Synthetic Society
27 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSynthetic Society explores our future technological society, with each episode featuring interviews with leading experts, political figures, and entrepreneurs, discussing and teaching us about complex issues. Hosted by disinformation researcher Tom Ascott.
With a focus on AI, technology and the internet, the show gives insight into many of the legal, social and regulatory problems that we are all facing together. Synthetic Society is part of the #Ai2021 campaign, a public engagement campaign to get the general public learning, thinking, and talking about AI. Contact us at www.ai2021.org. Produced by AI expert Marcus Storm on behalf of the #Ai2021 campaign.
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Episodes
The Open Internet Closes
July 01, 2022 18:04 - 51 minutes - 70.4 MBThis week Tom Ascott talks to Max Beverton-Palmer, Director at the Internet Policy Unit at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. The pair discuss the idea of an open internet and how cooperation can secure its future as well as how tech companies should regulate hostile governments and organisations online and finally end up discussing is Twitter should be subsidised!
Toxic Femininity
June 24, 2022 16:33 - 48 minutes - 66 MBWelcome back to Season Two of Synthetic Society! To kick us off host Tom Ascott speaks with Nona Willis Aronowitz about femcels. FemCels, short for female incels, are women unable or unwilling to have relationships due to a mix of societal pressures and misogyny. The conversation draws on Nona's article 'The Femcel Revolution'.
Colonialism, Connected
October 22, 2021 21:03 - 57 minutes - 78.8 MBKerryn Gammie and Tom Ascott discuss how archaic, colonial power structures have survived and turned into neo-colonialism, and how those structures continue to be pervasive online. The pair reflect on ideas of justice, identity and equality and how we can bring these ideas to the world of business to make our work lives more equitable.
Instagram Insurrection
October 08, 2021 20:04 - 56 minutes - 78.1 MBBen Decker, Founder and CEO of Memetica, talks to host Tom Ascott about the perils of misinformation on social media, if the Taliban should be allowed to have a Twitter account, and what the future of content moderation looks like. Episode Resources: https://www.twitterandteargas.org/
Diversity Equals Resilience For NATO
October 01, 2021 06:00 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBTom Ascott speaks to Giedrimas Jeglinskas, NATO Assistant Secretary General, and former Vice-Minister of Defence of Lithuania. The pair discuss what role NATO plays in information ecosystems and how NATO can help combat disinformation, as well as how diversity and inclusion can generate new and creative solutions and the importance of diversity in supply chains.
India's Innovative Data Unions
September 17, 2021 09:57 - 41 minutes - 56.6 MBCan we make our data stronger, safer, and more secure by pooling it together? This week Tom Ascott speaks to Astha Kapoor, Co-Founder and Director of the AAPTI Institute in India. They discuss how new ideas of data unions, data co-ops and data stewardship are providing a model for how citizens can come together and collectively bargain with the state and with private companies in order to get better services.
Time For The Timeline
September 10, 2021 11:22 - 45 minutes - 62.6 MBWhat is time? This week Tom talks to Emily Thomas, a philosopher of time and travel, about how time and technology interact. They discuss how the timeline affects how we perceive time, if going on Twitter is like going on holiday, and the different ways technology might let us have experiences outside of time. The pair also give an overview of the philosophy of C.D. Broad and the ideas of eternalism versus growing block theory and the idea of substantivalism and relationism.
Robot-Tinted Glasses
September 03, 2021 22:30 - 1 hour - 83.1 MBThis week Tom explores how robotics and AI is changing our moral beliefs and practices with John Danaher. John is a Senior Lecturer at NUI Galway School of Law, and philosopher behind Philosophical Disquisitions, a blog, and a podcast that focuses on the ethical and legal nexus of technology and philosophy.
For the Needs of Society
August 13, 2021 23:51 - 38 minutes - 53 MBThis episode Tom speaks to Areeq Chowdhury, the founder and director of WebRoots Democracy. WebRoots was a think tank focused on progressive and inclusive technology policy which ran for almost seven years. The pair discuss digital voting, facial recognition software and if social media companies should pay a user-based tax to fund digital literacy and anti-discrimination initiatives.
Behave Yourself!
August 06, 2021 17:11 - 45 minutes - 63 MBAs the ways in which we can interact virtually increase, so do the ways that we can become victims of harassment. In video games, we need to design systems that help fight problematic and toxic behavior while still supporting a competitive atmosphere. In this episode, Tom Ascott talks to Lucy Sparrow, a Ph.D. candidate with the Human-Computer Interaction Group (HCIG) at the University of Melbourne.
Press X For Ethics
July 30, 2021 16:57 - 47 minutes - 65.5 MBShould we treat characters in games the same way we treat real people? Is it ethical to run over someone over in Grand Theft Auto? And what about us, does it say something about our moral character if we spend all day in our underwear playing games? This week Tom Ascott speaks to Sebastian Ostritsch, Assistant Professor at Stuttgart University, about ethics in video games.
If AI Designed Your World
July 23, 2021 15:38 - 24 minutes - 33.9 MBWhat would a world look like if it was made by AI? This week Mitchell Baxter, Director at Lazy Monday Games, explains how AI helps in designing video games. He and host Tom Ascott talk about where the technology is now, the challenges in balancing unique and bespoke art with generative assets, and the assistance that new technology offers to artists and designers.
The Topology of AI
July 16, 2021 17:01 - 26 minutes - 36.1 MBThis week Tom Ascott speaks to Jacob Williamson about the business of AI. The pair talk through the emerging markets for AI in different fields, boutique uses for AI, and if the market for AI is overheating!
Designed For Your Pleasure
July 02, 2021 16:35 - 44 minutes - 61.1 MBThis week Tom Ascott talks with Kate Devlin a Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King's College London and author of Turned On. The pair discusses the ethics and morality around sex robots and they touch on artificial intimacy, algorithmic attraction, and tackles the thorny question of should you say thank you to Alexa.
Purpose Beyond Profit
June 25, 2021 15:44 - 49 minutes - 67.7 MBPlatforms could replace their metrics based on engagement and growth with metrics based on happiness, community strength and wellbeing. In this episode, Tom Ascott talks to Christine Jakobson, a tech ethics researcher, and consultant, about how platforms can respond to the growing issues of disinformation and online hate to create a more friendly timeline.
Monetising Islamophobia
June 18, 2021 17:31 - 39 minutes - 54.5 MBIslamophobia has been wielded as a weapon to draw support from right wing actors as well as to disenfranchise Muslim populations. In this episode Zahed Amanullah, a Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explains how Islamophobia has been refined, amplified and duplicated into a process that is being used globally. He and host Tom Ascott also touch on how governments can build trust in minority communities, conspiracy theories and if social media platforms are d...
The Trustless Currency
June 11, 2021 17:28 - 46 minutes - 64 MBIt’s taken us ten weeks but it’s finally time to address the elephant in the room: cryptocurrency! This week Erica Stanford, founder of the Crypto Curry Club and author ‘Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption’, talks Tom Ascott through everything crypto. The episode starts with the basics of Bitcoin and ramps up to complex crypto issues!
Automated Misogyny
June 04, 2021 13:06 - 45 minutes - 62.1 MBThe internet has been a platform for creating new tools and engaging platforms. But these innovations are also being used by those who would seek to perpetrate violence against women. In this episode Vaibhav Sahgal, a Senior Manager at The Economist Intelligence Unit, explains the problems that women face online and what solutions are on the horizon in the fight against online misogyny.
Breaking The Anger Cycle
May 28, 2021 15:13 - 41 minutes - 56.4 MBDr. Greenstein’s Memory, Affect, Decision-making (MAD) lab examines how emotions affect memory and decision-making, and this week he walks Tom Ascott through how anger online can increase our susceptibility to misinformation.
Giving Digital Policy A Facelift
May 21, 2021 19:33 - 46 minutes - 63.2 MBIn a future where it is increasingly difficult to tell authentic from synthetic, Anna Bulakh, Policy Advisor at Reface, gives a thoughtful roadmap to upcoming digital policy. She highlights the importance of baking safety and security into apps to future proof against any malicious use. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter. Follow Anna Bulakh on Twitter.
The Agile Government
May 15, 2021 13:22 - 43 minutes - 59.7 MBThis week host Tom Ascott talks to Walter Pasquarelli, AI Readiness & Data Policy Lead at Oxford Insights. Walter is the lead author for the ‘Government AI Readiness Index’, and the two of them discuss what it takes for a government to be AI ready, whether AI is levelling the playing field for less developed countries and if we governments should behave more like tech companies. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter and follow his blog here. Follow Walte...
What Can We Learn From Conspiracy Theories?
May 07, 2021 15:34 - 41 minutes - 56.7 MBLockdown has seen a surge in conspiracy theories, and as the world starts to emerge from another lockdown Katy Murray talks to Tom Ascott about what we can learn from conspiracy theories. She breaks down how a conspiracy theory forms, how they function and how they get in to our information ecosystem. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter and follow his blog here. Follow Katy Murray on Twitter.
Human In The Loophole
April 23, 2021 17:55 - 34 minutes - 46.7 MBIn technology we trust, or do we? This week Dr Allison Gardner, co-founder of Women Leading in AI and lecturer at Keele University, talks to Tom Ascott about the problems inherent in technology and the pair try to establish where the line is between tech solutionism and real ways that technology can benefit our lives. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter and follow his blog here.
Your Code Is Only As Good As Your Moral Code
April 16, 2021 18:40 - 32 minutes - 44.6 MBThis week host Tom Ascott speaks with Olivia Gambelin, AI ethicist and Founder of Ethical Intelligence. As a philosopher by trade, Olivia walks us through what it means to apply ethics to the problems that AI has thrown up. AI is giving us the ability to improve much of our work, and we can apply philosophical tools, such as moral reflection to make sure that the road AI is taking us is the right one. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter.
The Future Will Be Synthesised
April 09, 2021 06:00 - 30 minutes - 42.3 MBDeepfakes, images in which a person has their face replaced with someone else’s, pose a unique set of problems to society. In this interview host Tom Ascott talks with deepfake expert Henry Ajder about where deepfakes are causing the most philosophical and policy problems right now as well as the creative, emotional and artistic benefits this technology confers. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter.
The Future Of Voting
April 02, 2021 06:00 - 38 minutes - 53.2 MBSince the US election electronic voting has come under more scrutiny than it ever has before, despite not being as recent as is sometimes thought. In this episode Sonya Anderson, a Senior Partner at Smartmatic, talks Tom Ascott through how end-to-end electronic voting works, why this is such an important issue and if you will ever be able to vote in a national election from your couch. Follow Synthetic Society on Twitter. Follow Tom Ascott on Twitter.
Regulating The Internet
March 26, 2021 12:07 - 23 minutes - 32.2 MBAs technology, AI and the internet weave themselves deep into our societies, Synthetic Society is here to help you untangle and understand the mess. Listen to interviews with leading experts, political figures, and entrepreneurs, guiding us through complex issues. This week our guest is Lord Clement Jones, and we’ll be talking about if technology is becoming more polarised, how the government can lead on regulation for the internet and artificial intelligence, and the relevance of culture ...