The Price of Winning the AI Race: Social and Geopolitical Costs of Building without Regulation (Part 1)

Season 2 kicks off with a deep, but digestible, two-part conversation on AI, social media, and the incentives shaping the future. Inspired by The Social Dilemma and Tristan Harris’ interview on Diary of a CEO, we unpack how tech moved from monetizing attention to monetizing intimacy - and what that means for mental health, misinformation, privacy, and who’s actually accountable when things go sideways. We pull back to look at the forces driving all of this - profit incentives, weak regulation, massive infrastructure bets, and global competition. From mental health and data privacy to national security and the AI arms race, we connect the dots between the social media era and the futures we’re building with AI right now.