EPISODE

Unlike those who focus on the concerns and unknowns around generative AI and AI more broadly, Prof. Orly Lobel argues for an optimistic view of AI’s future. In her influential 2022 book The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future — which was published just a month before ChatGPT’s release — she focuses on the upsides of a technology still in its public infancy. Another return Hearsay Culture guest, Orly relies on her understanding of employment and technology law to articulates the upside of AI’s effect on work, weighing in on the recent headline debates between those in and outside Silicon Valley and Capital Hill. Hearsay Culture Network took its trademark critical lens to Orly’s influential book in this February 2023 discussion.

“I think that the best stance that we can take is that we can use [AI], and these kinds of  tools, to help move forward our commitments to those social goals.”

-Orly Lobel

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.

-Alfred North Whitehead

Lead photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash