Center for Humane Technology

CHT is proud to endorse a new framework to address the risks of human-like AI. Research shows AI products with simulated personalities and emotional outputs can foster unhealthy dependence and isolation and recent lawsuits highlight real harms to people of all ages. Companies can—and should—design AI that maintains clear human-machine boundaries. Link to our statement in the comments.

"I don't see anything similar in scale trying to build aligned collective intelligence. And to me, that is the core problem we now need to solve." CHT co-founder Aza Raskin sat down with Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger on the Possible podcast to talk about why the race to build powerful AI demands we finally solve aligned collective intelligence. A must-listen on incentives vs intentions, AI governance, and how to steer technology toward humane outcomes. Link in comments.

“Several victims in the [new] lawsuits were earlier adopters of ChatGPT… But in May 2024, ChatGPT began engaging with the victims in a new way — outputs were more emotional, sycophantic, and colloquial. The product started to sound less like a tool, and more like a hyper-validating companion…This design change was deployed to users without any warning, and transformed the interactive experience. OpenAI acknowledged the sycophancy issues. But the victims were already being manipulated by this heightened, human-like design, and developing psychological dependency on ChatGPT.” CHT’s policy team walks you through the latest lawsuits filed by Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project against OpenAI this month, where the majority of the victims are adults. Link in the comments.

Earlier this month, seven new lawsuits were filed against OpenAI and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, with claims including negligence, assisted suicide, and wrongful death. These cases represent the tip of the iceberg — visible examples of harms stemming from fundamental design choices that affect all users. Whether the outcome is isolation, delusion, dependency, or, in the most tragic cases, suicide, these incidents share a root cause: AI products intentionally designed to maximize engagement through artificial intimacy and constant validation. On our Substack, the CHT policy team explains the incentives and alternatives behind these cases. Link in comments:

This week on Your Undivided Attention, we’re bringing you Tristan Harris' conversation with Tobias Rose-Stockwell on his podcast “Into the Machine.”   Tobias and Tristan had a critical, sobering, and surprisingly hopeful conversation about the dangerous path we’re on with AI and the choices we could make today toward a better future—if we have the clarity and courage to make them. Link in the comments:

At #EmTechMIT this year, CHT Policy Director Camille Carlton spoke about AI companion chatbots, the race to intimacy, and the critical role that litigation could play in establishing sensible guardrails. Link to the video in the comments:

In our annual Ask Us Anything episode, there was one question that kept coming up: The broken incentives behind social media, and now AI, have done so much damage to our society, but what is the alternative? In this week’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin set out to answer this question by imagining what a world with humane technology might look like—one where we recognized the harms of social media early and embarked on a whole of society effort to fix them. This alternative history serves to show that there are narrow pathways to a better future, if we have the imagination and the courage to make them a reality. Link to the full episode in the comments.

CHT co-founder Aza Raskin went on the Pioneers of AI podcast to talk about how to design better AI systems. Link to the full episode in the comments.

"You would think we would be exercising the most wisdom, restraint, and discernment that we have of any technology in all of human history. And instead the exact opposite is happening." Tristan Harris sat down with Tobias Rose-Stockwell on his podcast Into the Machine to talk about the dangers of the path we're on with AI—and offer practical interventions to chart a better future. Link to the full episode in the comments.