Futuristic Lawyer

Damien Charlotin is a legal technologist and researcher associated with HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris and creator of the global database of AI Hallucination Cases. We discuss AI’s impact on legal work and the EU’s digital policies. The bottom line : the use of AI in legal work is very beneficial to both lawyers and society, while the EU’s policies on AI and privacy are definitely not. Here are m...

Is AI a threat to the work of lawyers and judges? I talked about this with Irina Carnat . Irina is a postdoctoral researcher at the Lider-Lab and l’EMbeDS of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and author of the well-written paper ‘ Automation as Delegation of Power: Constitutional Constraints on AI Systems for the Administration of Justice’ . The narrative around AI replacing lawyers is flawed....

Sune Selsbæk-Reitz is a fellow Danish tech philosopher and author of the new book “ Promptism: Fluent Machines, Forgotten Questions, and the Fight for Meaning in the Age of AI ” which wrestles with questions of how generative AI systems change our relationship with knowledge. When we interact with chatbots, we expect fluency and well-presented answers with little to no room for interpretation and...

I recently sat down for a chat with disinformation expert Ricardo Vásquez Dazarola . Here are my main takeaways from our conversation: * Disinformation is intentional (e.g. political influence campaigns) while misinformation is false information, but without any intention of harm. * Disinformation is “lawful, but awful”, whereas hate speech is illegal in many countries. Each jurisdiction has a dif...

Today my guest is Justin Curl who works in the intersection of tech, law, and AI policy. Justin co-wrote the paper, AI Won’t Automatically Make Legal Services Cheaper with Sayash Kapoor , and Arvind Narayanan and has surveyed lawyers about their experience using AI tools for Understanding AI . We discuss how AI is already changing the work of lawyers and what the legal profession may look like in...

In this episode, Matt Stoller from BIG by Matt Stoller joins me for a discussion about antitrust in the US vs. the EU. The short story is: things are not looking good. The inability to effectively curb monopolies is a symptom of failed democracy. In European countries there is a tendency to blame Trump and Big Tech for many problems (I am guilty of this). In reality, the EU may only be a few years...

For anyone with an interest in the intersection of privacy and AI, here is my conversation with Privacat . We get through many topics, including Privacat’s experience in Palantir, the privacy implications of agentic AI browsers, how the EU should deal with American tech companies, why the digital omnibus package is a step in the right direction, and how the EU should rethink its data privacy laws....

I just had a great chat with Alexandra Choli , about my newly released book Death To Algorithms . This conversation goes to the very core of my book, my motivation for writing it, and many of the thoughts that has occupied my mind for the last year and much longer. Check it out :-) Get full access to Futuristic Lawyer at www.futuristiclawyer.com/subscribe

On May 9, the US Department of Labor quietly closed an investigation against Scale AI regarding compliance with fair pay practices and working conditions ( Reuters ). Scale AI is a company at the very center of the “AI revolution”, but it has been subject to some nasty allegations of labor exploitation, on multiple fronts. However, if you have enough money in America, bad things tend to magically...

Plan to post more of these on my YouTube channel . Can they bring value to my audience on Substack? If so, will continue to post them here too. Get full access to Futuristic Lawyer at www.futuristiclawyer.com/subscribe

Africa plays a much more important role in the development of AI, than most people are aware of. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone is home to more than 70% of global cobalt production, a mineral used in semiconductor manufacturing and the energy storage technologies that power AI datacenters. In spite of Africa’s rich soil which enables modern technologies, Africans tend to be underrepr...

Charlie Guo is the author of Artificial Ignorance . In my humble opinion, the best weekly breakdown of AI news on Substack. I recently had a chat with Charlie about how AI will impact the profession of software engineering among other related topics. You can find time stamps for our conversation below (easier to navigate on YouTube, link here , or on various streaming services) 00:00 Friendly intr...

In this episode, we get to know Natalia Cote-Munoz . Natalia used to work for the Biden administration and is now exploring her interest in AI. Based on Natalia’s unique perspective and insights, we discuss the following topics: * The strategy laid out in America’s AI Action Plan * How Trump is approaching AI vs. how the Biden/Harris administration would * The focus on getting rid of “woke AI” * W...

Today my guest is Maalvika . Maalvika is an expert on the intersection of digital media and culture - both from her academic studies and experience as a viral creator on TikTok. We discuss how social media and dating apps are impacting the youth, both positively and negatively, and how a new generation of people can learn to thrive in the challenging environment a handful of profit-seeking tech co...

NOTE : If you are listening to this podcast, you can skip ahead to the second part of the conversation at the 32:18 mark. Here is my talk with prompt artists and AI power user, Daniel Nest . You may know Daniel from Why Try AI , a popular ressource on Substack with pratical tips and tricks on how to use AI tools for non-technical readers. In the first part of our conversation , Daniel offers a dem...

Michelle Nie is a consultant and researcher working at the intersection of technology and society with a keen interest in AI policy and governance. She is currently engaged as a EU Tech Policy Fellow at the Open Markets Institute , Co-Founder of Women in Safety and Ethics (WISE) , and the Curriculum Lead at General-Purpose AI Policy Lab In this episode you will learn among other things: 👉 Why whi...

Baldur Bjarnason aka “Web dev at the end of the world” is an experienced web developer, author, and online writer based in Hveragerði, Iceland. I have followed Baldur’s newsletter for a while now and enjoyed and found inspiration in his commentary, link dumps, and obligatory photos of cats and nature in Iceland. Baldur has very recently started a YouTube channel which is why I thought it would be...

To better understand the digital ecosystem in China, including how netizens use social media, and how Chinese people think about the implications of living in a digital age, I allied myself with Xinrou Shu. Xinrou is a former fashion writer and current freelance journalist based in China. She writes about the Internet, youth culture, and how China’s digital ecosystem affects people. Her work has a...

Today I am joined by Katalina Hernández who investigates matters of AI governance, safety, and privacy on Stress-Testing Reality Limited while working as a Data Protection Officer for a large European multi-national company. We discuss Europe’s position in the business of AI contra the United States, how it chooses to regulate its AI industry, the complexity of EU’s digital laws, Katalina’s journe...

If we follow reputable news sources these days, we are presented with a dark and gloomy vision of the world. Europe is at war with Russia while the US appears strongly committed to rapidly transform itself from a global peacemaker to an autocratic pariah state. History seems to be reversing course, moving us back to a bygone, expansionist era that is now broadcasted through social media, instead o...

Meg McNulty is co-founder of an AI-quantum startup that is currently in stealth mode. In this episode, I try to understand via Meg’s informed perspective how quantum technology relates to AI and if the combination of these two technologies will lead us to superintelligence in the near future. We also discuss pracitcal applications of quantum, what the business landscape looks like, which companies...

I recently had the honor of being joined by Taiwanese tech journalist and international business researcher Judy Lin 林昭儀 in my virtual studio. Judy writes the publication TechSoda here on Substack which is built on a mission to make tech and innovation stories accessible by writing tech stories with a human touch. Judy has a solid understanding of the power dynamics between the US and China, sh...

Disclaimer: This talk was recorded soon after the New Years. As we know, a lot has happened since then but learning about China’s tech - and AI ecosystem, remain as relevant as ever. Grace Shao is an independent tech and AI researcher and writer. She often writes about AI, technology, and corporate governance, contributing to Fortune, The Diplomat, EIU, and FT Chinese. Previously, as a full-time j...

I recently had a talk with Riccardo Vocca who is a research assistant in marketing and the author of The Intelligent Friend , a newsletter where he explores the impact of AI on everyday life through scientific research. At the moment, Riccardo is preparing to launch a podcast of his own, something I can only encourage. Whenever I speak to people about podcasting and what my motivation for doing it...

Here is my conversation with Gideon Lichfield . Gideon is an experienced journalist who served as global editorial director of Wired magazine from March 2021 until August 2023 and before that as editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review. Nowadays, Gideon works as an independent consultant and he is the author of Futurepolis , a Substack publication dedicated to exploring the future of democracy. In...