Your Undivided Attention

This episode connects the 1986 Reykjavik summit to a new gathering of world leaders focused on AI. Tristan and Aza speak with Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir about why making cooperation imaginable may be the crucial first step toward safer AI governance.

AI risk takes center stage as Tristan breaks down a week of hacking incidents, whistleblower warnings, and growing calls to slow frontier development. The episode leans into both the fear and the opening for meaningful action.

AI-powered policing is the focus here, from the spread of automated license plate readers to broader systems that let police analyze huge amounts of personal data. Tristan talks with a law professor and an AP investigative journalist about current uses, near-future risks, and the safeguards that may be needed now.

AI’s impact on jobs is framed here not as a clean boom-or-bust story, but as a near-term period of uneven disruption. Economist Molly Kinder focuses on where labor impacts may hit first, what ripple effects could follow, and what should be done now to protect workers.

This episode examines a shift in AI evaluation: measuring what systems do to human beings rather than only what they can do. Aza Raskin talks with Imran Khan and Jared Moore about Humane Evals, an effort to build ways of assessing AI’s psychological and social impact.