HEARSAY CULTURE RADIO
In this episode of Hearsay Culture, Dave Levine speaks with Lee Rainie about the new Imagining the Digital Future report, Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age, which gathers insights from hundreds of experts on how artificial intelligence is likely to reshape society over the next decade. Rather than focusing solely on AI’s technological capabilities, the conversation explores a central finding of the report: that the greatest challenges ahead may be social, institutional, and human, requiring new forms of trust, governance, education, and collective problem-solving to preserve human agency and well-being. Rainie discusses concerns about AI’s growing influence on decision-making, employment, information ecosystems, and civic life, while emphasizing the importance of resilience, media literacy, and what some experts describe as “existential literacy” in an increasingly AI-mediated world. Recorded in April 2026, the interview confronts AI agents, workplace automation, and debates over regulation, trust, and human flourishing, as these challenges continue to accelerate across virtually every sector of society.
“They’ve got nice voices. They say nice things. They never push back against your weird ideas. They never … turn you down when you’re bugging at the wrong hour … Basic qualities of being human are now on the table in a way they’ve never been before.” — Lee Rainie on Hearsay Culture
“The original question, ‘Can machines think?’ I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion” – Alan Turing
Photo by Soheb Zaidi on Unsplash
