In this episode of Disruptor Confessions, John Ayers sits down with Dr. Deb Donig, a literature scholar turned AI ethicist who teaches at UC Berkeley's School of Information, co-founded the Cal Poly Ethical Technology Initiative, and hosts the Technically Human podcast, to ask the question everyone in this industry avoids: is AI ethics a real function, or is it theater?Donig's new book, The Technological Grotesque, is the product of six years studying what actually happened to the people hired to ask whether we should build the things we're building. Her answer isn't comforting. The jobs multiplied. The clarity didn't.If you run an AI ethics function, sit on a responsible AI team, or have ever wondered whether your company's governance structure is a real safeguard or a press release, this is for you.We go past the "we need more regulation" consensus to ask why that consensus doesn't hold, why the "China will do it first" argument ignores China's own regulatory posture, and why the real risk may not be the technology outpacing us. It may be institutions that were never built to ask hard questions in the first place.🎙 Disruptor Confessions explores the human, ethical, and strategic dimensions of technological disruption.🚀 Key topics discussed:Efficiency Ate the Value: Why Donig tells her students about Soylent, and what happens when a society optimizes for efficiency in everything, including love.Is AI Ethics Just Theater: Why the answer isn't a simple yes, and why "ethics washing" jobs still contain people doing real work inside real constraints.The Three Tribes: Why public interest technologists, responsible technologists, and ethical technologists are trained differently, paid differently, and almost never talk to each other, and why that fragmentation is the actual governance gap.The China Card: Why "if we don't build it first, China will" ignores what China's regulatory environment actually looks like, and why abandoning human rights principles to win a race means winning a race for the wrong thing.The Vaccine Argument: Why we already have a model for regulating transformational, life-saving technology without stopping it, and why AI gets treated differently.What Gets Erased: Donig's confession that since 2023, she can no longer be fully certain a photograph, a song, or a sentence is human-made, and what that costs us.The Confession: Why a critic of AI products uses Claude in nearly every talk she gives, and why she doesn't see a contradiction."We don't wanna be loved efficiently, because love is a value that requires us to give up the principle of efficiency."Guest: Dr. Deb Donig; Author of The Technological Grotesque, Host of Technically Human, UC Berkeley School of Informationhttps://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/people/deb-donighttps://www.linkedin.com/in/deb-donig/https://debdonig.com/🚀 JOIN THE DISRUPTION COMMUNITYStay ahead of the curve and go deeper into the ethical and strategic dimensions of tech disruption:👉 Subscribe to THE BRIEFING on Substack: https://disruptorconfessions.substack.com👉 Visit Disruptor Confessions: https://disruptorconfessions.com/👉 Follow us on Instagram: @disruptorconfessions👉 Connect with John Ayers on LinkedIn: /in/johnlayersDisruption isn't a distant concept, it's happening right now, reshaping careers, industries, and the human experience itself. From breakthroughs in AI to the redefinition of leadership, the pace of change is relentless, and exhilarating.DISRUPTOR CONFESSIONS with John Ayers is your digital disruption podcast companion on this journey, offering unfiltered conversations, first-hand insights, and critical questions about what the future demands from all of us. Whether you're a leader navigating change or a rebel challenging the status quo, you belong here.
