Compassion — Podcast

Making Artificial Intelligence Safe with Charlotte Siegmann

Artificial Intelligence is embedded in our everyday lives right now and it will have a rapidly growing influence over the future of humanity for generations to come. Whether that influence will result in abundance for most humans or just a few winners and many losers is largely dependent on the decisions we make right now. Charlotte Siegmann is one of the people who is working to ensure governments, companies, and individuals make the right choices. Her work is focused on how to make the development and deployment of advanced AI systems safer and more beneficial.

In this interview, Charlotte talks about the true dangers of AI, how it can benefit humanity, ideas for how AI should be regulated, and how the decisions we make today have the potential to affect many generations to come. She gives advice for business leaders interested in harnessing the power of AI for their organizations, she talks about the competencies employees will need to develop to thrive in an AI world, and she discusses how the taxation of AI and robots could fund social programs and be a source for universal basic income.

A PhD student in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Charlotte Siegmann is one of the incredibly bright, thoughtful people working to keep Artificial Intelligence safe and beneficial for all of humanity. She is a founding member of The Center for AI Risks & Impacts (KIRA). At MIT, she is working on the economics of AI governance, the intersection of mechanism design, game theory, and AI safety. She has worked as a Predoctoral Research Fellow in Economics at Oxford’s Global Priorities Institute, as a Research Assistant for a professor at Stanford University, and as an intern in the European Union Parliament.

The Resilient Runner with Helene Neville

Helene Neville was told by a doctor she needed to go home and get her affairs in order. She didn’t have long to live. That was 25 years ago. The mother of two young sons ran from that diagnosis and has been running ever since. Helene has survived three brain surgeries and recurring lymphoma. She has endured chemo, radiation, and, most recently, nearly two years in bed. Yet, she keeps running. When she was first told she was dying, she signed up for and completed the Chicago Marathon. Since then, she has become the first person to run across every single state in America amassing nearly 14,000 total miles…and she did it alone! This summer, she plans to run across much of Canada from Thunder Bay to Victoria, British Columbia. Helene’s remarkable story epitomizes what it means to be resilient.

In this interview, Helene talks about how she has overcome decades of life-threatening illnesses, why she pushes herself to accomplish her amazing athletic feats, and she shares stories about the people who have helped her on her journeys. Helene also reminds us that what connects humanity is much stronger than the issues that threaten to divide us. Helene demonstrates what is physically and mentally possible to those needing hope and inspiration.

Helene Neville is a survivor of three brain abscesses, three brain surgeries, and recurring lymphoma. She completed a quest to run across every state in America to inspire the nation to “Rethink Impossible.” Along the way, she found that there is more right with humanity than she ever imagined. She has run across all 50 U. S. States in eight segments - California to Florida, Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico, Florida to Maine, eastern Maine/Canadian Border to Ocean Shores, Washington, Wyoming to West Virginia to Las Vegas, Nevada, the perimeter of Oahu, Hawaii, Anchorage to The Dalton Highway, The Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. When she is not running, Helene is a nurse and professional speaker who has spoken in 50 states, over 300 hospitals, cancer centers, prestigious institutions, schools, corporations, and TedX.

Curiosity, Compassion, and Courage in Leadership with Tom Fishman

The United States is more politically and culturally divided than it has been since the 1960s and Americans are fatigued. They are demanding solutions. Tom Fishman believes if curiosity, compassion, and courage can be cultivated into daily habits, we can overcome the polarization, blind tribalism, and dehumanization threatening the social fabric of our communities.

Not only does Tom believe teaching others to be curious, compassionate, and courageous will heal the differences in our communities, he makes the case for bringing these skills into our organizations to make them run more effectively.

In this episode, Tom discusses the extend to which division exists in the United States, how we got here, and how we can bridge this divide. The key is not to demand people come to the middle. Rather, a willingness to understand others without judgment is critical to erasing the notion that people with different ideas than our own are our enemies. Tom talks about how Starts With Us is using social media and technology to teach people the skills needed to communicate and understand others who may see the world differently. Tom also talks about how leaders who teach these skills to their teams can elevate performance in their organizations.

Tom Fishman is CEO of Starts With Us. With an education in physics, Tom has spent his career solving complex problems for media companies like Facebook, Viacom, and Condé Nast. Now, Tom is using his experience with media and technology to habituate the daily practice of curiosity, compassion and courage in order to foster independent thinking and constructive communication across lines of difference. Starts With Us is a movement working to overcome extreme political and cultural division in America.

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