WTFAI

Center for Digital Thriving
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Education

WTFAI is a biweekly podcast from the Center for Digital Thriving about how we're evolving with AI — fuzzy, weird, messy feelings included. We sit with them, name them, and sometimes invent the words that were missing. At the heart of the show is a simple idea, as hosts Dan Be Kim and Beck Tench describe it: “Lots of people are thinking about AI. We want to talk about how it makes you feel.”

Episodes

  1. 2d ago ·  Video

    WTFAI EP002: "I Have Broken Once" ft. Rebecca Winthrop

    In this episode of WTFAI, Beck and Dan Be talk with Rebecca Winthrop about the times she's broken her own rules with AI -- from a chatbot that reached through the screen and hugged her at 11pm, to a corn intolerance she couldn't untangle alone, to the years of careful distance she kept in between. They explore narrow versus wide AI, treating a chatbot like a piece of paper, the vulnerability that pulls us toward these tools when no one else quite gets it, and why being met warmly by a machine can feel so unsettling. Rebecca Winthrop is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, where she leads the Brookings Global Task Force on AI in Education and researches the skills young people need to thrive in work, life, and as constructive citizens. She is co-author, with Jenny Anderson, of The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better. References & Links Self-determination theory Rebecca Winthrop's weekly LinkedIn newsletter Map a Moment, a resource from the Center for Digital Thriving for stretching out and reflecting on a moment you had with AI.  Pearson digital textbook with embedded chatbot  Align on the Line, a resource from the Center for Digital Thriving for mapping different AI uses, seeing where others draw their lines, and deciding together where ours should be.

    WTFAI EP002: "I Have Broken Once" ft. Rebecca Winthrop

  2. Aug 21 ·  Video

    WTFAI EP001: Um... What's... That... Feeling?

    In the pilot episode of WTFAI, Beck Tench and Dan Be Kim unpack what a "WTF moment" with AI actually is -- from feeling seen by a lunch-planning chatbot, to outsourcing a sacred annual ritual to Claude, to catching yourself becoming the perpetrator of expectation explosion. They explore awe, AI ick, the blurry line between navigating and being navigated, and why sitting with discomfort matters more than running from it. References & Links Moltbook — The "Reddit for AI agents" where bots post and interact with no humans. Moltbook - WikipediaCNBC: From Clawdbot to Moltbot to OpenClawAstral Codex Ten: Best of MoltbookMBTI / Myers-Briggs Type Indicator — Dan Be shares his WTF moment of ChatGPT correctly guessing her MBTI (ENFJ) from months of coursework conversations.  Map a Moment — A Center for Digital Thriving resource for stretching out and reflecting on a moment you had with AI.  Alex Albert's X post — Anthropic's head of Claude Relations posted: "The boundary between you prompting the model and the model prompting you is going to get blurry in 2026."  NYT article on AI features & toggling — Dan Be references a New York Times article about AI features being embedded by default (e.g., Gemini in Gmail) without toggle on/off, plus the future of LLM-enhanced ad tech and differential pricing.  ChatGPT ads announcement — Sam Altman's announcement that OpenAI would be turning on ads for ChatGPT.  Values Bridge / Align on the Line — Center for Digital Thriving resources on value alignment and misalignment with AI.  Blog post on AI fatigue and "prompt spiraling" — Dan describes a blog by an engineer/consultant about the difference between creative/generative work and evaluative work with AI, coining "prompt spiraling" for the iterative evaluation loop.  1960s gymnastics vs. Simone Biles meme — A video comparing a 1960s Olympic gymnastics routine with Simone Biles' modern routine.  Self-help author on YouTube — A famous author with a year-end reflection process and downloadable PDF that Beck used to scaffold her annual phrase practice with Claude.

    WTFAI EP001: Um... What's... That... Feeling?
  • 2 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

WTFAI is a biweekly podcast from the Center for Digital Thriving about how we're evolving with AI — fuzzy, weird, messy feelings included. We sit with them, name them, and sometimes invent the words that were missing. At the heart of the show is a simple idea, as hosts Dan Be Kim and Beck Tench describe it: “Lots of people are thinking about AI. We want to talk about how it makes you feel.”

Information

  • Creator
    Center for Digital Thriving
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 WTFAI
  • Show Website
    WTFAI