Latanya Sweeney — On Shaping Technology to Human Purpose

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2023

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may not know Latanya Sweeney's name, but as much as any other single person — and with good humor and grace as well as brilliance — she has led on the frontier of our gradual understanding of how far from anonymous you and I are in almost any database we inhabit, and how far from neutral all the algorithms by which we increasingly navigate our lives. In this conversation with Krista, she brings a helpful big-picture view to our lives with technology, seeing how far we've come — and not — since the advent of the internet, and setting that in the context of history both industrial and digital. She insists that we don't have to accept the harms of digital technology in order to reap its benefits — and she sees very clearly the work that will take. From where she sits, the new generative AI is in equal measure an exciting and alarming evolution. And she shares with us the questions she is asking, and how she and her students and the emerging field of Public Interest Technology might help us all make sense. This is the second in what will be an ongoing occasional On Being episode to delve into and accompany our lives with this new technological revolution — training clear eyes on downsides and dangers while cultivating an attention to how we might elevate the new frontier of AI — and how, in fact, it might invite us more deeply into our humanity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get to the show today, I want to tell you about a journalist and podcaster I deeply
0:06.0	respect and enjoy Dan Harris. He hosts the podcast 10% happier, which is a program with a guiding
0:15.0	philosophy that happiness is a skill you can learn and Dan's personal odyssey to pursuing
0:21.4	transformation for himself and others came by way of a panic attack on national television.
0:27.9	He talks to scientists and meditation teachers and the occasional celebrity on subjects like
0:34.3	productivity, anxiety, enlightenment, psychedelics, and relationships. Listen to 10% happier with
0:42.7	Dan Harris wherever you listen to podcasts. Support for on being with Christa Tippett comes from
0:49.9	the Fetzer Institute. Fetzer supports a movement of organizations that are applying spiritual solutions
0:55.5	to society's toughest problems. Learn more at Fetzer.org.
1:01.0	This is the second in what will be an ongoing occasional on-being episode to delve into and
1:06.4	accompany our lives with technology. Training clear eyes on downsides and dangers while cultivating
1:13.6	an attention to how we might elevate the new frontier of AI, how in fact it might invite us more
1:21.5	deeply into our humanity. We started with Reid Hoffman, a philosophical mind in Silicon Valley.
1:28.7	Today I'm so happy to introduce you to Latanya Swini of Harvard. She has been fiercely guarding
1:36.0	your data privacy whether you know her name or not. Latanya is one of those people I love talking to
1:43.3	someone who's been present at the genesis of her field. Like neuroscience, computer science has
1:49.5	only emerged in the last handful of decades and Latanya Swini has been there attending its
1:56.1	birth pangs and adolescent crises. As much as any other single person and with good humor and
2:02.8	grace as well as brilliance, she has led on the frontier of our gradual understanding
2:09.6	of how far from anonymous you and I are in almost any database we inhabit. And how far from
2:17.3	neutral all the algorithms by which we increasingly navigate our lives. So Latanya Swini brings a
2:25.0	really helpful big picture view, seeing how far we've come and not since the advent of the
	...

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