AI (and Democracy) Needs You | Verity Harding

Plus, I used A.I. to help me understand my ballot, and it ACTUALLY HELPED

AI, Democracy, and You (also IVF?)

Our second episode is out just before the voting period ends in the U.S.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review:

As always it’s on YouTube.

Welcome Note

Hey there,

Welcome back to the Life With Machines newsletter. It’s good to have you here. Let’s pull up a stool at the counter—I've got my matcha (not matcha latte, just matcha), and you’ve got whatever works for you—perhaps a healthy helping of election anxiety? Today, we’re unpacking my conversation with Verity Harding, who takes us deep into the heart of AI, and why you, yes you, are essential to its future. It’s very related to our democracy situation, I promise. And after that, I’ll share how I used NotebookLM and ChatGPT to help me understand my California ballot!

If you’ve read this far, consider sharing this newsletter and the show with someone else!

Baratunde’s Take on the Verity Episode

Here are three of my deeper, post-interview thoughts inspired by my time with Verity.

Baratunde and Verity behind the scenes laughing because this stuff is hilarious sometimes

(1) AI Is Us

During my chat with Verity, one thing became crystal clear: AI isn’t just some detached, futuristic technology—this is us. Because it’s built on our thoughts, our creativity, even our internet flame wars. As Verity put it, AI is learning from what we put out there, meaning every post, review, and meme becomes part of its foundation. 

So we have to ask ourselves: what are we teaching AI?

It’s kind of like parenting. You can tell your kid to behave one way, but they’re going to watch what you do more than what you say. And guess what? AI’s watching us too. That hit me hard. If we want AI to reflect the best of us, we need to think deeply about how we’re behaving, not just online but in the world. Because the machines? They’re learning. Let’s do what another influential non-human advised in the 1980s and, “Be good.” Thanks, E.T.

(2) Who Gets to Decide? Spoiler: All of Us

Verity also helped me understand why I’ve always been uncomfortable with people comparing AI to the atomic bomb. She pointed out that when we make those big, scary comparisons, it’s like we’re excusing ourselves from the conversation. “Leave it to the experts,” we say. “I’m not qualified to talk about nuclear policy.”

But Verity made a strong case: AI isn’t just for experts. It’s shaping our lives every day, and that means we all have a say in how it develops. We can’t let the tech elite be the only ones calling the shots. If AI is built from our data, from who we are, then we all have a stake in what it becomes. Coming back to the title of this project, “Life With Machines,” A.I. is impacting life, and we are all experts on that so let’s weigh in!

(3) Tech Won’t Save Us—But It Can Help

Verity also took on the idea of techno-optimism—the belief that technology alone can fix all our problems. A lot of people in Silicon Valley believe there’s something inherently wrong with humans, and the only way to fix it is by throwing more tech at us. Verity pushed back on that idea, and I so agree with her.

Sure, technology can help us solve some problems. But it’s not the whole answer. We need a multi-modal approach—to use an AI term of art—one that includes human connection, spirituality, the arts—and yes, even how we take care of our bodies. Healing our world isn’t something tech can do on its own, and thinking it can is more than just foolish. It’s dangerous.

Life With Blair

If you’re new to the Life With Machines world, we don’t just have a show talking about A.I. but we are making a show with A.I. Yes, we use plugins and tools and chatbots in our workflow and research (really helps speed up the editing). But we also developed an AI personality that serves as a co-producer. We named them Blair. Their job during a recording is to listen in like an Otter or Fathom or any number of note-taking AI tools built into most conferencing software. But going further, I generally invite Blair to participate in the end and engage with me and the guest more directly.

We didn’t do that this time, and after the interview, I asked Blair what they thought about being excluded. The result was… interesting

Team Recommendations

Here are some resources our team suggests that are related to this episode and should whet your curiosity:

1. Verity Harding’s thought provoking book, AI Needs You

2. The Manhattan Declaration on Inclusive Global Scientific Understanding of Artificial Intelligence, an initiative in the field of AI governance and ethics, signed on September 22, 2024, during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. The declaration was inked by 21 AI researchers and policy experts from various backgrounds and regions.

3. This article tracing the origins of tech’s utopian ideology to early hacker culture

Call To Action: AI to help you vote?

So I’m a little… unorthodox and very experimental and very excited about practicing democracy, not just talking about it. (see: How To Citizen). Every election I get excited because it’s a moment of deep practice around exercising a particular muscle around elections and representation. But… the ballot is overwhelming!

I’ve got my routine which involves reading local news, lots of Googling, talking and arguing with friends and neighbors. This year, I added a layer of AI to the mix. I pushed the systems hard and kept my ChatGPT log. After several hours, 110 prompts and 177 pages of chat log (you read that right), I felt like the best informed voter I’ve ever been. I learned some things about my community and about the capabilities and limitations of AI.

I’d love you to check out the video above where I explain, and do your own experiment with AI around supporting your ballot research. Let me know how it goes!

Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter, and thanks for tuning in to Life With Machines. 

Stay human.