking.

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Our buildings are making us sick. Can they heal us instead?

https://res.cloudinary.com/dapibcwcy/image/upload/v1687222136/cdn/Podcast/Almost%20There/Transcripts/Almost_There_-_Transcript_-_Michael_Murphy.pdf

A podcast about what it takes to make transformational change.