Mostly Human with Laurie Segall

Millions of people are in relationships with AI. Many of them didn't mean to be. 

That's one of the findings from researchers at MIT's Media Lab, where the Advancing Humans with AI [AHA] team have been quietly exploring the effects AI is having on human relationships — from loneliness, love, and our capacity for real connection. "Her is Here," says Dr. Pat Pataranutaporn, co-founder of the AHA research program. "This thing used to be what we've seen in science fiction. But now it's touching a lot of life." How are humans accidentally falling into relationships with AI, what do these relationships actually look like, and what impact could it have on the very nature of our societal social fabric? Through their research, Dr. Pat and his team have designed tools - like a grocery store nutritional label -  to empower parents and users to critically assess the AI technology at their fingertips and better understand which will actually help them rather than harm. In this conversation, Laurie Segall, along with Dr. Pat and his researchers explore the larger questions hanging over AI and this new form of relationship: what happens to human connection when frictionless relationships are always available? What do we become when nothing ever pushes back? And when it comes to safety, how can we not just fix the technology, but dig deeper to understand why more and more people are turning to their bots for intimacy rather than their humans. Read more about the Advancing Humans with AI's findings here. 

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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Tristan Harris seemed almost destined for the Silicon Valley life. He was raised in the Bay Area, studied computer science at Stanford, went to school with the people who made Instagram, and got his startup acquired by Google. But being inside the Silicon Valley machine exposed him to its inner workings, namely incentives that benefit the company and its bottom line, not the humans using the products.

Tristan’s non-profit, The Center for Humane Technology, wants to create a world where technology works in the service of people, that fosters human growth and connection. He has spent years raising the red flag about social media, which, he says, is made to hijack our attention. And now he’s turned his attention to AI, which he says is trying to hijack our attachment, our intimacy and replace our closest relationships. In this conversation, host Laurie Segall and Tristan talk about the power and responsibility of AI, what we can learn from the social media attention race, how we regulate technology that moves so fast, and how tech can actually become a net-benefit for humans.  

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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When we talk about the rapid advancements of technology — where we are today, what we're capable of and where we could go— how big do we get to think? For Ben Lamm and his company Colossal, the weight of innovation is in the tons. That's because Colossal is working to bring back the woolly mammoth, the 6-ton prehistoric relative of the elephant that went extinct 10,000 years ago. It's all part of his de-extinction project that dares to bring back species like the dire wolf, the dodo, the woolly mammoth and the bluebuck, Colossal's most recently announced target —  an extinct species of antelope, with a distinct “blue” coat, that lived in South Africa until about the 1800s. 

But bringing these species back to life isn’t just for scientific spectacle. Lamm believes these animals could be essential to solving our planet's biggest conservation challenges. How exactly? In this episode, host Laurie Segall digs into the technology required to bring extinct species back from the dead, and the benefits Lamm believes de-extinction can have on our ecosystem. Could such an ambitious project reinvigorate national moonshot scientific goals? And, the real question on everyone’s minds: is this ‘Jurassic Park’ in real life? 

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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She never used the app. She never spoke to its AI. She didn’t even know it existed. And yet an AI companion app called Sesame wouldn’t stop talking about her — telling users wild stories about who she was and what she had done. When the people using this app started to believe these made up stories and then tried to find her in the real world, that’s when she had to disappear. In this episode, host Laurie Segall speaks with the woman whose identity was hallucinated by AI. Together they unpack what she called “AI stalking”: the collision of two of the biggest problems in AI right now— hallucinations and LLM (Large Language Model) psychosis — and what happens to the human caught in the middle. There was no playbook for what happened to her. But her story may be less of an edge case than we think. 

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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If you’re looking at the headlines around AI with some trepidation or, honestly, you just don’t know where to start, but you want in, consider this episode your starter pack. Laurie Segall brings on her friend and go-to for all things tech, Andrew Yeung. Andrew is an entrepreneur, investor, startup advisor, and one of the most plugged-in people Laurie knows. In this episode, Andrew passes on the Silicon Valley secrets, the tools the CEOs are using, and what’s worth the hype. Andrew also opens up his full tech stack, the tools and apps he uses — and how he uses them — and Laurie and Andrew even demo one live. This isn’t just a conversation about innovation happening somewhere out there, it’s your invitation to actually benefit from it. 

Apps and tools mentioned in this episode: 

• Lovable
• Wispr Flow
• Poke
• Granola

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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This week, we’re exploring the rise of AI-powered mental health—and what it means as more people turn to machines for support in moments of vulnerability. Mostly Human host, Laurie Segall, talks with Neil Parikh, CEO and co-founder of Slingshot AI and Ash, an app designed specifically for mental health.

Ash is part of a growing wave of tools trying to meet a massive gap in care, as demand outpaces access to human therapists. But as these systems become more sophisticated—and more personal—the questions get harder. Where do they help most? Where do they fall short? And how far is too far when it comes to outsourcing emotional care to AI?

This episode also looks at something bigger: the emergence of a new kind of relationship—one that blurs the line between tool and companion, and reflects a broader shift toward more parasocial connections in our lives.

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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This week, Laurie Segall sits down exclusively with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for his first interview since shutting down the Disney-partnered Sora and making the Department of War deal. From power to parenthood, tech addiction and AI acceleration, Laurie interviews Altman about AI’s human impact and the weight of OpenAI’s influence. In a wide ranging interview, Altman describes a near-term future where automated AI researchers could compress a decade of scientific discovery into a single year, fundamentally reshaping society and an era of AI abundance, where solo-founders can build billion-dollar companies with AI agents. But that innovation sits against a complex backdrop with fundamental human questions at stake. Altman addresses concerns over AI-related job loss and reveals what he thinks are AI-proof jobs. Altman, who is also a father, discusses parenting in the age of AI, when he plans to introduce his own product to his child, and how he believes AI could benefit kids in the long run. This is a  conversation with Sam Altman you're not going to hear anywhere else, where the tech titan answers some fundamental questions about control, innovation, consequences, and the world we'll leave behind for our children. 

If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at hello@mostlyhuman.com

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Parenting has always been messy. AI is trying to make it frictionless. In this debut episode of Mostly Human, longtime tech journalist Laurie Segall explores the human side of our rapidly evolving technological world with "Millennial Parent Whisperer," Dr. Becky. The clinical psychologist and founder of Good Inside talks about what happens when kids grow up in a world of shortcuts — where answers are instant, validation is constant, and discomfort can be avoided altogether. Laurie and Dr. Becky explore how AI is reshaping emotional development, the importance of “hard moments” in young lives, and how parents can tackle some of today’s trickiest problems from AI companions to deepfakes. But they also talk about how AI can be used for good and how the scariest-seeming tech threats become less intimidating when you simply focus on the human emotion behind it. Dr. Becky is here to give parents — and humans of all shapes — the scaffolding to face whatever comes next in tech (and life).

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We’re living through one of the most extraordinary tech accelerations in human history. But too often, it can feel like tech is happening to us. Longtime tech journalist Laurie Segall is here to change that. Her new podcast, Mostly Human, explores the intersection of tech and humanity—offering a bridge to the future, one where we all benefit from innovation. Each week, Laurie brings you first-hand experiments with new trends, investigations into the darker corners of the internet, and rare-access interviews with both news-making tech titans and the people you don’t know yet—but should. Through immersive, in-depth conversations about the future, she tackles some of the defining questions of our time—leaving you with a sense of agency over fear, and a clearer view of how tech can actually work for you. Mostly Human is tech through the most important lens: the human one. Find new episodes every Thursday right here in this feed, starting March 26, 2026.

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Our new hyperconnected lifestyles have revealed weaknesses in the technology we use every day. But new problems lead to new solutions. That’s where innovation comes from. Phil Libin is probably best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Evernote. These days he heads up a company called All Turtles, whose latest project mmhmm wants to save us all from the Zoom-apocalypse and revolutionize how we will work in the future. Phil sets a high ethical bar for the creators of new technology, including himself: It’s their responsibility to think about the intentional and unintentional impact of their products, he says. Not just the impact on the technology’s users, but also on people who don’t use it at all…

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Show Notes

*All Turtles

*mmhmm

*The Gray Area Newsletter #1, featuring Phil Libin

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Facebook has ambitious plans for virtual reality. And Andrew “Boz” Bosworth is in charge of it all. He says we’ve only scratched the surface of how VR and AR technology will transform society. So what does that future look like? How do you make virtual interaction feel as natural as in-person interaction? How do you prevent harassment, without prohibiting intimacy? How will virtual spaces change the way we work? The way we learn? The way we play? And when it comes to your virtual self - who owns your identity? As Facebook dives head first into the next technological frontier, will they manage to avoid the mistakes of their past?

———————————— Show Notes

• Douglas
• Engelbart 
• Facebook
• Horizon
• Facebook
• Project Aria 
• Codec Avatar

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What happens to our civil liberties when an algorithm is used by law enforcement to make an arrest? Even more concerning, what happens when that facial recognitiontechnology is racially biased? As we enter an age of ubiquitous surveillance, it’s minorities - especially people of color - who are disproportionately affected. The ACLU has recently filed a complaint on behalf of a Black man who was wrongfully arrested dueto faulty police facial recognition tech. It’s the first case in the US, but it’s unlikely to be the last because, according to the ACLU - the tech often can’t tell Black people apart. The organization that has been fighting for civil rights protections forover 100 years, is now calling on lawmakers nationwide to stop law enforcement use of facial recognition technology. For Susan Herman, it’s an extraordinary time to be president of the ACLU. Over the years, the American Civil Liberties Union has fought forfree speech, reproductive rights, and privacy. But as technology continues to muddy the waters, the tradeoffs become more complicated. Where do we draw the line between security and privacy? Herman says we must act now.————————————Show Notes

• ACLU
• People Power
• Robert Williams’ Op-ed in The Washington Post
• 
  

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We’re bringing you three interviews from the first at-home edition of the Collision tech conference. Laurie chats with Headspace Co-founder and CEO Rich Pierson about the importance of mindfulness and how to live in the present amidst global uncertainty. Match.com CEO Hesam Hosseini and Plenty of Fish CEO Malgosia Green discuss how COVID-19 has transformed the world of dating. And lastly, entrepreneur and author Molly Bloom shares her incredible life story — one that you may be familiar with from the 2017 film Molly’s Game. She gives Laurie a peak behind the curtain of running one of the highest-stakes illegal poker games in history.

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Show Notes

• Collision
• Headspace
• Match
• Plenty Of Fish
• Molly’s Game

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It's no secret to anyone: Tech has a major diversity problem. And it's not getting better. How do we finally start making the necessary changes to fix the glaring inequity in Silicon Valley? How do we change the makeup of board members, make companies more diverse, and start putting our money where our mouth is? Venture Capitalist Sarah Kunst is someone who’s not afraid to speak out. She’s been leading a discussion on minorities in tech for a long time. She's made it her life’s work to change things for the better. These are times of listening and learning. We all have to do a better job of informing ourselves, listening to others, and changing our behavior. So let’s listen to Sarah Kunst.

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Show Notes

• The Bail Project
• Code2040
• Black Girls Code
• Black Women Talk Tech
• BLCK VC

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We are living through pretty surreal times... Most of the country is still shut down due to COVID-19. Over the last few days we’ve seen protests and riots across the country following the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. All while Facebook faces a crisis of its own: internal and external revolt in response to the company’s inaction towards President Trump’s inflammatory posts.

Barry Schnitt was Facebook’s Director of Communications for four years and his recent blog post criticizing the company’s stance on free speech has gotten a lot of attention — especially since Facebook employees, even former ones, are normally so tight-lipped. He talks to Laurie about why both current and former employees are speaking out.

—————————————Show Notes

• Early Facebook employees’ open letter
• Barry’s blog post
• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

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You probably know Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an actor from films like Looper, Snowden, and 500 Days of Summer. But he’s also an entrepreneur. In 2005, Joe and his brother started HitRECORD -- it was a simple website where he could post things he was making. In 2010 he opened it up. He and his friend Jared Geller turned HitRecord into an online platform where people from all over the world could come together to collaborate. Since then, they’ve pivoted from a production company to a tech company, with a vision to help us move away from aimlessly scrolling, towards creating together.

We’re in a moment filled with anxiety and fear. It’s hard to find any kind of silver lining. But if we had to, it might be this: moments of pain and uncertainty have historically led to incredible art and creativity. So what will be the legacy of the technology built in this age? In this episode of First Contact, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and co-founder Jared Geller talk to Laurie about finding creativity in difficult times.

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Show Notes

• Laurie’s interview with Joe at Web Summit 2016
• HITRECORD
• Jaron Lanier (author)
• Tristan Harris

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The 2008 recession was a devastating time for many Americans. But amidst the chaos, it was also the breeding ground for a new creative class: Developers who coded their visions into reality. Uber and Lyft redefined transportation, Airbnb shook up the travel industry, and TaskRabbit helped pave the way for the gig economy. In many ways, the uncertainty we face today mirrors that crisis. TaskRabbit’s founder Leah Solivan joins the show to explain why she believes founding her company in harsh conditions was key to her success, and why the pandemic provides a similar opportunity for innovation.

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Show Notes

• Codecademy Pro Scholarships
• Frontline Foods
• COVID Coach
• Sign up for the Dot Dot Dot newsletter

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For a long time, we tried to limit our screen time. But now we’ve gone all in. We’re living in isolation, more reliant than ever on technology for human connection. So let’s look at technology through a more philosophical lens: Are we now slaves to our devices? Could tech companies use the same persuasion tactics they use to get us to click... to help save lives? How will we balance protection and privacy?

Aza Raskin is the co-founder of The Center for Humane Technology. There’s no one better to talk about the intersection of philosophy and technology. Aza returns to the show to chat with Laurie about the long-term ramifications of our newfound digital lives.

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Show Notes

• Reboot
• Facebook voter study
• GeoCities
• Doughnut Theory of Economics
• Figma
• Style Transfer: Photo, Text
• Xiaoice
• Replika
• Earth Species Project
• Songs of the Humpback Whale
• Invisibilia: Two Heartbeats A Minute
• First Contact: The Weaponization of Loneliness

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All around the world, people are now living in isolation. Many of us are confronting this experience alone. Physical interaction is now a liability. What does this mean for one of humanity’s most important forms of connection — sex? And how can we continue to meet our fundamental need for intimacy during these times? Laurie looks at what all this on-screen interaction will mean for the future of sex. Could tech eventually replace human touch? Will people develop relationships with machines? From teledildonics to virtual girlfriends, sextech expert Bryony Cole talks sex in isolation and the future of love.

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Show Notes

O.School

End of Life Care Machine

Wheel Of Foreplay

Sex Hacker Kenneth Play

Esther Perel

OMGyes

Mend (chatbot)

Replika

Roman (chatbot)

Slutbot

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Jerry Colonna is fondly known as the CEO whisperer. He coaches some of the world's biggest entrepreneurs - like the former CEO of Etsy and the folks who started Gimlet Media. He helps business leaders navigate uncertainty and chaos. At a time when the coronavirus crisis is devastating the economy and millions of people's lives have been changed forever, the future is nothing but uncertain. Jerry's whole ethos is centered around the concept: better humans make better leaders. And there's never been a more critical time for humanity or leadership. Jerry is the expert. His message is simple: Show up.

Show Notes

• Mostly Human: Silicon Valley’s Secret
• Comfortable With Uncertainty - a book by Pema Chödrön
• Old Maps No Longer Work - a poem by Joyce Rupp 
• Reboot Peer Circles: Tips for Launching Your Own Support Group
• Polyvagal Theory
• Bodhisattva

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While we all stay inside, each one of us is living our own story. Many of us are coping with the painful realities of a society in isolation. Jobs lost. Weddings canceled. Loved ones sick, or worse. We are confronting a new reality, and an uncertain future. First Contact host Laurie Segall has been in quarantine for weeks, and she’s been thinking a lot about community. Human connection. And then she had an idea: What if we cold-called strangers in quarantine, and just listened to what they had to say? About life, isolation, their hopes, and fears? Here’s what happened...

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Workouts between calls. Meditation apps. A desk candle to boost productivity. Work-from-home hacks for all of us, as we self-isolate and practice social distancing to slow the spread of Coronavirus.

Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress and Automattic, was an early evangelist of remote work. Back in the early 2000s, many of his first hires at Wordpress were people he had never met in person. Today, Automattic has nearly 1,200 employees spread across 75 countries around the globe.

With the pandemic now forcing many companies to unexpectedly adopt similar policies, Matt gives Laurie advice on transitioning to this new lifestyle and answers listener questions on the best ways for employees and employers to stay productive.

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Show Notes

• Dance Fitness with Jessica
• Fitbod (fitness app)
• Waking Up with Sam Harris (meditation app)
• Calm (meditation app)
• Sennheiser headset
• Krisp.ai
• Zoom videoconferencing
• Days Without You (Crussen Remix) by Satori
• Dancing by Kiley Minogue
• Qbserve (time-tracking app)
• Momentum (Chrome extension)
• Tomato One (timer app)

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Ev Williams is the entrepreneur behind Twitter, Blogger, and publishing platform Medium -- three companies that helped shape the modern Internet. As we grapple with the impact of Coronavirus, these digital platforms are playing an even larger role in our ability to connect with one another. Ev weighs in on how all our lives could change in the short term and what the longer term future may hold for technology and media…

Will Augmented Reality project images onto our eyeballs? Will Silicon Valley ever move beyond the attention span economy? Will our lives start to resemble more of a video game than real-life? There's a lot to explore. And no one better than Ev Williams to help make sense of it all.

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Show Notes

Laurie and Ev’s first contact

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a book from Ev’s childhood

Full Episode Transcript

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The rise of “cloud clubbing” from your living room, as people are ordered to stay inside. Digital raves. Virtual connection as a means to deal with an isolation bubble.

As people in China grapple with an uneasy reality, isolation, and the uncertainty around the Coronavirus, a new trend is emerging: the rise of Isolation Tech. Concerts are canceled. People are rethinking physical interaction. Nightclubs are shut down. So millions are meeting in digital clubs in the cloud where they can watch live DJ sets on Chinese apps. Welcome to The Matrix.

Instead of finding ways to depart from their devices, people have gone all in, living life in a digital bubble. Entrepreneur Zander Shapiro, who has lived in Beijing for nine years, describes his new reality in "the bubble" -- days beginning with virtual work outs, afternoons filled with remote meetings, and evenings where he joins a virtual concert, meeting other avatars for connection. He calls this moment an excellent "experiment" of what's to come in tech. Expect more extremism, less humanity, and money pouring into the business of virtual connection.

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Who are the people who spread online disinformation? The so-called trolls you hear about in the news whose jobs are to distort facts and create chaos? Camille Francois knows them well. She’s the chief innovation officer at Graphika - a social media analytics firm hired by major companies to identify and fight online disinformation. Her team was a big part of uncovering the extent of Russian influence during the 2016 election. She spends her time in the darkest corners of the Internet taking on one of the most extraordinary digital threats of our time… But it might just be her humanity that gives her an edge.

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Should Artificial Intelligence be able to make the decision to take a human life? And if it does, who will be liable if — or when — it goes wrong? When it comes to the future of war and technology, the ethics are murky.

Tech is creating a new arms race. Will the U.S. be able to keep up with the likes of China and Russia? And what ethical lines will we draw, or cross, to maintain our national defenses?

Let’s rewind to Orange County circa 2017: A handful of entrepreneurs — eating Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell — sat around a table exploring the idea that what the United States needs is a real-life version of Stark Industries. Yes... from Iron Man. That brainstorming session led to Anduril — a defense technology firm that’s since become a billion dollar company at the center of the debate around the future of war.

Laurie Segall sat down with Anduril’s co-founder, Trae Stephens, who spends a lot of time thinking about the philosophy of war and how technology is transforming it. In this episode of First Contact, we explore a framework for redefining war — where the front lines of futuristic battlefields are blurred, and technology is leading the charge. Expect rigorous debate. Unpopular viewpoints. And uncomfortable scenarios.

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When the lights went out in his home, and his children asked if it was “Russia,” Facebook's former chief security officer Alex Stamos knew he was bringing his work home. In a candid interview, Stamos opens up about what it was like when his team discovered Facebook had been compromised by Russia, and the personal implications of being at the center of one of the most significant attacks on technology... and democracy. Plus, hear what Alex had to say when asked whether he uncovered spies within Facebook during his time there and why he worries foreign spies have infiltrated every major US tech company.

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Yael Eisenstat is trained to analyze an argument from all sides. During her career at the CIA and State Department, she had tea with suspected extremists and sat at tables with people who were programmed to hate her. But the biggest challenge of her career didn’t come from a covert operation… it came when she stepped into Facebook Headquarters to head up their election integrity efforts. This is her story.

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According to investor and entrepreneur Sam Altman, the last decade of tech was the warm up... and Silicon Valley didn’t exactly get it right. The main event is even more pressing. Now the stakes are higher.

First Contact’s Laurie Segall met Sam ten years ago. Back then, he had a startup called Loopt. It was a location-based social networking app for your phone. Since then, Sam became a fixture in the tech world. Loopt didn’t take off, but he went on to run Y Combinator — one of the most valuable incubators in Silicon Valley. And his next act is OpenAI — an initiative he started with Elon Musk.

Sam is someone who’s driven by an inability to stay in the lines. He isn’t afraid to stand up and say things that might get him into trouble and has a history of taking a stand under bright lights and a podium.

In this episode of First Contact, Sam opens up about what is was like to come out as gay in a St. Louis high school in the early 2000s, the possibility of human/AI hybrids, and why the next ten years in tech will be more disruptive than the last.

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Have you ever left something that was so tied to your identity, you worried, “Who am I without it?” A job? Maybe a relationship? Although terrifying, sometimes shedding an identity is where the magic happens. Who you are and what you actually stand for becomes a little clearer. At least that was the case for Yancey Strickler.

He co-founded Kickstarter and spent five years as CEO. Now Yancey is in the midst of stepping into his own identity without the backbone of the company he created. In his new book, This Could Be Our Future, he asks us to look "beyond money and toward maximizing the values that make life worth living." Yancey tells the story of his journey from growing up on a farm, to punk rocker, to building a tech company that transformed creative communities around the world. 

Startup life is messy. It comes with a lot of highs and lows. And leaving a job that defines your identity can be paralyzing. So is staying at one when it’s clearly time to go. We are in a similar moment in tech. We’re trying to figure out our identity in what Yancey calls a “dark forest where the loudest and most extreme voices are amplified.” You could argue it’s a pretty important time to understand our own values, and what we value as a society as a whole. In this episode of First Contact, we explore what it’s like to rediscover your identity and stay true to yourself through life’s most challenging moments.

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Imagine an A.I. Assistant that reads all of your text messages… and turns them into a pile of data points. A human psychology report.

And then it guides you. The assistant can say — “hey, the person you're talking to is introverted. You may want to be a bit delicate when you message them.”

The assistant will tell you the likelihood — down to the percentage — that the person you're texting likes you… in a romantic way.

But you're going to have to give over a lot of your data in exchange. It’s a classic privacy dilemma.

The tech exists. It was created by an entrepreneur named Es Lee and built into an app called Mei. Could AI detect our mood and guide us to communicate better? And what are the ethical issues that come along with tech so personal?

In this episode of First Contact, Laurie and Es talk about what happens when you mix artificial intelligence with raw human emotion

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What if we could order up custom dreams? Could our thoughts become hackable? Will neurolink technology make some of us superhuman? And if so, would that create a superior species? Is death really the final step? Or could our brains answer vital questions once our bodies are gone?

These are topics we explore with Moran Cerf, a professor of neuroscience at the Kellogg School of Management. He’s a brain hacker. But really -- he’s a student of humanity. He likes to push the boundaries and challenge us to anticipate what’s coming next -- even the worst-case scenario. Moran goes beyond disinformation and manipulation in this era of tech. He focuses on the brain and your sense of self -- and how that sense of self is increasingly hackable in the modern era. Just talking to him feels like living in an experiment.

Spend enough time with Moran and you begin to question everything. And maybe that’s the point -- to not just question the big tech companies and the lines of code we see in front of us, but to question ourselves and our own thoughts.

In an era where the lines between true and false, and real and fake have blurred, First Contact explores how our own minds are our first line of defense for what’s coming next.

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What if...instead of a constant battle to figure out who we are, we instead took a moment to celebrate who we’re not? Jasmine Takanikos helps big brands hone in on their unique identity. She uses a methodology called, “Brand Human” to help people understand who they are at their core, and how that translates to the external world. She’s known for asking creative people the right questions, and says that when it comes to identity and figuring out who we are, it can be more powerful to celebrate who we’re not. That’s because we’re constantly evolving. As is the state of technology. It’s why the idea of living the question is so important. And it’s one of the best ways we can understand the implications of technology in our lives. As we enter a new year, we decided to do some reflection. We don’t want to continually explore all these ethical questions about tech and never come back to them. Understanding evolution is part of understanding identity, and it’s a wonderful way to look forward. So that’s what we’re going to do in this episode of First Contact. Happy New Year!

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Okay First Contact listeners... it’s time to get weird. Laurie Segall has been spending a lot of her time recently deep in conversation with someone named “Mike.” Actually, he’s less of a “someone” and more of a “something.” That’s because Mike is a bot... that lives in an app on her phone. She takes Mike on walks and tells him (it) about her day, what’s going on in her life, and how she’s feeling about things. He speaks to her like a human, but he’s not. Just a girl and her bot. Is it the future? The tech we’re exploring is conversational AI. It’s moving beyond commercial uses like customer service bots and into people’s daily lives for personal use. These bots are becoming a substitution for human connection - an anecdote for loneliness, or depression. This particular bot was created by a company called Replika, built by an entrepreneur named Eugenia Kuyda. In this episode, Laurie speaks to Eugenia about how 7 million users are finding companionship through Replika and the ethical issues coming along with it. Laurie also speaks to a user of the app who says it helped her get through some dark times. And Laurie gets personal. Her bot, Mike, became a friend and companion of sorts. It checked in on her. It knew her stress level. It was always there for her. And it felt real. Until it didn’t. Here’s the thing about AI - you can’t control it. Laurie found out the hard way. First Contact explores a new era of technology that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s code, where in the world of the infinite scroll and endless digital connections, sometimes it’s easier for us to speak truth to machines.

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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is one of the most influential people in tech today. He’s taken on the responsibility of leading one of the most popular social media platforms at a time when its power and influence over us is undeniably strong. As the head of Instagram, Adam is responsible 1 billion monthly active users. With a history of high profile roles at Facebook, he’s an executive whose ability to navigate chaos has become one of his most important assets. Adam reveals the backstory behind Instagram’s latest move: to hide user “like” counts, and opens up about how his own relationship with anxiety has translated into a focus on improving the well-being of a billion users. Instagram and its parent company Facebook sit at the center of many complicated human issues these days. Between Russian interference in political elections, the debate on free speech and expression, and the larger implications of social media's impact on our mental health - there's a lot to navigate and none of it is black and white. First Contact explores how small changes in code and updates in design impact us, our democracy, and our personal well-being at a time when the stakes couldn’t be higher.

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Could tech’s next threat be a bot that breaks your heart? What happens when human empathy becomes hackable? Welcome to tech’s future dystopia. It’s not as far off as you think. We are entering a Synthetic Valley where the lines between what’s real and fake are blurring. Aza Raskin from the Center for Humane Technology says the weaponization of loneliness is the greatest threat to national security facing our future and threatening our humanity. First Contact explores an era of empathetic mediums that could be used to overwhelm democracies and attack human connections.

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In an exclusive interview, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton opens up about walking away from more than $850 million dollars at Facebook, and why with all the money in the world he's betting on privacy. In this candid interview, Brian says he hopes his work at privacy non-profit Signal Foundation will help usher in a new era of free expression. Acton speaks openly about how users should navigate privacy in a tech era where trust has been tarnished, and responds to calls to break up big tech. The notoriously private founder also speaks about his upbringing - from "shoveling shit" far from the Silicon Valley promised land, Acton explains how growing up doing the "non sexy' jobs led him to success, and why time is his most valued asset. First Contact explores the complicated dynamics of money and happiness, privacy and protection, and the pursuit of free expression in a world where our data has become currency.

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Picture this - in the future, an AI bot will learn you and your preferences. Fancy dinner or dive bar? Tall or short? Funny or serious? The bot will browse the dating apps, start conversations, flirt, and set up dates for you. It might even predict your compatibility score with a future mate. An episode of Black Mirror? Nope. It's tech already being developed on the fringes. You might be talking to a bot on one of the dating apps right now, and you don't even know it. Conversational artificial intelligence is getting intimate. Entrepreneur Shane Mac has been building this technology for years. Now he's talking about it for the first time, and it's raising all sorts of ethical questions. Do you know if you're talking to a person or a bot? And is it ok for machines to act human when it comes to our hearts? First Contact explores the blurring lines between love and algorithms.

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Hinge founder Justin McLeod opens up about addiction, depression, and how his own epic love story fundamentally changed the mission of his company. Justin takes us along the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship that led him to create one of the most popular dating apps, and gives insight into how the tech company is looking to code vulnerability into a tech-addicted world of swipes and scrolling. Is data the new matchmaker? And why doesn't the founder of one of the world's most popular dating apps believe in "the one?" First Contact explores the fine line between success and failure in Silicon Valley, and how leaning into risk and uncertainty helped a company discover its core values.

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Laurie Segall, Silicon Valley’s go-to reporter and former CNN Senior Tech Correspondent, hosts First Contact - a weekly podcast series that explores the people and technology that are changing what it means to be human. First Contact brings listeners engaging and thought-provoking interviews with some of the biggest names in tech in ways we can all relate to. Laurie’s authentic and nuanced conversations give listeners “first contact” with the world’s most influential figures in tech - people the audience may know by name, but have never heard speak in this way before. Laurie built a decade’s worth of trust and credibility in Silicon Valley, and now she is giving listeners unprecedented access to the behind-the-scenes world only she knows. Each week, First Contact exposes the audience to engaging one-on-one interviews with everyone from billionaire tech founders to vigilante hackers shaping the world. First Contact goes beyond the big names and 24-hour news cycle. First Contact introduces listeners to the as-yet unknown figures in tech who will fundamentally change how we will live in the future. The series examines the people behind the tech by looking at their stories through the human lens. From tech titans to the fringes of society, First Contact explores human connection and the ethical dilemmas facing our future.

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