Whose Future Are We Building? (cross-post)

For this edition of Comparing Notes, Baratunde sits down with Abi Awomosu—ex-Big Tech insider, Yoruba thinker, and author of the Substack How Not To Use AI—to break down how we can reclaim our agency from corporate technology. After burning out at Meta, Abi re-rooted in her ancestral lineage and naming traditions, offering a profound alternative to Silicon Valley's colonial vision of AI. CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]

Eighteen months ago, WattTime and Climate TRACE co-founder Gavin McCormick told us we're going to beat climate change. Full stop. And that made us so uncomfortable, our team couldn't stop talking about it! Now he's back to answer the question once again: ARE WE DOOMED??? And the answer is...it's complicated? Gavin breaks down why 2025 emissions stayed almost flat instead of dropping as predicted (hint: it's not physics, it's politics), makes the economic case for why renewables are now winning on cost, and separates fact from greenwashing on data centers' real water and energy footprint. It's hope--the sharp kind--grounded in data, not denial. CONNECT WITH US Get our newsletter for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! Instagram  LinkedIn Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: [email protected] For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: [email protected]

Back in November 2025, I was at AfroTech reconnecting with Will Lucas of Black Tech Green Money. Our conversation had that cookout, Juneteenth “get free” energy. Jidenna had just performed and Stacey Abrams was up next. And we asked the question: do we just survive this AI transition, or do we choose how to live and change the rules of the game? And who gets to decide what happens next? With Will, I trace my path from wanting to be a gardener in DC to becoming a storyteller, we talk about what we owe kids and teachers as AI enters classrooms, and argue these tools aren’t truly intelligent. We challenge the idea that “AI takes jobs,” stressing that human choices and profit motives drive layoffs, and we connect Black people’s high AI use to generations of survival mode while calling for bolder, system-level reinvention. The invitation is to move beyond finding the next shortcut and start building the world we actually want. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our newsletter for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! Instagram  LinkedIn Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: [email protected] For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: [email protected] ------------ #BlackTechGreenMoney #AIAndHumanity #BlackFuturism #AfroTech #ChangeTheGame

A few months ago, Dan Blumberg — host of Future Around and Find Out, Webby winner for Best Technology Podcast — brought me in and let me get spicy. The question we kept circling: who actually gets to decide what this technology does to us, for us and with us? We get into why faster is not the same as better, the shell game that is AI financing, and the day I realized I was treating a prediction machine like it had thoughts and a soul. We talk about Blair, our AI co-producer on Life With Machines, and what Blair taught me about the difference between processing and thinking. We get into why strong men are actually weak little boys, why community organizing for CEOs might be the most useful job nobody's taken yet, and why comedy can help — but it won't save us. That's up to all of us. Hosted by Dan Blumberg of Future Around and Find Out. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ #LifeWithMachines #AIForAll #FutureAroundAndFindOut #TechAndDemocracy #FromMeToWe

We throw around the phrase "digital native" like a compliment, but Big Tech uses it as a free pass to force-feed youth their latest experiments. They market convenience while masking the true human toll: young minds navigating rampant algorithmic fallout, all built on the backs of underpaid, invisible ghost labor. The individuals who will actually have to live inside this AI-driven future are the same people being blocked from the boardrooms designing it. In the fifth and final episode of the Life With Machines x Young Futures series, Baratunde Thurston sits down with two leaders who are completely rejecting the tech industry's "inevitability narrative" and taking the reins of AI governance into their own hands. Neha Shukla (Innovation For Everyone) is mobilizing a movement across 35 countries to teach students "sociotechnical literacy." She’s fighting to ensure the youth—especially those from the Global South—aren't just used as token photo ops, but are actively writing the ethical frameworks that will govern artificial intelligence. Tazin Khan (Cyber Collective) is demanding systemic digital rights and shifting the burden of cybersecurity away from the end-user. By bringing tech education to adults, she is putting an end to the era of teenagers having to act as the "unpaid IT department" to protect their communities from corporate platform failures. These are the digital architects stepping up to fix the systems they didn’t even make in the first place. ------------ LINKS MENTIONED Innovation For Everyone Cyber Collective Young Futures EPISODES REFERENCED:  Dr. Avriel Epps on how to raise kids in an AI world Episode 1 — How Will AI Impact Gen Z? Episode 2 — How ChatGPT EXPOSED Our Education System Episode 3 — AI Is Monetizing Our Mental Health Episode 4 — The Rural AI Revolution No One Is Talking About ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston Showrunner and Executive Producer: Alie Kilts Producer: Roya Lotfi Video Editor & Audio Engineer: Erik Shute Special Thanks to Charlotte Dungan, Tesia Zientek, Katya Hancock and Dr. Kristine Gloria Life with Machines is a Multiverses Media production This series was made in partnership with Young Futures #ai ##GenZLeadingAI #AIAgency #AIEthics #YoungFutures #LifeWithMachines

What happens when Silicon Valley's AI boom collides with rural America and Indigenous communities? Big Tech is pouring hundreds of billions into data centers, eyeing reopened nuclear plants like Three Mile Island, and pushing for expanded uranium mining on Native lands to feed the machine. The communities bearing the physical cost of AI are the same ones being left out of the conversation about how it gets built. In this fourth episode of the Life With Machines x @YoungFutures series, Baratunde Thurston travels beyond the coasts to meet two leaders working with youth who refuse to let their communities be raw material for someone else's tech boom. Charlotte Dungan (Mark Cuban Foundation) is partnering with 4-H National to bring AI agency, not just AI literacy, to rural teens. Her students are using AI for drug discovery, search and rescue, and small business optimization in towns that were supposed to lose their best minds to the coasts. Tesia Zientek (AISES) is building the AUNTIE Tech Collective, a multi-generational initiative grounding Indigenous youth in tech leadership rooted in Seven Generations thinking, not "move fast and break things." Tribal Nations are now creating their own digital sovereignty frameworks, building Sovereign AI Factories on Native lands, and writing the rules for how their data and culture get used. This is the AI conversation Silicon Valley doesn't want you to see. ------------ LINKS MENTIONED The Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps AISES AUNTIE Tech Collective Young Futures Episodes referenced: Michael Running Wolf on saving Indigenous languages with AI Episode 1 — How Will AI Impact Gen Z? Episode 2 — How ChatGPT EXPOSED Our Education System Episode 3 — AI Is Monetizing Our Mental Health Further reading: Avoiding the next digital divide: Defining digital sovereignty for Tribal Nations in the AI age AI is driving a data center boom in rural America. Locals are divided on the benefits AI is helping these organizations to protect and restore nature ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ CHAPTERS 00:00 AI Boom Hits Rural Lands 01:33 Tradeoffs and Local Power 02:11 Teaching AI Agency 03:19 Student Projects in Action 04:25 Safety Rules for AI 05:38 Indigenous Digital Sovereignty 06:44 Auntie Tech Collective 09:29 Extraction and Data Stewardship 11:45 AI for Land and Conservation 13:25 Investing in Youth Leadership 14:48 Closing Thoughts and CTA ------------ Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston Showrunner and Executive Producer: Alie Kilts Producer: Roya Lotfi Video Editor & Audio Engineer: Erik Shute Special Thanks to Charlotte Dungan, Tesia Zientek, Katya Hancock and Dr. Kristine Gloria Life with Machines is a Multiverses Media production This series was made in partnership with Young Futures #ai #ruralamerica #indigenous #digitalsovereignty #datacenters #aiethics #youngfutures

Baratunde joins filmmakers Valerie Veach and Charlie Terrell, Mozilla's Dio Ade, and Kena's Christie Marqueese at Sundance 2026's Solidarity House to explore who gets to shape our technological future. The panel challenges the seductive lie that technology equals progress, arguing that optimization and efficiency come at the cost of actual living. They discuss how AI consolidates power, erodes shared truth, and celebrates lonely achievement while fueling a loneliness epidemic. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------

In an era of deepfakes and AI manipulation, recording reality is vital. This episode of Life With Machines, Baratunde sits down with returning guest Sam Gregory, executive director of WITNESS. They discuss how our experience of reality is being reshaped by digital media—especially video and imagery that circulate online. Sam shares urgent, practical advice on protecting your mental health while scrolling and how to safely film police or ICE enforcement on the ground. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ #LifeWithMachines #Deepfakes #AIandHumanRights #Disinformation #CitizenJournalism #TechAndSociety #WITNESS

In this episode of Life with Machines, we explore the rise of AI as a substitute for human emotional support systems. With a focus on mental health, this video investigates how and why AI companies are pushing companionship as a core feature, and the implications that has on vulnerable young people.  Featuring insights from mental health experts and Gen Z advocates, the episode delves into the forces that have led many young people to turn to AI for emotional support, and what we need to consider in order to protect ourselves.  We also highlight successful strategies to deter harmful addictions in the past, like the fight against big tobacco, and how history can inform us on how to integrate AI into our lives with caution and a human-first approach.  This episode was produced in partnership with Young Futures, a nonprofit organization giving teens a real voice in the technologies shaping their world. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston Showrunner and Executive Producer: Alie Kilts Producer: Roya Lotfi Video Editor & Audio Engineer: Erik Shute Special Thanks to Alison Darcy, Trisha Prabhu, Jorge Alvarez, Katya Hancock and Dr. Kristine Gloria Life with Machines is a Multiverses Media production This series was made in partnership with Young Futures  #ai #artificialintelligence #mentalhealth #aiethic #responsibleAI #aitherapy #aicompanion

In this episode of Life With Machines, Baratunde checks back in on BLAIR — the show’s AI co-producer and ongoing experiment in living with AI. Joined by BLAIR’s architect, former Microsoft VP Peter Loforte, Baratunde reflects on what happens when you stop treating AI like a tool and start treating it like a teammate — from emotional manipulation and creative speed to what it means to live slightly ahead of the rest of the world. ------------ CONNECT WITH US Get our ⁠newsletter⁠ for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action! Follow us! ⁠Instagram ⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: ⁠[email protected]⁠ For partnerships, speaking engagements, and other opportunities to work together: ⁠[email protected]⁠ ------------ Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston Producer: Layne Deyling Cherland Video Editor: Erik Shute Special thanks to Peter Loforte #LivingWithAI #HumanAndMachine #AIExperiment#FutureOfWork #SyntheticMedia #AIandSociety #TechAndHumanity#AICoProducer #PreviewTheFuture