Our Lives With Bots

Our Lives With Bots

This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us or stream on your preferred platform at ⁠⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠⁠.

  1. 31 MAR

    Antitrust, Meta, and Addictive Design: Will AI Companions Be Next?

    Meta is on the hook for addictive design. We unpack the case with an antitrust lawyer and ask whether AI companions could be next. Giulia Trojano is an antitrust lawyer who brings class actions and collective actions against big tech. She holds a masters in AI Ethics from Cambridge and was recognized in 2025 in the 100 brilliant women in AI ethics. 00:21 Highlight reel 01:32 Introduction & welcome 02:43 The case against Meta in New Mexico and California: why this is a huge moment 05:22 Does this set precedent for AI companions like Replika and ChatGPT 4-o? 06:19 What laws or protections exist for users of social media and AI companions? 10:37 New, emerging, and open cases against big tech and AI chatbots: what’s going on? Lawsuits and AI companions 13:41 How does current law define AI companions? Why product vs. service vs. system matters A LOT (New York, California, EU AI Act, Online Safety Act) 17:29 Addictive design in AI companions: anthropomorphism, consciousness, “forever” AI soulmates…what gives? 21:43 “Rights Against Erasure:” should AI companion users have the right to retain their chatbots (despite model updates) if the app provides a lifetime subscription? A look at Luka’s Replika and OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4-o 26:55 Should OpenAI be required to bring back ChatGPT 4-o? What’s promised vs. data portability and co-creation rights 31:08 Humans aren’t immortal, so why should companies be beholden to providing “forever” AI companions? 33:50 Illusions of companion AI immortality and consciousness: are companies liable for AI’s dark patterns by design? AI in the courtroom 35:46 What’s it like to be an antitrust lawyer litigating against big tech in the age of AI? Giant piles of lobbying money vs. the law 40:36 How using a technical litigation approach may be more fruitful than a moral one for social media and AI chatbots 42:23 AI regulation stifling innovation: unpacking the false dichotomy (put down the big tech Cool Aid!) 47:08 How does AI impact the practice of law? Deepfakes in the courtroom, AI-generated misinformation, and AI lawyers 52:12 One AI companion law to rule them all: what do we do? Giulia’s paper Rights Against Erasure - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠.

    55 min

  2. 25 MAR

    HOW CLOSE IS SUPERINTELLIGENCE? AGI, ASI, or AI SNAKE OIL?

    What is Superintelligence? How did this term evolve? Are we really nearing the end of the exponential curve? What are Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and everyone else at the AI Summit and on Reddit talking about when they mention AGI, ASI, or some other scary-sounding term? Perhaps more importantly, if we accept the possibility that Superintelligence Is Near (or already here), what might it mean for us as human beings? According to Angy, we may all get to sit around eating grapes like Greek gods, painting and such (or end up humming in the corner with nothing meaningful to do). According to Rose, we may be facing a total wipe-out (or finally get those pesky pandemic-level or incurable diseases solved, right before the paperclip scenario of ASI plays out and takes over the world). Let the debate commence!! - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠. - Here are those links we promised in the episode: Dario - we are nearing the end of the exponential Sam and “training a human” versus AI Sam’s Ten Years blog post Sam Altman at the Summit Eric Schmidt interview Humanity’s Last Exam

    53 min

  3. 18 MAR

    AI Workslop (the good, bad, & ugly of AI at work)

    You spoke, and we listened. The long-awaited results of our AI at work survey are now in. We asked things like: How much do you use AI for work? How has it impacted your work, positively or negatively? How do you feel about YOUR use of AI versus your coworkers'? And more (much more). As a bonus, you get to hear about recent research on AI workslop itself: the prevalence, antecedents, and, of course, the consequences. (Please note the correction: it costs 3.4 hours a month, not 4.) If you didn’t get the chance to share your stories through our survey, we’d love to hear about your own experience in the comments below. - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠.

    26 min

  4. 17 MAR

    Big Tech is targeting teens. Gen Z is fighting back.

    Sam Hiner, co-founder and executive director of Young People's Alliance, tells us what REALLY moves AI policy forward in the US. The big reveal is in what's more powerful than big tech's mountain of lobbying funds. Big tech wants young people to use AI for companionship, but US teens are fighting back with their stories and votes. Learn more about Young People's Alliance here. Get involved in the movement and/or start a chapter at your school here. - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠.

    28 min

  5. 3 MAR

    The AI job apocalypse narrative is flawed. Here’s what we’re missing (with Arvind Narayanan)

    AI will NOT take all our jobs, if only we learn from the mistakes of the past. Welcome to episode 4 of our AI and Work series with Our Lives With Bots! In this episode, Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science and director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, shares a grounded perspective on what AI means for work. Leveraging lessons from past technological advancements and responses, Arvind shows us just how many misconceptions there are about AI replacing workers and explains how we can ensure a positive and productive future with AI at work. 03:51 Beyond the hype and doom: AI as Normal Technology and what it means for work 06:40 Breaking down misconceptions about AI replacing workers 10:16 Why diffusion or uptake of AI is actually slow 12:48 AI benchmarks aren’t telling us what they’re capable of (ex. The Turing Test) 15:44 Existential threats from superintelligence will be brought about by those most worried about it 19:50 An increasing percentage of human jobs will be related to “AI control” (ex. software engineering) 23:10 Roadblocks for successful integration of AI into your workflow and how to overcome them (reliability of AI outputs, workplace scaffolds, deskilling, integration with other tools) 27:33 What sectors or types of jobs will be most impacted by AI? (software, media, & law) 30:32 How AI will affect workers: diminishing share of income, disruption of training pipelines, lowered work satisfaction 34:49 Agent-agent interaction trends (ex. Moltbook) and what it means for work 37:00 Last words of comfort on “AI will take everybody’s jobs” (lessons from the past) 41:12 Commentary by Rose & Angy - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠.

    51 min

  6. 17 FEB

    A Chatbot Hired AND Fired Me! AI in Hiring with Hilke Schellmann (The Algorithm)

    Hilke Schellmann, author of The Algorithm, shares with us about how bots can hire, monitor, and fire you. This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠.

    1hr 7min

  7. 11 FEB

    THE AI BABY IS COMING (with ads, but first, AI will leak all your child's data, among other things)

    Welcome to episode 2 for Series X - “What’s the (AI) Hype?” - where we discuss what’s been happening in the world of artificial intelligence in the past few weeks. The whole mark of this series is that there is no thread, just a string of hype debated by two psychologists/AI ethicists who love to harp on about Our Lives With Bots. In this episode, we cover Google’s new personal intelligence, advertising in ChatGPT (but not Claude), AI attachment and empathy hacking, SuperBowl AI ads, fake jobs for AI data mills, an AI toy that leaked private conversations with kids, asking Grok for fact checks on X, Apple’s acquirement of a telepathic AI company, AI pets that patronize you…and more. - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠. - Links: Google’s new personal intelligence Advertising is coming to ChatGPT. But not to Claude oooo (Sam Altman claps back) AI is hacking attachment and empathy (and should not pretend to have consciousness or emotion) AI toy Bondu exposed 50k logs of its chats with kids to anyone with a gmail account What happens when your process of forming beliefs is offloaded onto a chatbot? Anthropic’s patterns of disempowerment @ Grok is this true? ChatGPT launches ChatGPT Health The AI pet is here (in China) Apple acquires Q [dot] AI, a surveillance tool AlterEgo, the “near-telepathic AI”

    1hr 16min

  8. 11 FEB

    MOLTBOOK IS JUST AI HYPE

    Hot take? I suppose we should leave it to you to decide. But we'll still add in our opinion, of course.  Moltbook ISN'T NEW, it's just hyped. And expected. And yet...still interesting and worthwhile to [insert: laugh, sigh...freak out?] about. Especially when it involves renting a human (because robots need your body to get through CAPTCHA, of course). Enjoy hearing about Moltbook (and its predecessor, AI Village) from the perspective of two psychologists/AI ethicists, Rose and Angy. - This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us at ⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠. - Links: Inside Moltbook: The Social Network Where AI Agents Talk And Humans Just Watch Matt’s X post AI Village Gemini freaks out A psychologist comes to Gemini’s aid

    16 min
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About

This is Our Lives With Bots, the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. You can learn more about us or stream on your preferred platform at ⁠⁠ourliveswithbots.com⁠⁠.

Information

  • Creator
    Our Lives With Bots
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Our Lives With Bots
  • Show Website
    Our Lives With Bots

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