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Humans in the Loop

Seb Agertoft
Artificial Intelligence
Fuser
Restless Egg
Granola AI
Givedirectly
Cash Transfers
Interspecies Internet
Kevin Kelly
Protopian
Malawi
Microsoft
Meditation
SAP
Long Now Foundation
M-Pesa
Canva
Poverty

A podcast for thoughtful technologists. How to build technology with human interests in mind. Asking the hard questions about our future. You can reach out to Seb via his website: www.theuncommonfounder.com

PublishesTwice monthlyEpisodes15Founded10 months ago
Number of ListenersCategory
Technology

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Artwork for Humans in the Loop

Latest Episodes

How do ideas, however crazy they might seem, spread?

Who's a true believer vs. a grifter following the money?

Can you talk about Epstein and QAnon without losing your rational mind?

How can investigative journalism move with the times?

These are ... more

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Many of us have a sense that even well-meaning companies and institutions lose their way, sometimes becoming downright evil.Eric Ries is a legend when it comes to building tech companies and his new book is written from the perspective of someone who... more

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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... more

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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 ... more

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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... more

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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 end... more

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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 crea... more

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Alex Komoroske is one of the smartest voices out there talking about better forms of technology right now.

He spent a long chapter of his career at the likes of Google and Stripe and is now the Founder and CEO of Common Tools, working on enabling de... more

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Recent Guests

Nick Allardice
CEO of GiveDirectly
GiveDirectly
Episode: Can you lift a country out of poverty? | Nick Allardice, CEO GiveDirectly
Selina Xu
Writer and researcher featured in major outlets
Episode: The Chinese Tech Economy | Selina Xu - AI & China Researcher
Henry Shukman
Zen master, meditation teacher, co-founder of The Way meditation app
The Way meditation app
Episode: Zen Master Henry Shukman on tech & what it means to be human
Dalena Tran
Co-founder of Fuser
Fuser
Episode: The Creative Process with Fuser Co-Founders Dalena Tran & Hirad Sab
Hirad Sab
Co-founder and CTO of Fuser
Fuser
Episode: The Creative Process with Fuser Co-Founders Dalena Tran & Hirad Sab
Mike Masnick
Founder of TechDirt; founder of Copia Institute; educator and writer on tech policy and innovation
TechDirt; Copia Institute
Episode: Mike Masnick on the decentralised internet
Alex Komoroske
Former Google product leader and Stripe alumnus; founder of Common Tools
Common Tools
Episode: Alex Komoroske on the hacker ethic and pro-social tech
Kevin Kelly
Founder of Wired Magazine, author, photographer
Wired Magazine
Episode: Kevin Kelly on Flounder Mode and Optimism
Ed Gillespie
Climate activist, futurist, and co-host of the Futurenaut podcast
Forward Institute
Episode: The Soft Technologies of Democracy with Ed Gillespie

Host

Sebastian Agertoft
Host of Humans in the Loop, sometimes credited as Seb Agertoft in show materials.

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AcquiredBen Gilbert and David Rosenthal
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The Room PodcastClaudia Laurie and Madison McIlwain
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Hard ForkThe New York Times
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Building AI BostonBuilding AI Boston
Eye On A.I.
Eye On A.I.Craig S. Smith

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Talking to animals with Kate Armstrong
Q: What ethical considerations are most pressing when deploying these technologies in the wild or in conservation contexts?
Ethical considerations include respecting animal rights and welfare, avoiding harmful surveillance or geolocation misuse, aligning with international guidelines, and considering rights of nature and potential legal representations for animals to protect habitats and welfare.
Talking to animals with Kate Armstrong
Q: How are AI and data shaping this field, and what checks are in place to avoid misinterpretation?
AI helps process enormous bioacoustic and behavioral datasets, enables pattern matching across modalities, and can generate language-model-like suggestions for signals, but there is an insistence on retaining human oversight and ground-truth validation by researchers to prevent over-interpretation.
Talking to animals with Kate Armstrong
Q: What exactly does Interspecies Internet do, and how did it come about?
Interspecies Internet started from a TED Talk in 2013 and grew into a cross-disciplinary effort that aims to plug animals into the Internet through shared technologies and networks, spanning design, biology, and computing to explore how species can communicate and share information.
Alex Komoroske on the hacker ethic and pro-social tech
Q: Can incumbents course-correct from within, or do we need new AI-native organizations to lead the way?
He argues that incumbents rarely go backward; cultural ossification is a one-way ratchet, but meaningful change can come from new models that are AI-native and designed with resonance and privacy at their core; some large companies have proven change is possible with the right conditions.
Alex Komoroske on the hacker ethic and pro-social tech
Q: What do you think people need to know about your story to understand your perspective on tech?
Alex connects hacker ethics with pragmatic, pro-social aims and explains that cynicism in tech undermines idealism; his background in Wikipedia discourse, Google, Stripe, and his work on The Resonant Computing Manifesto frame his lens on how technology should serve society rather than just juice engagement metrics.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Humans in the Loop

What is Humans in the Loop about and what kind of topics does it cover?

A thoughtful tech-focused show that brings together leaders, researchers, and practitioners who probe humanity's relationship with technology. Episodes span cash transfer philanthropy, China's tech-economic dynamics, Zen and mindfulness in a digital age, AI's role in creativity, decentralized networks, hacker ethics, and democratic resilience in the face of rapid innovation. Guests tend to be senior practitioners, founders, policymakers, and researchers who offer practical experience, critical perspectives, and long-range thinking about technology's social impacts. The format often blends philosophical questions with real-world case studies, aiming to illuminate not only what tech can do, but what it should do. A standout trait across episo... more

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Which podcasts are similar to Humans in the Loop?

These podcasts share a similar audience with Humans in the Loop:

1. The Daily

How many episodes of Humans in the Loop are there?

Humans in the Loop launched 10 months ago and published 15 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Humans in the Loop?

Recent guests on Humans in the Loop include:

1. Nick Allardice
2. Selina Xu
3. Henry Shukman
4. Dalena Tran
5. Hirad Sab
6. Mike Masnick
7. Alex Komoroske
8. Kevin Kelly

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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