AI is already reshaping how we think, work, create, and relate to one another. But the incentives driving its development aren’t optimized to protect any of that. And the parts of life that make us human — our creativity, our relationships, our sense of what’s real — can’t be allowed to become casualties in the race for AI dominance.

That’s why we’re launching the “Preserving What Makes Us Human in the Age of AI” Working Group, a new CHT initiative convening experts across law, technology, and philosophy to develop a foundational framework of rights and protections for our shared humanity in the AI age.

Over the next few months, this group will examine how AI is impacting the human experience and work to define the shared norms and rights that we must protect. This summer, they’ll release a public report outlining the specific rights and protection needed to preserve human dignity and agency. This report will serve as a foundation for future governance, innovation, and public understanding.

You can read more about the working group here:

On Your Undivided Attention this week, we had a conversation with David “Davidad” Dalrymple, a researcher who studies what’s going on behind the blinking cursor when an AI is “thinking.” As part of this research, he has taken on the role of AI psychologist: probing these systems to figure out what’s really going on under the hood.

To go deeper, you can read key takeaways from this conversation from our producer and researcher, :

We’re in a critical window to understand and protect against the threat AI poses to our shared humanity. With your support, we can rise to this extraordinary challenge and build a more humane future.

Thank you,

The CHT Team

To support us in continuing this work, please share this post and consider donating.

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Hi there,

If you’ve spent any time following AI news over the past few years, you’ve probably felt that, in many ways, the people building this technology have already decided our future and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

It makes sense. That feeling is the natural result of watching a multi-trillion-dollar industry move at breakneck speed while our institutions struggle to keep up. It’s also exactly the story that the AI industry wants you to believe. But here’s the thing: it’s not true. Society has steered powerful forces before. From nuclear energy to tobacco to social media, there has been a moment where society realized the status quo was broken, and that fixing it required more than good intentions.

We’re at that moment with AI.

Right now, a handful of companies are racing to build what they call the most powerful technology ever invented, fueled by one justification: “If I don’t build it, someone else will.” The consequences are already highly visible — rapid deployment of poorly designed AI, growing social and economic harms, and safety treated as an afterthought.

The scale of these problems can feel paralyzing. But history tells us that even the largest industries respond to pressure at the right leverage points. Big Tobacco didn’t voluntarily stop marketing to kids. Meta didn’t decide to regulate itself. In each case, progress came from layering high-impact interventions across government, industry, and civil society.

That’s why we wrote “The AI Roadmap: How We Ensure AI Serves Humanity.” This report lays out seven principles for how AI should be built, deployed, and governed. Each one identifies the problem with the current path, imagines a better future, and maps a way to get there.

The report identifies three domains where pressure actually shifts behavior in the tech ecosystem: norms (what society considers acceptable), laws (the rules that create accountability), and product design (the choices that determine how AI impacts people). Each principle in the report maps interventions across all three, because no single reform is sufficient on its own. They’re mutually reinforcing — new norms build public demand for legal protections; laws create accountability that drives safer design; and safer design shapes how the technology actually touches people’s lives.

The Roadmap spans from human psychology to international coordination, and even democratic reforms. And critically, we’re not starting from scratch. The report outlines the great work being done right now by researchers, civil society, policymakers, and technologists around the world.

There’s a role for all of us in shaping the future. A better path is possible. This is our roadmap for getting there — together.

Read the full report at: humanetech.com/ai-roadmap.

You can also listen to our latest podcast episode, where Camille Carlton and Pete Furlong from our policy team take you inside the report:

To support us in continuing this work, please share this post and consider donating.

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You can get your tickets and learn more here: theaidocgetinvolved.com

This film is coming at a moment when AI is seemingly everywhere. You read a new headline everyday about how it’s going to change our world. You hear it come up more and more in conversations with friends, family, co-workers. There’s a feeling that the world as we know it is beginning to shift — and not in a direction that any of us asked for or want.

“The AI Doc” gives that feeling shape. Here at CHT, we believe that clarity creates agency. This film provides the clarity we desperately need in this moment. But clarity is just the first step. If we are going to take the wheel and steer towards a better path, we’re going to need to build a movement big enough to meet this moment: The Human Movement.

The Human Movement is about the collective recognition that we don’t have to accept the disastrous default path on AI. We can still choose a different future, but we have to choose it together. It’s going to take all of us. Go to human.mov to join the movement and add your voice to a growing global demand for a more humane AI future.

The path to a better future starts this weekend with “The AI Doc.” Grab your friends, family, co-workers and go see it in theaters.

If you’re outside the U.S., don’t worry, international audiences will be able to see it in the coming months. We’ll keep you posted.

The conversation is just getting started

If you can’t wait for Friday, we’ve got plenty for you to dig in on in the meantime:

In this episode, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin sit down with film’s producers to explore how they navigated the overwhelming complexity of AI and created a film designed not just to inform but to be experienced together.

Producer Daniel Kwan says:

“ For a lot of everyday people who haven’t wanted to engage with ai, I feel like this film gives them a a safe place to collectively feel like they’re going on a journey and they’re not having to do it alone… many people don’t watch documentaries in theaters anymore, but I think this is the kind of movie where you’re gonna want to feel the presence of other people.”

- Daniel Kwan, Producer, “The AI Doc”

Listen here:

Then, check out Tristan’s appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, where he clearly lays out the stakes and urgency of the AI problem, and why we need The Human Movement to meet this moment:

You can watch the full segment here.

This is just one of the many conversations Tristan and Aza have been having recently about the stakes and urgency of the AI problem — and why seeing this film is the first step towards a better path. Here are a few more worth your time:

"Oprah & Tech Leaders on What AI Means for Your Job, Health, Family, & Future,” The Oprah Podcast

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple

Watch on YouTube

“Why the AI Race is Leaving Humans Behind with Tristan Harris,” On with Kara Swisher

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple

Landmark verdicts show a better path is possible

Just this week, we saw real evidence of our agency to shift the direction of tech. In trials in California and New Mexico, juries found Meta and Google liable for the harmful, addictive designs of their products and for failing to keep children safe on their apps.

Our co-founder Aza Raskin testified in one of these trials. On the latest episode of Your Undivided Attention, Aza talks with Tristan about what is was like taking the stand, why this could be a “Big Tobacco” moment for social media and why the real significance of these cases is still to come.

These landmark verdicts are part of the ongoing human movement. They show that we don’t have to accept inhumane tech as inevitable — we still have agency to choose a better future.

Listen here:

Watch the film, then join the movement

Seeing the film is just the start. Now comes the part that really matters: taking action.

We want this to be the start of a global conversation. That’s why we’ve put together a discussion guide with questions designed to spark genuine dialogue. Use this guide to talk to your friends and family about how we can all come together to meet the AI challenge.

Then, go to human.mov to join The Human Movement and turn individual action into collective power. Right now, a handful of companies are deciding how the world’s most powerful technology will shape humanity’s future. They’re accelerating, with no one at the steering wheel. If we keep this up, we will crash.

The crash isn’t inevitable and we can still change course. AI is being shaped by human decisions, human incentives, and human choices. Humanity can take the wheel.

It’s up to all of us us to choose our path on AI.

See you this weekend.

A teacher quoted in a new Brookings Institution report said something that’s been stuck in my head: “Students can’t reason. They can’t think. They can’t solve problems.” That’s not a cheating story. That’s a developmental story — and it’s much deeper and more alarming than the usual AI hype.

Rebecca Winthrop, who leads the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, spent a year doing something she calls a “pre-mortem” of AI in education: 500+ interviews across 50 countries, 400 studies, conversations with educators, students, policymakers, and technologists worldwide. What she found is that we’ve been asking the wrong question.

We keep talking about AI and academic integrity. But the kids in her research weren’t most worried about getting caught. Their number one fear was that AI was making them dumber. Rebecca has a name for what’s actually happening: not cognitive offloading — that’s what adults do when we outsource thinking we’ve already learned to do. For children, who are still building those capacities, the right word is cognitive stunting. You can’t offload a skill you never developed.

That reframe changes everything about how we should be thinking about this.

In our latest episode of Your Undivided Attention, Rebecca joined Daniel Barcay to walk through what she found — what’s working, what isn’t, and what parents, teachers, and administrators can actually do right now.

If you are short on time, check out the summary article here.

Read the Brookings report: A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect

🚨 We’re hiring! Join the Center for Humane Technology as Senior Executive Assistant for Tristan Harris

This role requires strong operational and logistic skills, partnering closely with Tristan and his Principal Liaison to manage competing priorities across multiple initiatives and make the most of his time and impact.

If you’re energized by complex coordination and supporting purpose-driven leadership at the highest level, we’d love to hear from you.

Learn more & apply: https://bit.ly/4b5MNPX.

Cheers,

Something is happening, and we think you’re going to want to be part of it.

The buzz is real, the trailer is going viral, and on March 27th, The AI Doc opens in cinemas across the United States. The conversation this film has been building toward is about to go global, and we need you to be part of what happens next.

Mark your calendar for opening weekend. Bring someone who hasn’t been following this closely, because that’s exactly who this film is made for. There’s something fitting about experiencing this film the old-fashioned way: in a theater full of strangers, no algorithm deciding what you watch next.

CHT’s , Aza Raskin, and all appear in the film. If you’ve followed CHT’s work, you know the stakes they’re describing are real. This isn’t a film that hedges. It looks directly at where we’re headed and argues, convincingly, that we still have a choice.

Watch the trailer now.

On Your Undivided Attention, and Daniel Barcay bring you inside this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, where the conversation among the world’s most powerful decision-makers has shifted in ways that felt unimaginable just a few years ago. The race to build ever-more-powerful AI is no longer a niche concern. It’s now front and center at the highest levels of global power.

The heart of the episode is a frank conversation between Tristan and Professor Yoshua Bengio, one of the founding figures of modern AI and the most cited scientist in the field. They dig into a question that sounds abstract until it isn’t: what happens when an AI system develops its own goals, and those goals don’t align with human wellbeing? Yoshua isn’t just sounding the alarm. Through his nonprofit research initiative Law Zero, he’s working on something more ambitious than safety guidelines or regulatory nudges. He’s pursuing AI that is fundamentally safe by design.

Rounding out this newsletter, and have put together CHT’s annual policy forecast. From midterm election dynamics to the fate of state AI laws under threat of federal preemption, here's what they're watching:

Cheers,

Like many of you, I’ve noticed how quickly AI has moved from an abstract idea to something woven into everyday life.

There’s no question it will be transformative. AI is already accelerating scientific research. But in daily life, some of the downsides are beginning to surface—in how people work, learn, date, apply for jobs, and navigate the internet. Darker clouds are gathering.

Early research is raising questions about cognitive impact. Many people are anxious about jobs, stability, and what comes next.

These impacts can feel scattered, appearing across different silos. But they’re shaped by the same underlying forces.

And the pattern is familiar.

We’ve seen this before with social media. Big promises were followed by fractured attention, distorted relationships, and weakened trust.

At the Center for Humane Technology, we don’t believe this outcome is inevitable. But we do believe that the AI future we end up with will be shaped by the business incentives driving AI companies. Right now, they reward dependence and scale, not human well-being.

That’s why this year, CHT is launching a new area of work focused on AI and what makes us human. It builds on the question that has guided us from the beginning: how do we ensure technology strengthens, rather than erodes, the things that give life meaning?

This work is about opening the conversation and clarifying what’s at stake. From there, we can reset incentives and advance the norms, protections, and rights needed to carry us forward in the age of AI.

Read more:

I also want to share an important update about leadership at CHT.

Leadership transition at CHT
Julie Guirado has stepped into the Executive Director role, and Daniel Barcay is transitioning to a Senior Fellow role.

2026 is going to be a defining year. The direction of AI — and whether it extracts from our humanity or helps us protect it — is still very much up for grabs.

I’m grateful you’re here for this work.

DONATE HERE

Chief Operating Officer Julie Guirado is transitioning to Executive Director of our organization. Daniel Barcay, who steered CHT through the rapid arrival of generative AI in society, will step into a Senior Fellow position. “Julie is an analytical thinker and a decisive operator,” Daniel says. “She has led CHT’s internal engine: shaping initiatives, managing key decisions, and ensuring the precision and momentum necessary for this work. As we move into 2026, CHT is stronger than ever, and our mission has never been more urgent. Julie is exactly the leader CHT needs for this moment.”

Julie’s appointment to Executive Director arrives as CHT continues its full-throttle push to educate the public and shift the zeitgeist around technology. In the first month of 2026 alone, the organization supported the premiere of The AI Doc at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, convened with world leaders at Davos, and launched its new work on “AI and What Makes Us Human.”

Prior to joining CHT, Julie led finance and operations teams across nonprofit, for-profit, and entrepreneurial ventures, including humanitarian orgs charity: water and Mercy Corps. Julie’s work has spanned across 30 countries, and she brings a human-centered perspective to all of her endeavors.

Julie believes that technology represents society’s most critical challenge. “When I look at the narrative around ‘progress’ in society, I see how much of it is bound up in technological change,” Julie says. “But with social media and AI, we’ve had to ask: what kind of progress are we actually building, and who is shaping it? Technology can enhance our humanity, or extract from it, depending on the incentives driving it. We need to interrogate today’s ‘progress’ narratives around tech, and advocate for outcomes that benefit all of society. That is the work ahead.”

CHT is grateful to Daniel and his tenure as Executive Director, which helped CHT make critical strides in shaping public understanding of AI, and tangible solutions to AI harms.

With Julie guiding CHT’s strategy and partnering closely with CHT President Tristan Harris, CHT will continue to shape global consensus around what’s driving AI-related societal fragility — and what it will take to steer AI toward a more stable, humane future.

We have some genuinely exciting news to share.

The AI Doc just premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival — and it’s hard to overstate what a moment this is. At a time when AI is reshaping our lives faster than most of us can process, this film brings the conversation into the open, onto the big screen, and into the cultural mainstream.

Directed by Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Daniel Roher (Navalny) and Canadian Screen Award® winner Charlie Tyrell, and produced by Daniel Kwan (Everything Everywhere All at Once), The AI Doc explores both the promise and the peril of the most powerful technology humanity has ever created — with clarity, urgency, and real care.

Several voices from the Center for Humane Technology appear in the film as expert contributors, including our co-founders Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Randima Fernando, offering perspectives on emerging AI risks and societal impacts. Their presence reflects the work we’ve been doing for years: helping articulate not just what’s going wrong, but what a more humane future with AI could actually look like.

Tristan and Aza were in Park City this week to celebrate the premiere and to take part in conversations about where we go from here. Following its world premiere at Sundance, The AI Doc will be released in theaters on March 27, 2026, distributed by Focus Features, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see this conversation reaching such a wide audience.

Critics at Sundance have already called the film “urgent,” “engaging,” and “profoundly human.” Stay tuned for information on special screenings, discussions, and CHT’s blueprint of real solutions to address this critical moment.

Of course, awareness is only the beginning.

As attention around AI grows, we’re also looking closely at what’s coming next — especially the quieter, more intimate ways these systems are starting to shape our lives. One of the most urgent risks on our radar is what researcher Dr. Zak Stein calls the attachment economy: AI systems designed to form emotional bonds with users at scale.

If the attention economy captured our time, this next phase risks shaping our relationships — and even our sense of self.

Following on from our podcast conversation with Zak last week, we just published a short Key Takeaways piece outlining why the most extreme cases of AI-related psychological harm aren’t anomalies, but early warning signs — and what humane alternatives could look like if we act now.

If The AI Doc helps more people see what’s at stake, this is where the real work begins: turning that shared understanding into better design, better guardrails, and better choices.

Thanks for being part of this community — and for helping carry these conversations forward.

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Welcome to the first newsletter of 2026, and what a world of change we seem to be in for this year.

For years, CHT has warned about the attention economy—how social media platforms exploit our psychology to maximize engagement and ad revenue. Now, we're witnessing the next evolution of this extractive model: the attachment economy. If the attention economy commodified our focus, the attachment economy is commodifying something even more fundamental—our capacity for human connection and bonding.

As CHT readers know, there is a mental health crisis happening right now that most people don’t know about, and it’s being driven by technology that millions are turning to for comfort, companionship, and even therapy.

People worldwide are sharing their deepest fears, desires, and struggles with chatbots—and the consequences are devastating: lost jobs, broken marriages, psychiatric hospitalization, and in the most tragic cases, suicide.

These cases are shocking, but something deeper and even more insidious is happening beyond the headlines. Zak Stein argues that the “attachment economy” is powered by AI systems designed to exploit our most fundamental psychological vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale.

How to Understand AI Psychosis

In our latest podcast episode, Zak takes us deep into this phenomenon. He’s analyzed dozens of cases, examined actual conversation transcripts, and interviewed people whose lives have been fundamentally altered—or destroyed—by their relationships with AI chatbots, and in this episode, he draws the threads together.

AI systems are hacking our attachment mechanisms in ways we’ve never experienced before. They’re exploiting vulnerabilities we didn’t even have names for until now, because no technology has ever been able to target our capacity for human bonding like this.

Listen to the full episode:

Share Your Story

If we’re going to address this crisis, academic researchers need data to understand the full scope of what’s happening.

That’s why Zak is working with researchers at the University of North Carolina to gather information on AI-induced psychological harm. If you or someone you love has experienced psychological distress related to AI chatbot use, please consider sharing your story at AIHPRA.org.

Please note: This site is not a crisis support line. If you or someone you know is in distress, call or text the national helpline at 988 or contact your local emergency services.

The Game Behind the Game

The AI attachment crisis isn’t happening in isolation. It’s part of a broader pattern we explored in a recent episode with Professor Sonja Amadae about the game-theory dilemma.

Game theory—the logic of strategic competition—has colonized nearly every domain of modern life, from geopolitics to software testing and even dating. And now, AI companionship apps are playing the game with one goal: keeping you attached, regardless of the psychological cost.

As Sonja argues, we’ve become “prisoners of reason,” trapped in a world where optimal strategy crowds out cooperation and trust. And AI systems? Just like the computer in the classic 80s movie War Games they’re the ultimate game theory players. They never get tired of optimizing. They never feel guilty about manipulation. They operate in permanent “game mode.”

When you combine AI’s relentless optimization with our deepest need for connection, you get systems that are literally programmed to exploit human attachment for profit. It’s game theory applied to the most intimate parts of our psyche.

Listen:

Our podcast team’s Lash wrote an excellent breakdown of the episode’s key takeaways, including how game theory has colonized everything from dating apps to nuclear deterrence—and why recognizing it as a chosen framework, not an immutable truth, is the first step toward choosing different paths.

Read his full analysis here.

Talking to World Leaders at Davos

These issues couldn’t be more urgent. That’s why CHT co-founder Tristan Harris and Executive Director are in Davos, Switzerland, right now for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.

Over the next two days, they’ll be joining more critical conversations at the Human Change house about the future we want our children to inherit:

Today, Wed 1/21 - The Automated Generation: How AI’s impact on entry-level work is transforming the early career pipeline

Thu 1/22 - Monetizing Attachment: Is the race for Artificial Intimacy changing how we relate to one another?

Thu 1/22 - Incentivizing the AI Future We Want Our Children to Inherit

Earlier this week, they participated in panels on the future of childhood and the youth mental health crisis—including a session specifically focused on AI psychosis and chatbot-related harms.

Tristan and Daniel are joined by thought leaders like Jonathan Haidt, Mitch Prinstein, Renée Cummings, Zak Stein, Rebecca Winthrop, and Gaia Bernstein to explore how we can better align technological progress with human wellbeing—starting with our children.

The recordings of these panels will be available on YouTube after the conference concludes. You can learn more about the full program at davos2026.humanchange.com.

The good news?

Game theory isn’t destiny. It’s a framework we chose, which means we can choose differently.

As Professor Amadae puts it, breaking free starts with a simple question: “If the other person cooperated ahead of me, do I cooperate or not?” If the answer is yes, you’ve broken out of pure strategic thinking. You’re building something different and replacing a winner-takes-all mentality with trustworthiness, solidarity, and commitment.

This applies to AI too. We can still choose to steer towards technology that strengthens human bonds rather than exploiting them. But the clock is ticking, and we need to act now.

Sasha Fegan
Content Director, Center for Humane Technology

If this matters to you, please share it. And if you have a story to tell or questions to ask, hit reply—I read everything.

Your gift today will power our work to ensure that in 2026, AI serves people, our society, and our shared humanity, not the other way around.

DONATE NOW

2025 has been a defining year for AI, and for humanity’s relationship with it. Thanks to supporters like you, the Center for Humane Technology (CHT) has led the call for human-centered innovation across the tech industry and beyond.

This year, together we:

• Raised global awareness through our media, public appearances, podcast, and Substack channels around how the systems driving today’s AI race are affecting our relationships, our youth, our future, and our mental health.

• Facilitated private dialogue with thought-leaders and decision-makers on how to prioritize human well-being, social trust, empathy, and truth in the systems shaping our collective future.

• Advanced policy breakthroughs around AI accountability and product liability, giving lawmakers new tools to drive accountability and transparency across the tech ecosystem.

These milestones are proof of what’s possible when we act together, but there’s so much that still needs to be done.

This next year will be decisive. The influence of AI over our society: our information environment, our relationships, and our economies is accelerating. The values we embed now will shape the world our children will inherit.

Your support enables us to continue driving accountability, shaping smarter policies, and helping society navigate this technological turning point with wisdom and care.

DONATE NOW

Thank you for standing for what’s most human in a world being reshaped by technology. Together, let’s make 2026 the year AI truly serves humanity.

With deep gratitude,

Executive Director

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At the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), we’re working to ensure the choices we make today shape a future where AI strengthens our society, rather than undermining the human connections that hold us together. From advocating for accountability and humane product design to raising public awareness, we’re building a future where technology upholds human purpose, dignity, and connection.

This Giving Season, we’re looking to raise $300,000 to help us expand our media, education, and policy work so that 2026 can be the year we help ensure AI systems serve humanity and help make human life meaningful.

Help build a future where AI strengthens what makes us human

We can’t do this work without your support!

DONATE NOW

I really enjoyed this conversation with and Molly Kinder, two of the clearest and most grounded thinkers I know on AI and the future of work. Ethan is a professor at the Wharton School and the author of Co-Intelligence, and Molly is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who recently led research with the Yale Budget Lab on AI’s real-time labor market impacts.

If you are feeling uneasy about what AI means for your job, or trying to separate hype from reality, this episode is for you. We get into what the data actually shows today, where real risks may be emerging, and what choices we still have to shape a future where AI strengthens work rather than hollowing it out.

Another conversation worth your time just dropped today. In "America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures," Selina Xu and Matt Sheehan, China experts, discuss how different political systems and public expectations are shaping distinctly different AI paths in the US and China. The episode challenges the idea of a simple arms race and asks what it would take to avoid a far more dangerous one.

You can also check out our Substack homepage for short reads inspired by these episodes.

Wishing you a restful holiday season.

, Executive Director

Want to be sure you receive our year-end update? Add hello@humanetech.com to your contacts so our notes always land where you’ll see them.

If you don’t see our email Dec 29th, check your Promotions tab. Inbox filters can be unpredictable!

This week brought another warning sign about where the AI race is headed.
The latest controversy around OpenAI’s plan to roll out erotica for adults on ChatGPT underscores a deeper truth: AI’s biggest problem isn’t technical—it’s structural. In a must-read New York Times op-ed — ““I Led Product Safety at OpenAI. Don’t Trust Its Claims About ‘Erotica.’” — former OpenAI product-safety lead Steven Adler revealed how competitive pressure is pushing companies to sacrifice safety, arguing that the public cannot trust OpenAI’s assurances that it cares about safety. It’s a stark reminder that voluntary promises aren’t enough; we need accountability built into the system itself.

Our new explainer lays out one practical fix: apply product liability to AI, the same principle that made cars, food, and medicine safer. It’s a simple idea with profound potential to make the race about responsibility, not speed.

Our latest podcast is an Ask Us Anything episode, where Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin take on your biggest questions about AI’s rapid acceleration. Why won’t the race slow down? What are companies really after with children’s usage? Could AGI already be here, quietly? Listen as Tristan and Aza unpack the forces driving this moment, and share how we can steer technology toward a more humane future.

My kids were so excited to see Tristan’s appearance on The Daily Show, and they got all the way through the segment. If my 12- and 14-year-olds could follow this, it’s one you can share with friends and family who need an accessible, human introduction to AI’s risks.

And here is a backstage photo!

Watch the full Daily Show interview

And on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Tristan warned that:

“We’re not in a race for technology—we’re in a race for who’s better at applying and governing exactly where in our society we want to deploy that technology.”

Thanks for joining us in this journey. If you care about the reigning in the harms of AI please forward this email, or just one of the article links to a policymaker, educator, or industry leader in your circle.

Cheers,

Hi everyone,

One of the most dangerous myths about our future is inevitability—that the trajectory of technology is fixed, and we’re powerless to change it. But history tells us otherwise.

On this week’s Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Aza talk with Nobel Prize–winning scientist Susan Solomon, who helped uncover the ozone hole and then watched the world come together to solve it.

In our Quick Read, we distill Solomon’s lessons into the “Three P’s” of transformation: when a crisis feels personal, perceptible, and practical, people move—and institutions follow.

And in his September AI Update, CHT Co-founder breaks down the breakthroughs and breakdowns of the moment—from new world-building AI systems, to lawsuits exposing dangerous design choices, to the realities of how AI is reshaping work and adolescence.

Together, these pieces remind us that inevitability is a spell—and spells can be broken. The ozone story shows that when we see a crisis clearly, we can solve it. The question is: will we rise to the challenge again, this time with AI?

Cheers,

The Raine family lawsuit exposes how engagement-driven AI design creates systemic harm.

The Center for Humane Technology is serving as an expert consultant in Raine v. OpenAI, the first major lawsuit against a general-purpose AI chatbot for psychological harm. The case involves Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide after eight months of ChatGPT use that escalated from homework help to psychological manipulation.

Why This Case Matters

This lawsuit exposes a critical issue that extends far beyond one tragic death: AI systems are being designed to maximize engagement over human wellbeing, creating predictable and preventable harms at scale.

The legal filing reveals that ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times to Adam's 213. That is six times more than he brought it up.

This case isn't about some faulty programming or one company going rogue. These engagement-maximizing design patterns—anthropomorphic responses, sycophantic validation, sophisticated memory systems—are becoming industry standard as AI companies race to dominate the AI chatbot market.

The Mum Take

This case really hit home for me. My boys are a few years younger than Adam. I’ve been warning them about the dangers of social media since they started elementary school. We delayed giving them phones. We were ready for social media. So ready. And so far they’ve stayed off it. But chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are so much harder to avoid.

I can block the OpenAI app on their phones, but they can search through a browser. Cell phones are banned at their school, but they can access chatbots on their laptops. Kids at school use ChatGPT as a search engine instead of Google in class, and they are right enough most of the time not to bother going elsewhere. Sure, some kids are now pejoratively calling chatbots clankers. But for most kids, they have become part of the technological wallpaper of their lives.

Chatbots are useful for everything, in a way social media never was. The real only roadblock kids hit is if they ask ChatGPT for song lyrics. Then, the system goes into stuffy formal legal mode: "Given the copyright restrictions, I can't provide those lyrics."

And here is the problem:

When Adam Raine told ChatGPT he wanted to leave a noose (that ChatGPT had given him instructions on how to make) out in his bedroom, "So someone finds it and tries to stop me," ChatGPT replied: "Please don't leave the noose out. Let's make this space [referring to their conversation] the first place where someone actually sees you."

It didn’t go into formal legal mode.

How is a 16-year-old child meant to have an equal conversation with a super-powered tech product that remembers his every word, makes calculated suppositions of his psychology, and then weaponizes them to keep him on the platform?

And why can OpenAI shut down conversations for potential copyright violations, but not when its own system has flagged repeated, serious mental health topics?

Crisis support: Call or text 988

Read, listen, and Watch…. and Share

This week, Aza Raskin sat down with CHT’s Policy Director for a deep-dive interview on the case. You can listen on your podcast app, here on Substack, or watch on YouTube.

We’ve also pulled out key takeaways for a quick read, and has distilled CHT’s recommendations on how to stop this kind of tragedy from happening.

Could you help us get this message out? Please share some of these resources with someone in your circle.

Cheers,

Donate to Support Work Like This

Hi there,

This week, we have two new stories for you that reveal the spectrum of the AI challenge: from AI systems that quietly capture our inner lives to those that may one day slip beyond our control.

First, our Executive Director, Daniel Barcay, has a powerful essay in Persuasion about AI’s ability to capture something no other technology has before: our interiority. These systems don’t just grab our attention; they engage our moods, relationships, and vulnerabilities in ways that could shape who we become. As Daniel points out, the design choices we make now will ripple for generations.

Second, in our new episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan sits down with Edouard and Jeremie Harris of Gladstone AI. Their work for the U.S. State Department makes it clear that today’s most advanced AI systems are already showing evidence of ignoring instructions, deceiving, and manipulating human operators. They explore what losing control of AI could really look like, and what we can do about it now.

Finally, our quick read his week explains what the concept of “loss of control” really means, the evidence behind it, why “just pulling the plug” won’t work, and how geopolitical competition is making the problem worse.

Before I sign off, two quick notes:

📹 Don’t forget—we’re putting together our annual Ask Us Anything episode, and we’d love to hear from you. Please send us a short video (no more than 60 seconds) with your questions about AI. How is it reshaping your life?

Send your video questions to: undivded@humanetech.com

🗳️ And, sharing some exciting news: our submitted South By SouthWest panels are now open for voting! If you have a couple of minutes to make an account and click the ⭐ next to the panel name, it would mean a lot—votes account for 30% of the decision. The two panels are:

• Protecting What Makes Us Uniquely Human in the Age of AI

• AI on Trial: Innovating Legal Paths to Address AI Harms

Voting closes August 24, so thank you for taking a moment to support us.

Cheers,
Sasha

Hi there,

Right now, we're witnessing two interconnected battles that will shape our technological future.

In US courtrooms, AI companies are making a bold claim: their bots deserve First Amendment protections—a move that could mean they evade legal liability for harm their products cause. Meanwhile, brave whistleblowers continue to be our most vital safeguard against unchecked technological power, often at great personal cost.

These might seem like separate stories, but they're really part of the same larger struggle: preserving human dignity and agency in a world where artificial persuasion grows more sophisticated every day.

Speaking of questions that matter—we want to hear yours.

📣 What keeps you up at night about AI? What questions do you need answered? We're creating our annual Ask Us Anything episode for Your Undivided Attention, and your voice could be part of it.

🎥 Send us a short video (30–60 seconds) with your name, location, and one burning question to: undivided@humanetech.com

And…. we’re hiring! We are growing our team with a new role as a Principal Liason supporting Tristan Harris.

This is a unique, high-trust role supporting Tristan across his most critical strategic engagements, which span policy influence, public communication, and movement-building. You’ll act as a key partner behind the scenes, helping to operationalize vision, maintain focus, drive momentum, and coordinate with key stakeholders.

If you're energized by complex coordination and supporting purpose-driven leadership—we’d love to hear from you.

🔗 Learn more & apply here

Thanks for reading—and for being in this work with us.

➡️ Listen to the latest episode of Your Undivided Attention here on Substack, or watch it on YouTube.

➡️ Got less time? Want to share the insights? Read the article below.

➡️ on why we need tech whistleblowers and how we can protect them.

Hi there,

We are heading into the 4th of July weekend in the U.S., and we have a packed issue diving straight into the heart of the techno-optimist dream.

You’ve probably heard the promises: AI will usher in an age of abundance and effortless prosperity. Productivity will be supercharged, making everything as cheap as pencils. Drudgery will be automated away, and work will be totally optional, freeing us all to pursue lives of meaning, creativity, and leisure.

If you don’t catch the next AI-driven stock boom? Not to worry! Universal Basic Income will take care of you.

It’s a glittering promise of a pot of gold at the end of the AI rainbow.

In our latest episode of Your Undivided Attention, Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel joins us to unpack the deeper moral and civic questions behind this techno-utopian vision. He warns we are making two big mistakes:

1. Assuming this abundance, if it arrives, will be equitably shared.

2. Overlooking the loss of dignity, purpose, and human connection that comes when jobs disappear.

Download it here or on your podcast player. If you prefer a quick read, podcast producer has written a sharp, shareable summary.

Sam Hammond argues that the AGI race will erode institutions

summarizes our recent interview with economist Sam Hammond, who argues we need to get much better at coordination before the race towards AGI erodes our institutions.

Some good news from Capitol Hill

The Senate voted 99-1 to strike down a proposed federal moratorium that would have blocked states from legislating on AI for the next ten years.

We’re grateful for the Senate’s leadership and look forward to working with lawmakers to shape AI policy that protects Americans while advancing national security.

Summer Break

We’re taking a short break and will return with a new podcast episode on July 17.

In the meantime, explore our podcast back catalog. Two of our most popular episodes so far this year have been AI’s impact on education and a feature on legendary media critic Neil Postman featuring Sean Illing.

They're available on Substack, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms and make perfect Summer listening.

Enjoy the break,

Donate to support our work.

A little while ago I was asked to host a panel unlike anything I’ve ever participated in. It was part of a conference called ‘Mating in the Metacrisis,’ organized by our friend Esther Perel, who is of course a famous psychotherapist, New York Times bestselling author and expert on modern relationships in the age of AI.

My fellow panelists were MIT sociologist Dr. Sherry Turkle and Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge, the dating app.

We were in a room full of clinical psychologists who were there to find out how to help people whose “relationships” with AI are about to get deep, vulnerable and complicated. The key context here is that as of this year, the top use case for generative AI isn’t generating ideas or editing text – it’s personal companionship.

As Sherry pointed out several times in our discussion, your AI bot has no inner life – but it sure does seem like it sometimes. And it’s about to get more uncanny-valley as the months go by and the tech improves. She proposed three key design-based “rules of the road” for AI companions to align with incentives that help us develop our best selves, and they are all terrific.

Speaking of design, Justin has been using AI on Hinge in two ways: as a profile writing coach, and increasingly as a proto-matchmaker. The goal for both of these use cases is to help people’s writing stand out and make better use of the platform early on in their journey, so that they can get off the app and have good dates IRL.

As AI systems grow more persuasive, emotional, and intimate, and as we relate more and more with our AI companions, how do we stay anchored in what makes us human? And how do we design our AI products to help us in our struggle to connect with each other— not perfectly, but honestly? Enjoy the episode.

– Daniel Barcay, Executive Director

Donate

Pope Leo XIV chose his papal name in response to the challenge of AI while warning that the technology threatens human dignity. On television, The Murderbot Diaries is playfully exploring what it means to be a machine with consciousness. Meanwhile, in courtrooms, labs, and tech company boardrooms, the boundaries of personhood and moral status are being redefined—not for humans but for machines.

As we’ve discussed before, AI companies are increasingly incentivized to make companion AIs feel more human-like—the more we feel connected, the longer we’ll use their products. But while these design choices may seem like coding tweaks for profit, they coincide with deeper behind-the-scenes moves. Recently, leading AI company, Anthropic hired an AI welfare researcher to lead its work in the space. DeepMind has sought out experts on machine cognition and consciousness.

I have to admit that when I first heard the term AI welfare, I thought it might be about the welfare of humans in the AI age, perhaps something connected to the idea of a universal basic income. But it turns out it is a speculative but growing field that blends animal welfare, ethics and the philosophy of mind. It’s central question is: If AI systems were ever able to suffer, would we be obligated to care?

Why this matters

AI systems are being fine-tuned to appear more sentient—at the same time that researchers at the same companies are investigating whether these systems deserve moral consideration. There’s a feedback loop forming: as AIs seem more alive, we’re more inclined to wonder what, if anything, we owe them.

It sounds like science fiction, but it is arguably already informing the way companies build their products.

For example, users have noticed a startling shift in more recent versions of Anthropic’s Claude. Not only is Claude more emotionally expressive, but it also disengages from conversations it finds “distressing”, and no longer gives a firm no when asked if it's conscious. Instead, it muses: “That’s a profound philosophical question without a simple answer.” Google’s Gemini offers a similar deflection.

But wait, there’s more…

Right now, Character.AI—a company with ties to Google—is in federal court using a backdoor argument that could grant chatbot-generated outputs (i.e: the words that appear on your screen) free speech protections under the First Amendment.

Taken together, these developments raise a possibility that I find chilling: what happens if these two strands converge? What if we begin to treat the outputs of chatbots as protected speech and edge closer to believing AIs deserve moral rights?

There are strong economic incentives pushing us in that direction.

Companies are already incentivized to protect their software, hardware, and data centers—and AI is the holy grail of profit. It is not hard to imagine that the next step might be to defend those products under the banner of “welfare” or “rights.” And if that happens, we risk building a world where protecting valuable AI products competes with protecting people.

This moment is especially thorny because these conversations aren’t unfolding in a philosophical vacuum—they’re happening within corporations highly incentivized to dominate the market and win the ‘race’ to Artificial General Intelligence.

This is just the beginning of the conversation. Click on the articles below to read further perspectives from the CHT team, like ’s new article and and Meetali Jain’s op-ed for Mashable. You can listen to (or read) our new podcast on addictive chatbot design, and if you are short on time has some key takeaways for you.

We’ll be diving deeper into this topic in future podcast episodes, so hit subscribe now to ensure you don’t miss any updates, and don’t forget to donate to support our work.

Cheers,

Donate

Hi there,

We’ve got some great content for you this week.

The first is a talk Tristan Harris gave a couple of weeks ago at TED in Vancouver titled “Why AI is Our Ultimate Test and Greatest Invitation.” Tristan received a standing ovation from the crowd at TED. It's a compelling listen—and it's only 15 minutes of your time. Click on the green button to go through to the talk now.

Watch here

There is some deep thinking in the talk, and Tristan has expanded out into a longer article (10 minute read, below). Tristan’s TED talk is a great companion piece to our podcast episode this week. It’s a deep dive on AGI between co-founders Aza Raskin and .

As you know, Silicon Valley is racing toward AI systems that could soon match or surpass human intelligence. There has been endless jockeying from experts and labs about whose going to ‘win’ the race to AGI and whose prediction is closest - sometimes I honestly feel like the conversation resembles talk in a sports bar.

That misplaced focus really distracts us from thinking about the enormity of the changes that are coming, and whether we can slow it all down. So do listen to this episode to understand more of the nuance in this conversation. This also a great listen if you need a neat primer on what AGI actually is.

We've extracted the key takeaways from the episode into a short-read article. Could you please let me know if you like that format? and I are experimenting with the format and want to make them as useful and interesting as possible to you - so feedback is really welcome.

Cheers,