How to Knock Out Super PACs with Lawrence Lessig
Kara talks to Lawrence Lessig about his fight to end Super PACs — without passing a constitutional amendment or overturning Citizens United.
The Harvard law professor and Equal Citizens founder was once the internet’s open-access evangelist. 19 years ago, he shifted his focus from intellectual property to institutional corruption, and since then, he’s become one of the country’s sharpest critics of money-driven politics.
Kara and Lessig examine how the tech industry shifted from being led by largely apolitical or "libertarian-light" figures to becoming a sector that actively enables Trump; whether Democrats can capitalize on the Epstein controversy to persuade Trump's voters that he’s not the outsider he claims to be; how engagement-driven AI is tearing democracy apart; and why citizen assemblies are the way to repair it.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.
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What the Ex-OpenAI Safety Employees Are Worried About — With William Saunders and Lawrence Lessig
William Saunders is an ex-OpenAI Superallignment team member. Lawrence Lessig is a professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. The two come on to discuss what's troubling ex-OpenAI safety team members. We discuss whether the Saudners' former team saw something secret and damning inside OpenAI, or whether it was a general cultural issue. And then, we talk about the 'Right to Warn' a policy that would give AI insiders a right to share concerning developments with third parties without fear of reprisal. Tune in for a revealing look into the eye of a storm brewing in the AI community.
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Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig on why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet
Today, I’m talking to internet policy legend Lawrence Lessig. He's been teaching law for more than 30 years, and is a defining expert on free speech and the internet — and something of a hero of mine, whose works I've been reading since college.
You’ll hear us agree that the internet at this moment in time is absolutely flooded with disinformation, misinformation, and other really toxic stuff that’s harmful to us as individuals and, frankly, to our future as a functioning democracy. But you’ll also hear us disagree a fair amount about what to do about it. The First Amendment, AI, copyright law — there's a lot to unpack here.
Links:
https://asml.cyber.harvard.edu/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/17/1081194/how-to-fix-the-internet-online-discourse/
https://www.protocol.com/facebook-papers
https://www.tiktok.com/@aocinthehouse/video/7214318917135830318?lang=en
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/sensitive-claims-bias-facebook-relaxed-misinformation-rules-conservative-pages-n1236182
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/repetition-lie-truth-propaganda/
https://www.theverge.com/23883027/alvarez-stolen-valor-first-amendment-kosseff-liar-crowded-theater
https://fortune.com/2023/05/30/sam-altman-ai-risk-of-extinction-pandemics-nuclear-warfare/
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2019-20/september-october/into-fandomverse/
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23693274
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
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The Motivations of Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen — With Her Lawyer Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig is Frances Haguen's lawyer and a Harvard Law School professor. He joins Big Technology Podcast to address the various questions about Haugen's motivations, backers, and intent that have percolated since she came forward. We start by addressing whether the the leaked documents should be available to all and move into the conspiracies about her. A lively discussion follows.
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