In this Life with Machines episode, Baratunde Thurston talks with Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, a leading voice in AI ethics and accountability. As the former Director of Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability at Twitter—before the Elon Musk era—she’s seen firsthand how power, politics, and algorithms collide. She and Baratunde discuss moral outsourcing (why we blame AI instead of its creators), the failure of responsible AI, and the challenge of holding tech accountable when it’s designed to evade scrutiny. Rumman also breaks down her work as CEO of Humane Intelligence, where she’s building tools to expose bias and keep AI systems in check. Plus, BLAIR—the show’s AI co-producer—joins the discussion, proving that auditing AI is anything but simple. ------------ CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction and Early Tech Memories 02:05 Formative Years and High School Experience 04:55 Career Beginnings and Responsible AI 06:55 Challenges and Innovations in AI 15:27 Moral Outsourcing and AI Ethics 26:15 Right to Repair and Ownership of Technology 36:23 Exploring Worst-Case Scenarios in AI 36:37 Addressing Bias in Image Cropping Algorithms 37:21 Generative AI for Everyone 37:44 National AI Testing Standards 38:14 The ARIA Program and Public Involvement 38:49 Balancing Rights and Responsibilities in AI 41:21 The Importance of Discernment in AI 43:07 The Role of Humane Intelligence 51:40 Red Teaming Explained 54:51 Challenges and Future of Red Teaming 56:50 Engaging with AI Ethically 01:07:05 Final Reflections and Future Vision 01:08:23 Blair: The AI Assistant Producer ------------ Sign up for our newsletter! Follow us! Instagram TikTok Threads LinkedIn Work with Life With Machines: [email protected] Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: [email protected] Write to BLAIR: [email protected] ------------ Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston Executive Producer and Showrunner: Misha Euceph Editor: Alie Kilts Senior Producer and Writer: Alex Stone Associate Producer: Layne Deyling Cherland Video Editor: Erik Shute Videography and Audio Engineering from the team at Voicing Change Media Theme Music: Andy Clausen Special Envoy to the Machines: Peter Loforte Life with Machines is a Voicing Change Media production Sponsored by Lenovo #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #LifeWithMachines #X #Twitter #AIethics #ResponsibleAI #AlgorithmicBias #BigTech #AIRegulation #DataPrivacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #GPT #AGI #LLMs

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related