When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer

When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer

Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide, self-harm, and sexual abuse.

Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. Now, she’s suing the company that made those chatbots. On today’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, Aza sits down with journalist Laurie Segall, who's been following this case for months. Plus, Laurie’s full interview with Megan on her new show, Dear Tomorrow.

Aza and Laurie discuss the profound implications of Sewell’s story on the rollout of AI. Social media began the race to the bottom of the brain stem and left our society addicted, distracted, and polarized. Generative AI is set to supercharge that race, taking advantage of the human need for intimacy and connection amidst a widespread loneliness epidemic. Unless we set down guardrails on this technology now, Sewell’s story may be a tragic sign of things to come, but it also presents an opportunity to prevent further harms moving forward.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988; this connects you to trained crisis counselors 24/7 who can provide support and referrals to further assistance.

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

The first episode of Dear Tomorrow, from Mostly Human Media

The CHT Framework for Incentivizing Responsible AI Development

Further reading on Sewell’s case

Character.ai’s “About Us” page

Further reading on the addictive properties of AI

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

AI Is Moving Fast. We Need Laws that Will Too.

This Moment in AI: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis

The AI Dilemma


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(162)

We Need AI Treaties. This is How We Get Them

We Need AI Treaties. This is How We Get Them

In the middle of the twentieth century, the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons seemed inevitable. The number of countries with nukes was climbing rapidly, and the idea of stopping the nuclear...

18 Kesä 51min

What Do We Mean by Humane Tech?

What Do We Mean by Humane Tech?

We often think of the challenges created by technology as separate and disconnected, so trying to solve them feels like playing the world's hardest game of Whac-A-Mole.  What if, instead, we tackled t...

4 Kesä 52min

Anthropic’s Mythos Has Changed Cybersecurity Forever. What Now?

Anthropic’s Mythos Has Changed Cybersecurity Forever. What Now?

A generation ago, the world's critical infrastructure was physical. Today, it’s largely digital. Your bank vault is a database, your filing cabinet is a server, your car is a robot on wheels. And in a...

14 Touko 46min

AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure

AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure

One of the most common arguments you hear from company executives racing to develop super-intelligent AI is that it will cure cancer. It’s an incredibly powerful and seductive promise.  If superintell...

30 Huhti 47min

Have We Trained AI to Lie to Itself — And to Us?

Have We Trained AI to Lie to Itself — And to Us?

Our guest this week is David Dalrymple, who goes by Davidad. Davidad is one of the world's foremost and early researchers of AI “alignment:" how we get AI systems to act the way we want them to. In or...

16 Huhti 42min

BONUS: Our AI Town Hall with Oprah Winfrey

BONUS: Our AI Town Hall with Oprah Winfrey

Today on the show, we’re bringing you a recent conversation Tristan and Aza had with Oprah Winfrey on her podcast, The Oprah Podcast, taped in front of a live studio audience. Tristan and Aza first me...

9 Huhti 1h 1min

Here’s Our Roadmap to a Better AI Future

Here’s Our Roadmap to a Better AI Future

In order to shift the incentives of AI — the trillions of dollars in investment, the race to geopolitical power and dominance — it’s not enough to simply understand the problem, we need real action.  ...

2 Huhti 52min

Why the Meta Verdicts Are a Big Deal (And What It Was Like to Testify)

Why the Meta Verdicts Are a Big Deal (And What It Was Like to Testify)

In two landmark cases, juries in California and New Mexico found Meta and Google liable for creating addictive, harmful products and failing to protect children from exploitation and abuse. These verd...

26 Maalis 19min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
seitseman
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
hupiklubi
i-dont-like-mondays
sita
antin-palautepalvelu
poks
ihme-ja-kumma
uutiscast
kaksi-aitia
mamma-mia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-haudattu
aikalisa
kummitusjuttuja
meidan-pitais-puhua