Carnegie Council Podcasts

In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow Wendell Wallach sits down with Emory University's Professor Paul Root Wolpe for a thought-provoking conversation about the truth of ethical decision-making, the challenge of regulating new technologies whose impact is uncertain, the intrinsically fragmenting nature of social media and AI, and the dilemmas of neuroscience and neuromarketing.   For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Much has been said about the inability of tech and AI developers to grapple with ethical theory and inherent tension. Similarly, philosophers are often criticized by AI engineers for not understanding the technology. Anja Kaspersen and Wendell Wallach, senior fellows and co-chairs of the Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative, sit down with University of Pittsburgh’sProfessor Colin Allen for a fascinating conversation. Wallach and Allen wrote Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong together more than a decade ago, and this conversation also features an assessment of how we have progressed in building AI systems capable of making moral decisions.    For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the global financial backlash was swift and unprecedented: Dozens of financial institutions cut off their exposure to the Russian market for reasons that were at least partially ethical. These moves against Russia have led many to wonder if China—which is far more integrated into the global economy—could and should be the next target. In this podcast, Isaac Stone Fish and finance expert Perth Tolle discuss these issues and more. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Ahead of a May 6 international conference in Lithuania on steps to create a tribunal to hold Russia accountable for alleged war crimes and genocide in Ukraine, NYU Law’s Professor Ryan Goodman, co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to discuss the issues and challenges of prosecuting Putin and his top brass. With American public sentiment at an all-time high to see justice done, will this be a defining moment for the Biden/Harris administration on the global stage? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

The debate around solar radiation modification has broadened in recent years, but there has not yet been significant progress on international mechanisms to govern it, says Economist senior editor Oliver Morton in this C2GTalk. He adds: "I don't want a world with solar geoengineering come what may, but I also don't want future generations to look back and say, 'I wish they’d thought about this just a bit more thoroughly.'" Oliver Morton previously worked at Nature  and  Wired  and contributed to a range of other publications, including The New York Times and Science.  He is the author of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World; Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet; The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World; and The Moon: A History for the Future. Asteroid 10716 Olivermorton is named in his honor. This interview was recorded on February 10, 2022 and will be available with interpretation into  中文,  Español,  and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website. 

The global pandemic and investments in mRNA COVID vaccines have accelerated worldwide interest in the field of synthetic biology—a field that unifies chemistry, biology, computer science, and engineering for the purpose of writing better biological code. In this podcast, Genesis Machine co-author Amy Webb and Senior Fellows Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin explore how these developments are leading to a new industrial revolution. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen talks with Dr. Ricardo Chavarriaga about the promise and peril of brain-machine interfaces and cognitive neural prosthetics. What are the ethical considerations and governance challenges in using computational tools to create models or enhance our brains? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Since the Russian invasion began in late February, millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. In this Global Ethics Review podcast, Senior Fellow Michael Doyle discusses what this means on the ground in Eastern Europe, what governments are and should be doing to help, and how this refugee stream is different from ones that came before. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Global war, inflation, and a COVID-19 resurgence--the Biden/Harris team has been put on defense for first two quarters of 2022. Policies are reactive, promises made a year ago tabled. This week, "Doorstep" co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin reflect on what has happened to the vaunted Biden/Harris "foreign policy for the middle class" and how midterm elections will up-end the narratives the administration expected to put in place. Where do we go from here? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

The advent of the age of data is a formidable accelerator of history. As society faces a crisis of politics compounded by the emergence of powerful virtual communities competing with territorial communities, are we on the cusp of an earthquake in the history of humanity? In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kapsersen is joined by Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno for a thought-provoking conversation about his new book The First XXI Century: From Globalization to Fragmentation. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Every time a new technology that collects, stores, and analyzes our data is released to the world or permitted a new role, we are promised that it will work as intended and won't cause undue harm. But writer, professor, and speaker Dr. Chris Gilliard has found that this is rarely how these stories actually end. In this discussion with Senior Fellow Arthur Holland Michel, Dr. Gilliard explains why the arc of surveillance technology and novel "artificial intelligence" bends toward failures that disproportionately hurt society’s most vulnerable groups, what this means for our notions of "responsible tech" and "AI ethics," and what we can do about it moving forward. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

A leader asking his second in command to keep him in power. A parliament dissolved. A Supreme Court deciding the fate of a nation. Echoes of the January 6 political crisis in the U.S. are reverberating in the current standoff in Pakistan, where "ousted" Prime Minister Imran Khan is blaming the U.S. for conspiring to remove him from power. Atlantic Council's Uzair Younus joins Senior Fellows Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to explain a pivotal moment of change in Pakistan and how this may impact autocrats around the world. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen and Katherine Milligan, director the Collective Change Lab, explore what we can learn from the social impact and entrepreneurship movement to govern the potential impact of AI systems. What is systems change and collective sense-making? And why is it relevant to reenvisioning ethics in the information age?  For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this riveting and wide-ranging conversation, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen is joined by HKUST's Professor Pascale Fung to discuss the symbiotic relationship between science fiction and innovation and the importance of re-envisioning ethics in AI research. We may be able to code machines to seem and act more like humans, says Professor Fung, however the ability to question our own existence to understand who we are, are fundamentally human features and cannot be easily or even responsibly encoded. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

From Super Bowl cryptocurrency advertising to Save the Children accepting bitcoin donations, the crypto conversation is now mainstream. Over $100 million so far has been raised via crypto donations to Ukraine's war effort both from official government wallets and individual NFTs.  Will this revolutionize war funding, enable oligarchs to avoid sanctions, or pave the way for broader acceptance of a digital currencies around the world? NYU Stern’s Professor David Yermack returns to discuss these issues and the future of crypto with Carnegie Council Senior Fellows Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

How do tech, AI, and global norms intersect to generate political, legal, and ethical dilemmas? In this virtual event, Carnegie New Leader Josephine Jackson leads a discussion with four experts on the future of warfare, and how changing norms shape strategic challenges and tactical decision-making for national security leaders. This podcast features:  Philip M. Breedlove - General (ret.), U.S. Air Force Anthony F. Lang, Jr. – Professor, School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews Mary Ellen O’Connell – Professor, University of Notre Dame  Arun Seraphin – Deputy Director, Emerging Technologies Institute, National Defense Industrial Association For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

It is important to see proposed solar radiation modification experiments in a wider social context, says Sheila Jasanoff, the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School, during a C2GTalk interview. People want to know who is doing the experiment, and what their intentions are—and it is important for scientists and engineers to recognize and address these concerns, and for governance to be built around that. Sheila Jasanoff is a leading expert on the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies, and her work offers fascinating insights into how society navigates emerging technologies, and how decision-makers assess evidence and expertise—which is extremely relevant to our governance conversations. She is the author or editor of more than 15 books, including The Ethics of Invention and Can Science Make Sense of Life; has held distinguished appointments at leading universities around the world; and served on the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website. 

Hollywood has long been part of the United States' soft power arsenal. Now, that soft power is threatened by the larger geostrategic competition between the U.S. and China—and China appears to be winning. In Red Carpet, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explores how and why Hollywood has become obsessed with China and what that means for the People's Republic as it exports its national agenda around the world. In this virtual event, Schwarzel joins Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev for a discussion on how the film industry can offer an essential new perspective on the power struggle of this century. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this wide-ranging talk, U.S. defense expert Elbridge Colby discusses the changing nature of American power with Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal. As the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, Colby details the threats and challenges that the United States faces, most notably from Asia, and how it can adapt its geopolitical and military capabilities to meet its goals. How can the U.S. counter China's rising power and its pursuit of regional hegemony? Does Russia's invasion of Ukraine change how America pursues its policies? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Over the last two decades, solar radiation modification has gone from an intellectual experiment to something people are seriously considering, says pioneering climate scientist Ken Caldeira during a C2GTalk. The world needs to understand what would happen if somebody felt the need to cool the Earth rapidly, and that requires the ability for scientists to do more research. "There is a case to limit knowledge acquisition if it would lead to imminent harm," says Caldeira, but this is not the case for solar radiation modification experiments. Ken Caldeira is senior staff scientist (emeritus) with Carnegie Institution for Science, and world famous for his work on the global carbon cycle and climate change. He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report and a co-author of the 2010 US National Academy America’s Climate Choices report. Caldeira also participated in the UK Royal Society’s geoengineering panel in 2009. He is also senior scientist at Breakthrough Energy, which supports innovation to reach zero carbon emissions. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

As we enter week three of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Nahal Toosi, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to evaluate the ways in which the U.S. is already confronting Russia—economic warfare, information warfare—and how this is impacting other areas of foreign policy. Is the Biden/Harris administration nimble enough to take on multiple global crises or "black swan" events? Are Washington, DC technocrats stuck in a 1980s time machine? What can we expect from the National Security Strategy due to come out sometime this quarter? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Atlantic Council's Ukraine expert Melinda Haring joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to discuss where we are one week after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion into Ukraine. What are the key takeaways after a week of intense fighting? Can the U.S. and Western allies do more to stop Putin's advance? How will the war re-shape U.S. domestic politics as midterm season begins? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine raises several ethical questions: Why did diplomacy fail? What does the invasion mean for the principle of sovereignty? How does history inform the present and suggest the future? Are sanctions an appropriate and effective response, and what principles should guide their implementation? Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal and Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev discuss the ramifications of Putin's decision and the ethical principles at stake in the current crisis. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Dr. Francesca Rossi, the AI Ethics Global Leader for IBM, joins Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen for a riveting Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast. Rossi speaks about her ethics-focused role at a multinational company and the importance of lateral expertise and multidisciplinarity in addressing ethical considerations and tensions in AI research. How can we insert human values into AI systems? Can AI transform and strengthen human decision-making? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In the 1950s, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bemoaned that the United States wouldn’t even sell buttons to the Soviet Union. "Buttons can hold up a soldier’s trousers," he groused. Today, China is far more entangled with the United States than the Soviet Union was, and the relationship trades in far more than buttons. In a new series of dialogues, Carnegie Council is exploring the question: How should American institutions engage with China? The first event of the series examines the ethical questions that media outlets and journalists must grapple with when reporting on China. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this episode of the Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen speaks with Dr. Jürgen Stock, secretary general of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). In an engaging conversation, they discuss his professional journey towards leading the world police body, what keeps him up at night, and the critical role of global police work in keeping societies safe, especially as those seeking to evade justice increasingly hide behind screens, and operate via bits and bytes, as well as on the dark net. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.  

With 2022 U.S. midterm elections looming, George Mason University's Colin Dueck comes back to speak with Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin about the opportunities and challenges the Biden/Harris administration is facing on the global stage. What lessons has the U.S. learned from its failed Afghanistan pullout? Can Biden bridge foreign policy divisions that cut across party lines? Will he be able to do this in time to thwart the Russia-China "no limits" strategic partnership? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen sits down with Caltech's Professor Anima Anandkumar, also director of machine learning research at NVIDIA, for a captivating conversation. They discuss the "Trinity of AI" (data, algorithms, and infrastructure), Anandkumar's work on tensor algorithms, and the state of AI research, including the critical importance of diversity in the field. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world's wealthiest added a whopping $3.9 trillion to their pockets while as many as 500 million people descended into poverty. This trend continues a trajectory of decades of wealth accumulation by the 1 percent. In this podcast, New York Times correspondent Peter Goodman, author of Davos Man, talks with Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev about the global billionaire class and their visible and invisible impacts on nearly every aspect of modern society. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

In this episode of the Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen and Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal sit down with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation's Stelios Vassilakis for an engaging conversation about how to preserve and empower public space ethics. What we can we learn from the Athenian agora to guide the means and methods of governing AI? For more, including a full transcript, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.