Untangled

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​​​​​​​Charley Johnson​​​​​​​ , and valued ​​​​​​​​​​​​ by ​​​​members​​​​ like you. ​​​Help me make it better?​​​ ​ Today I’m sharing my conversation with Angelica Quicksey, Managing Director of New_Public, about the rise of the agentic interface era, and how we might shape it. As always, please send me feedback on today’s post by replying...

Hi there, This week I’m sharing a conversation I had with ​Bo Young Lee​ , CEO of ​ AI4All ​ about Silicon Valley imaginaries, rational refusal, and the futures we haven’t been offered. As always, please send me feedback on today’s post by replying to this email. I read and respond to every note. On to the show! Untangled HQ * Wednesday, May 5: I’m hosting a ​ workshop on how to trace what must st...

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​​Charley Johnson​​ , and ​​supported​​ by members like you. ​Help me make it better?​ This week I’m sharing a conversation I had with Beth Rudden — founder of Bast AI, former chief data officer for a $34 billion division at IBM, and someone building a genuinely different vision of what AI could be. 🏡 Untangled HQ Coming Up * ​ Stewarding C...

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​​Charley Johnson​​ , and ​​supported​​ by members like you. ​Help me make it better?​ This week, I’m sharing a conversation I had with Hilke Schellmann — Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, NYU professor, and author of The Algorithm — about her recent reporting on AI in hospitals . If you read ​my newsletter​ applying the STEWARD f...

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​Charley Johnson​ , and ​valued by members like you.​ Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Ben Winters, Director of AI and Privacy at Consumer Federation of America, about ​The People First Chatbot Bill​ —model legislation for regulating chatbots that’s been endorsed by over 70 organizations. As always, please send me feedback on today’s...

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​Charley Johnson​ , and ​supported​ by members like you. This week I’m sharing my conversation with Miranda Bogen (Director, AI Governance Lab, Center for Democracy & Technology) about what happens when your AI assistant becomes an advertiser. As always, please send me feedback on today’s post by replying to this email. I read and respond to...

Hi there, Welcome back to Untangled. It’s written by me, ​Charley Johnson​ , and ​supported​ by members like you. This week, I’m sharing my conversation with Evan Ratliff , journalist and host of the thought-provoking podcast, Shell Game . As always, please send me feedback on today’s post by replying to this email. I read and respond to every note. On to the show! 🔦 Untangled HQ I launched ​The...

If you’ve sensed a shift in Untangled of late, you’re not wrong. I’m writing a lot more about ‘complex systems.’ To name a few: * What even is a ‘complex system’ and how do you know if you’re in one. * How to act interdependently and do the next right thing in a complex system. * Why if/then theories of change that assume causality are bonkers — and how to map backward from the future. * How do yo...

This week, I spoke with Harry Law , Editorial Lead at the Cosmos Institute and a researcher at the University of Cambridge , about AI and autonomy . Harry wrote a terrific essay on how generative AI might serve human autonomy rather than the empires Big Tech is intent on building . In our conversation, we explore: * What the Cosmos Institute is — and how it’s challenging the binary, deterministic...

Today, I’m sharing the 15-minute diagnostic framework I use to assess an organization’s capacity to navigate uncertainty and complexity. Fill out this short survey to get access. The diagnostic is just one tool of 30+ included in the Playbook that will help you put the frameworks from my course immediately into practice. This one helps participants see how their current assumptions, decision struc...

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Karen Hao, award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence and author of NYT bestseller, Empire of AI. We discuss: * The scale-at-all cost approach to AI Big Tech is pursuing — the misguided assumptions and beliefs it rests upon, and the harms it causes. * How the companies pursuing this approach represent a modern-day empire, and the role narrative...

I’m Charley Johnson, and this is Untangled, a newsletter and podcast about our sociotechnical world, and how to change it. Today, I’m bringing you the audio version of my latest essay, “There’s no such thing as ‘fully autonomous agents.’ Before getting into it, two quick things: 1. I have two part essay out in Tech Policy Press with Michelle Shevin that offers a roadmap for how philanthropy can us...

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Greg Epstein, American Humanist chaplain at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the great new book Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation. We discuss: * How tech is becoming a religion, and why it’s connected to our belief that we’re never...

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Divya Siddarth, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Collective Intelligence Project (CIP) about how we might democratize the development and governance of AI. We discuss: * The CIP’s work on alignment assemblies with Anthropic and OpenAI — what they’ve learned, and why in the world a company would agree to increasing public participation. * The #1 risk...

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Deepti Doshi, Co-Director of New_Public about what they’ve learned building local healthy communities, online and off. We discuss: * The problem New_Public is trying to address with their initiative, Local Lab. (Which I highlighted in my recent essay, “Fragment the media! Embrace the shards!” ) * What Deepti has learned about what makes for pro-social conver...

This week, I’m sharing my conversation with Anya Kamenetz , the creator of The Golden Hour, a newsletter about “thriving and caring for others on a rapidly changing planet. Anya and I announced a new partnership recently — now, when you sign up for an annual paid subscription to Untangled, you’ll get free access to the paid version of The Golden Hour — and we wanted to talk about it, and the work...

Hi, I’m Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about  our sociotechnical world, and how to change it. * Come work with me!  The initiative I lead at Data & Society is hiring for a Community Manager.  Learn more here. * Check out my new course, Sociotechnical Systems Change in Practice.   The first cohort will take place on January 11 and 12, and you can sign up here. * Last week I interviewe...

Hi, I’m Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about  our sociotechnical world, and how to change it. * Untangled crossed the 8,000 subscriber mark this week. Woot! * Come work with me! The initiative I lead at Data & Society is hiring for a Community Manager. Learn more here. * Last week, I shared my conversation with award-winning AI reporter Karen Hao on OpenAI’s mythology, Meta’s secret,...

Hi, I’m Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about  our sociotechnical world, and how to change it. * Last week, I argued that the shared reality that the U.S. has long glorified was predominantly white and male, and historically, fragmentation has proven to be a good thing. * I launched my new course, Sociotechnical Systems Change in Practice. The first cohort will take place on January 1...

Hi, it’s Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about technology, people, and power. Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Evan Ratliff, journalist and host of Shell Game, a funny and provocative new podcast about “things that are not what they seem.” Evan cloned his voice, hitched it to an AI agent, and then put it in conversation with scammers and spammers, a therapist, work colleagues,...

Hi, it’s Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about technology, people, and power. Can’t afford a subscription and value Untangled’s offerings?  Let me know! You only need to reply to this email, and I’ll add you to the paid subscription list, no questions asked. I turned 40 this week and I spent the weekend in nature, surrounded by my favorite people. While my cup is running over with fri...

Hi, it’s Charley, and this is Untangled, a newsletter about technology, people, and power. This week I’m sharing my conversation with Shannon Vallor, the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) at the University of Edinburgh. Vallor and I talk about her great new book, The AI Mirror: Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Age of Machi...

Last week, I analyzed a new lawsuit brought by University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Ethan Zuckerman and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The lawsuit would loosen Big Tech’s grip over our internet experience if successful. In this conversation, I’m joined by , the creator of the tool Unfollow Everything, which is at the center of the lawsuit. Louis and I discuss...

Hello, welcome back to the podcast edition of Untangled. If someone forward you this link, it was probably my sister. Give it a listen — she knows what she's talking about. Then, if you're so inclined, become a subscriber. 👉 Two things before we get into it. First, you can now listen to Untangled directly on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Second, if you haven't yet decided what you're going to get me...

You came back! That warms my writerly heart. If someone forwarded you this email, definitely thank them - they just get your wonky sensibility. Then, if you’re so inclined, become a subscriber. 👉 One more thing before we get into it - if Untangled arrives in your Promotions tab, consider moving it to your Primary tab. If you do it once, our algorithmic overlords will take it from there. And now,...