Age of AI

With the Trump administration reversing previous US AI strategy with a focus on security and US-China competition, Chris sits down with Medlir and Caryn at the Global Governance Institute in Brussels to analyze the new administration's approaches to AI. 

Links:

Send us a text

Links:

Send us a text

Medlir sits down with Jesse Anglen, CEO and Founder of Rapid Innovation, a company that helps entrepreneurs build AI and blockchain-powered products. They discuss the transition into a digital workforce and how best to prepare for a post-work economy. 

Links:

Send us a text

Adalberto Gonzalez, AI Strategic Advisor for Design Thinking Japan, joins Chris for a conversation on his pioneering work on GenAI for Accenture in North America.  We discuss his more recent work with Design Thinking Japan and his AI Signal’s comprehensive report that tells us where breakthroughs in AI will have the greatest impact. Plus, what worries him most and what excites him most about these developments.

Links:

Send us a text

As Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) moves closer to reality, the world faces a crucial question: Who—if anyone—should govern it? In this episode of Age of AI, host Medlir Mema sits down with governance expert Justin Bullock to explore the challenges of regulating AGI at a global scale. Could a Global AGI Agency provide the oversight we need, or is international cooperation on AI doomed to fail? From the risks of unchecked AGI development to the hurdles of enforcing global AI policy, this conversation unpacks the future of AI governance and the stakes for humanity.

Links:

In this episode of Age of AI, host Medlir Mema sits down with Caryn Lusinchi—AI auditor, policy advisor, and former AI leader at Meta and Google—to explore the tensions between innovation and regulation. Can international AI governance truly work, or are we heading toward fragmented, sovereign AI ecosystems? Join us as we discuss the EU AI Act, the Paris AI Action Summit, the rise of national AI programs, and the future of AI regulation in an era of accelerating change.

Links:

In this episode, David Mas, Chief AI Officer at Make.org, and Medlir explore how AI can strengthen democratic participation and institutional transparency. They discuss the ambitious AI for Democracy Democratic Commons initiative, consider how AI can help counter the erosion of democratic legitimacy, and examine how democracies can respond to weaponization of AI by authoritarian regimes.

Links:

Send us a text

Medlir is joined by Dr. Nafiseh (Cati) Molaei, a Postdoctoral Scholar specializing in Biomedical Data Science at Northwestern University to discuss how AI is reshaping the medical landscape. From diagnosing complex diseases to personalizing treatment plans, AI is driving innovations that were once thought impossible.

Links:

Send us a text

Today we dive into the evolving conversation on AI risk and governance. Our guests, Torben Swoboda and Risto Uuk, discuss the challenges of defining AI risk, the debate over acceptable thresholds, and common critiques of the existential risk perspective. We also examine the feasibility of global AI governance and historical parallels that may guide our path forward.

Links:

Send us a text

In this episode Ritwik Gupta of the Berkeley AI Research Lab returns to talk with Chris about what DeepSeek really means for the AI Industry, Trump’s recent Stargate AI initiative, US-China AI competition, policy responses to DeepSeek, and where we should be looking for the next big disruptive event in the world of AI.

Links:

#DeepSeek #Stargate #Policy

Send us a text

In this episode we’re joined by Jeremy Tamanini, founder of Dual Citizen LLC, to explore the intersection of AI and environmental sustainability during the Trump 2.0 era. From the environmental impacts of AI infrastructure, to innovative practices and emerging legislation, this conversation dives deep into how AI can be both a challenge and a tool for sustainability.

Links:

Medlir Mema engages in an insightful discussion with Matt Van Itallie, the CEO of Sema Software, a company at the forefront of revolutionizing software analytics and risk management in the age of artificial intelligence. Sema has transformed the field of software analytics and set new standards for monitoring and risk management in AI-driven development. Matt shares insights into the evolving responsibilities of CTOs, the creation of transformative tools like the GenAI Code Monitor and Generative AI Bill of Materials, and the critical strategies companies need to address both technological and geopolitical challenges in the age of rapid innovation.
<...

Medlir sits with Iva Mema to discuss how AI shapes architectural design and public policy decision-making. They also explore the risks of perpetuating discrimination through biased algorithms, the potential for job displacement, and the over-reliance on technology that might diminish human creativity and expertise. 

#AI, #Algorithmic_Bias; #Architecture; #Public_Policy; #Smart_Cities

Send us a text

Medlir is joined by Melanie Rideout, a climate tech expert and Global Governance Institute (GGI) fellow, who shares her insights from working with Shayp and international organizations like the Red Cross and UN bodies. Together they explore the opportunities, challenges, and complexities of leveraging technology for global development and climate action.


#SustainableDevelopment #EmergingTech #ClimateAction #GlobalDevelopment #AIforGood

Send us a text

In today's episode, Medlir chats with Elena Ardelean. We discuss the Matrix Framework for Inclusive AI in Sustainable Development, focusing on three pillars: the regulatory environment, digital infrastructure, and the empowerment of youth as the next generation of changemakers. We further explore how lessons from AI's rapid evolution inform strategies for equitable integration into the future of work and daily life. Finally, we highlight how governments—particularly in developing countries—are leveraging AI today, and discuss steps to ensure sustainable, inclusive AI adoption in the future.

#Inclusive AI; #Sustainable Development; #Digital Infrastructure; #Future of Work, #AI for Good<...

Chris and Medlir talk with Ritwik Gupta about what policymakers get wrong about AI governance and what we should be thinking about when it comes to risk and regulation. Ritwik also shares his wide-ranging experience in working on AI in the context of chaotic environments in disaster response and national security. 

Show Notes:

Send us a text

Chris talks with Marietje Schaake about her new book The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley and explores the nexus between Big Tech, democracy, and human rights. In particular, Marietje shares with Chris ideas and strategies for recentering the public interest in the relationship between big tech and governments, the geopolitics of technology, and recent developments in the global governance of AI.

Links:

Send us a text

Welcome back to our podcast! In this episode Medlir and Dr. Gloria Shkurti Ozdemir discuss her recently released book "Artificial Intelligence Arms Dynamics: The Case of the U.S. and China Rivalry." Their discussion dives into the latest AI-related developments in Turkey, the state of US-China competition in AI, as well as some other delightful tangents.

Links:

Tags: #AI; #US-China; #Turkey;

Send us...

Medlir shares insights with Chris from the UN Summit of the Future. They discuss the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations. In addition, Medlir and Chris also discuss California’s recently vetoed AI safety legislation and the proposed US national AI Civil Rights Act.

Links:

<...

In the first episode of Season 9, Medlir and Chris revisit the topic of AI agents, AI and US-China relations, and also China’s recent moves in regulating AI. They then wrap up with a discussion of the Summit of the Future, and AI and Sustainable Development.

Links:

Maria Santacaterina and Medlir discuss the impact of generative AI on businesses. They ask the question whether the massive financial investment in generative AI will pay off for these businesses. Is the promise of AI, hype or real?

Links:

Tags: Generative AI, investment, AI hype, BigTech, future of work

Send us a text

In July 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Defense unveiled its first basic policy document on the use of artificial intelligence and a comprehensive strategy to enhance Japan’s cyber defense capabilities. In this episode Dr. Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi of the University of Tokyo, joins us to talk about how AI fits into Japan’s military strategy. 

Links:

#Jap...

Medlir sits down with Dr. Paige Arthur, Director of Global Programming at Columbia Global, and co-author of AI for Peace (with Branka Panic), to discuss how recent AI innovations can contribute to conflict prevention and peace. They also explore the opportunities and challenges that technologies pose for human rights and curbing hate speech.

Links:

This week, our annual Diogenes Awards. We take a look at AI in television and film (and sometimes other musings and occasional 'arguments'). We discuss each host's top nominee(s) since 2023, and then narrow it to the consensus pick for all of you. Links below so you can join us in checking these out (in no particular order).

Top TV Nominees:

Chris talks with Mihalis Kritikos of the European Commission on Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Trustworthy Governance of AI. Mihalis sheds light on how he got started working on AI governance during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ethics of AI, the EU AI Act, and also AI surveillance in the workplace.

Links:

Send us a text

Chris talks to Maya Sobchuk, GGI non-resident fellow and researcher at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo about her work on AI and disinformation. In this episode Maya reflects on the history of Russian disinformation campaigns against Ukraine, disinformation in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and how Ukraine has harnessed its AI know-how and innovation space to counter disinformation. 

Link:

Tags: #AI #Ukraine #Russia #disinformation #FIMI #deepfakes

Send us a text

Medlir is joined by Dr. Hannes Mueller to discuss recent developments in conflict prevention. Specifically, we examine how artificial intelligence can help governments detect risk early, predict the likelihood of new conflicts, and prevent older ones from re-emerging.

Send us a text

For our season opener, Young Diogenes has a chat with Chris and Medlir about some cool new things large language models can now do for us. Specifically, why some companies, like Google with Gemini, are choosing to concentrate on increasingly larger context windows (i.e., the size of the text, music, video prompt, etc., that the AI can parse).   And why being able to load an entire book, a movie, or your entire life into the prompt and then have a conversation about these things, might be useful.

Medlir asks Lukas Andriukaitis, Board member of Lithuania-based Civic Resilience Initiative (CRI), what it means to work and live at the frontier of the new misinformation / disinformation space. They discuss the current atmosphere in the region and beyond, in terms of threat of misinformation/disinformation. They consider both the benefits and the drawbacks of AI-enabled technologies as billions across the world prepare to cast their votes in 2024.

Links:

Tags...

Luca Bertuzzi joins Medlir for a discussion on the EU AI Act passed by the European Parliament on March 13th. Among other things, they discuss the likely impact of the law on innovation and governance within the EU and abroad, as well as criticisms that the act fails to address concerns regarding human rights and civil liberties.

Links:

#EUAIACT; #AI...

Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein share with Chris what they will be keeping an eye out for in the AI regulatory space in 2024. They also discuss their latest work on the politics and governance of big data and artificial intelligence and their newly published Handbook on the Governance Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In this discussion Andrej and Oskar explore the EU AI Act and challenges that datafication and algorithmic logics pose for governance, privacy, and human agency, and ponder the question: what does it mean to stay human in the age of AI?
<...

Medlir sits down with Dr. Raluca Csernatoni and Dr.  Marijn Hoijtink to discuss the escalating ‘innovation race’ among corporate giants. They discuss AI’s contribution to the rise in power of the private tech sector vs. the state, as well as the ‘existential threat’ and ‘superintelligence’ narratives around foundational AI models and how these shape specific socio-technical imaginaries of the future.  They also dive into AI’s impact on geopolitical and military power, including Sino-American competition, and the rise of AI ‘nationalism’ or ‘sovereignty’.

Links:

Medlir is joined by Baptiste Alloui-Cros, founder of the Strand Simulations Group and a wargame designer, to discuss how AI is likely to impact how we think, strategize, and prepare for war.

Links:

#wargaming, #simulation, #AI, #warfare, #strategy

Send us a text

This week Medlir and our guest Rebekah Dowd, an academic, scholar, and author of The Birth of Digital Human Rights: Digitized Data Governance as a Human Rights Issue in the EU, explore how and why the EU became a leader in the realm of digital human rights.

Links:

#digital human rights, #GDPR, #EU AI Act, #EU, #Big Tech, #data protection

Send us a t...

In this episode Chris talks to Arnaud Kurze of Montclair State University, currently a Digital Studies Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Arnaud has carried out groundbreaking research in digital humanities, memory studies, and transitional justice and offers his insights into AI and virtual memory spaces, accountability, 

Links:

...

Medlir and Chris speak with Dr. Joachim Koops of the Global Governance Institute and Leiden University to discuss the launch of the AI Global Governance program.  They further discuss the challenges associated with the question of governance more broadly.

Links:

Send us a text

Young Diogenes (YD), Medlir and Chris discuss trends and developments in AI for 2023 (Democratization, Personalization, Twinning, GenAI, Multi-modal AI, AI ethics).  We also discuss advances in behavioral AI for communications security, weather forecasting, material science, and discussion of the recent chaos at OpenAI (based on reporting by Karen Hao, the final link below provides some really interesting additional details on the events inside OpenAI if you'd like to get caught up). 

Medlir sits down with Emma Morrison and Justin Lynch to discuss ways AI can help analysts in understanding significant events, attributing actions, and presenting usable information to decision-makers, while reflecting on how AI may adversely affect a country's ability to signal credibly, or understand its adversaries intentions accurately.

Links: 

Send us a text

Medlir discusses the impact of AI on development with Katya Klinova, Head of AI, Labor, and the Economy division of the Partnership on AI.  There she oversees (among other things) the AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative, asking how to make AI progress in the workforce more inclusive, as well as the potential impact of AI on the economic growth prospects of low- and middle-income countries.

Links:

Additional Links:

Medlir is joined for a wide-ranging conversation on the shifting landscape of AI governance by Dr. Justin Bullock, a Senior Researcher at Convergence Analysis, in the UK. Dr. Bullock brings a wealth of expertise in public administration, artificial intelligence (AI), organizational theory, and management.  He is the lead editor of Oxford University Press’ Handbook of AI Governance. 

Links: 

Send us a text<