The Unspoken AI Catastrophe: Death By a Thousand Cuts

There’s a lot of concern right now about the big scary ways AI could take control of the human race, or extinct us all together. But computational social scientist Sandra Matz argues the human deterioration by AI is more subtle than that — and already happening. Sandra Matz studies the cross section of human behavior, our technological relationships, and our inner mental lives -- and now, AI’s influence on it all. In this conversation, Laurie Segall and Sandra Matz talk about how AI has the ability to make us boring, flatten our potential, cause cognitive atrophy, and impact our human relationships. They explore unexpected ways AI can track our human behavior. If we’re not careful, that data can be weaponized and manipulated by companies all around the world. But it’d be too simple to discount the potential of AI. Sandra and Laurie go in depth about all the ways the power of AI could be used for good - like how AI could be used to detect our deteriorating mental health. Sandra’s book: Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.