Humans in the Loop

Can you lift a country out of poverty? | Nick Allardice, CEO GiveDirectly

How to lift an entire country out of poverty? Does philanthropy make a difference? What if wealthy tech founders gave away their money? Will AI make poor countries even poorer? How does technology help a country to develop? Those are some of the questions discussed into today's episode of Humans in the Loop featuring Nick Allardice, CEO of GiveDirectly, a non-profit that's sent over $1 billion in cash, directly to those living in poverty. Where else you can watch/listenYoutube - youtube.com/channel/UC1KEYtwPKr5yUv86f7YDB7g/Apple podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humans-in-the-loop/id1831285114Or wherever you get your podcasts! Chapters 00:00 Introduction to GiveDirectly and Philanthropy 02:35 Identifying Communities in Need 06:18 Technology and Cash Transfers 12:10 Empowering Recipients: No Strings Attached 17:45 Community Impact and Economic Growth 23:46 Limitations of Cash Transfers 27:15 Conclusion and Future of Philanthropy 27:33 Skepticism of Central Planning in Local Economies 28:40 The Ineffectiveness of Traditional Teaching Methods 30:38 The Role of Wealthy Individuals in Alleviating Poverty 32:52 The Potential of Cash Transfers to Lift Living Standards 35:37 The Importance of Urgency in Philanthropy 39:26 The Impact of AI on Job Markets in Developing Countries 42:46 Balancing Optimism and Fear in the Age of AI 47:49 Innovative Approaches to Education and Healthcare 50:06 Leveraging AI for Disaster Preparedness 54:05 A Call to Action for the Wealthy to Invest in ChangeLinksGiveDirectly [https://www.givedirectly.org/] The experiment in Malawi [https://www.givedirectly.org/malawi] Rutger Bregman's call for the world's billionaires to pick up the phone to Nick [https://www.instagram.com/reels/DW3qHcijUyV/]Get in touch Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/humansinthelooppod⁠ Email: ⁠seb@theuncommonfounder.com⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.theuncommonfounder.com

The Chinese Tech Economy | Selina Xu - AI & China Researcher

China is shaping the world.In direct ways, like innovation, foreign policy, investment.And indirectly, by provoking a response from countries such as the US who see it as a competitor.China's transformation into one of the world's superpowers is the most remarkable transformation of a single country in the history of the world.And yet it's still poorly understood (including by me).Selina Xu is a writer, researcher and AI & China policy lead in the office of former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt and is here to shed light on China and its technology industry, dispelling some myths along the way.Where else you can listen: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4BbslJR0KA5bfqrcYRhJER?si=d0edc1049eac4f39 Apple podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humans-in-the-loop/id1831285114Or wherever you get your podcasts! Chapters 00:00 The Evolution of China's Tech Industry 03:38 Debunking the Copycat Narrative 06:16 The Role of the State in Innovation 09:51 Xi Jinping's Vision for Technology 12:44 The Return of Jack Ma 15:35 China's Perspective on Global Competition 19:28 Defining Winning in the Superpower Race 22:40 China's Unique Approach to Technology Deployment 26:50 The Role of the State in AI Development 30:03 DeepSeek and the Evolution of Chinese AI 34:19 Agentic AI: Trends and Trajectories 36:57 Emerging Frontiers in AI Research 40:12 Infrastructure and Support for Tech Industries 43:44 Geopolitical Implications of Taiwan and Semiconductors 46:03 Cultural Perspectives on China and Tech 48:53 Optimistic Visions for the Future of AILinks: Selina's website [https://selinaxu.com/] China's AI+ initiative [https://merics.org/en/comment/chinas-ai-drive-aims-integration-across-sectors-wake-call-europe] Involution [https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2025/11/17/the-problem-of-involution-in-china/] Suspension of ANT's IPO [https://www.reuters.com/article/world/uk/timeline-key-events-behind-suspension-of-ant-groups-37-billion-ipo-idUSKBN27K1A0/] Common prosperity [https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-common-prosperity-what-does-it-mean-for-foreign-investors/] Deepseek moment [https://www.morganstanley.com/im/publication/insights/articles/article_chinasdeepseekmoment_a4.pdf] Chin AI substack - Jeffrey Ding [https://chinai.substack.com/] Get in touch Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/humansinthelooppod⁠ Email: ⁠seb@theuncommonfounder.com⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.theuncommonfounder.com

Zen Master Henry Shukman on tech & what it means to be human

Henry Shukman is a Zen Master, a meditation teacher, and co-founder of The Way meditation app.As AI poses some hard questions about what it means to be human, I thought Henry might help make some sense of things. Chapters 00:00 Understanding Zen: A Personal Journey 03:52 The Need for Spirituality: A Personal Crisis 10:07 Living Zen in the Modern World 13:36 Navigating Modern Existence: Technology and Spirituality 18:38 The Motivations Behind Meditation 23:15 Technology's Role in Meditation: The Way App 32:06 Ambition and Spirituality: Finding Balance 39:47 AI and the Nature of Consciousness 45:04 Optimism for the Future: Meditation's Impact Links⁠ The Way App⁠ - https://www.thewayapp.com/ Get in touch Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/humansinthelooppod⁠ Email: ⁠seb@theuncommonfounder.com⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.theuncommonfounder.com

The Creative Process with Fuser Co-Founders Dalena Tran & Hirad Sab

My guests today are artists, film makers, educators, technologists and founders of Fuser, a company building an AI workspace for creatives. With so much noise around what AI should or shouldn’t be used for, and where human creativity starts and ends, I wanted to get Dalena and Hirad on to talk more about the creative process in this technological moment. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Fuser and Its Founders 03:40 The Vision Behind Fuser 06:12 Creative Applications of Fuser 08:35 The Role of AI in Creative Processes 11:24 Navigating the Challenges of AI in Art 13:29 The Future of Creativity with AI 15:48 Investor Relations and Company Integrity 19:00 The Evolving Landscape of Art and Technology 20:52 Conclusion and Future Aspirations Links Fuser [https://fuser.studio/] Brand video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghk6Hl-jla4] Get in touch ⁠Instagram⁠ [⁠https://www.instagram.com/humansinthelooppod⁠] ⁠⁠https://www.theuncommonfounder.com⁠ [https://www.theuncommonfounder.com] seb@theuncommonfounder.com⁠

Mike Masnick on the decentralised internet

Mike Masnick wrote the paper that helped inspire Bluesky and now he sits on the Bluesky board.A long-time advocate of decentralised tech, Mike's paper 'Protocols not platforms' outlined how a more open protocol-based system to social media would create a healthier social media ecosystem in which people were free to vote with their feet (or their mouse) and go elsewhere, without losing access to the community they'd built.In this wide ranging conversation, Mike and I discuss the future of social media, the internet's trajectory from an open to a closed ecosystem, whether decentralisation can be a winning strategy in a capitalist economy, and much more. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Mike Masnick and Tech Perspectives 05:53 The Evolution of TechDirt and Innovation 11:03 Understanding Free Speech in the Digital Age 15:53 Protocols vs. Platforms: A New Approach to Free Speech 20:50 The Shift from Protocol-Centric to Platform-Centric Internet 28:48 The Evolution of Patents and Competition 31:10 Understanding the Problems with Big Tech 32:23 Moving Towards Decentralization 33:23 The Role of Decentralized Protocols 35:11 Generative AI: Empowerment vs. Control 37:55 Building Personalized Tools for Empowerment 41:35 Decentralization in Social Media: Blue Sky Explained 49:12 The Future of Decentralized Systems 53:04 Mainstream Adoption of Decentralized Technologies Links Protocols not platforms [https://www.techdirt.com/2019/08/28/protocols-not-platforms-technological-approach-to-free-speech/] Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do] Get in touch Instagram [⁠https://www.instagram.com/humansinthelooppod⁠] ⁠https://www.theuncommonfounder.com [https://www.theuncommonfounder.com] seb@theuncommonfounder.com⁠