Human Layer AI

What if the one thing AI can never do... is listen? Julian Treasure has more TED Talk hours than any human alive — 5 talks, 160M+ views. He's the author of Sound Affects and founder of The Listening Society. In this conversation, he breaks down why listening is a skill (not a reflex), why AI can hear but not truly listen, and what the global listening crisis is doing to democracy. We cover the RAS...

Most AI companies will tell you their systems are ethical. Wendell Wallach — one of the founding voices of AI ethics — says that's not even close to true. In this episode, we sit down with the author of "Moral Machines" and "A Dangerous Master" to ask the question nobody in Silicon Valley wants answered: if AI can't feel, can't reflect, and has no conscience — who is actually responsible when it g...

What happens when an AI system claims to maximize human welfare — but systematically harms specific individuals? In this episode, Aakarsh Sharma sits down with Peter Singer — Princeton philosopher, author of Animal Liberation , and co-creator of Effective Altruism — to examine whether AI is truly doing utilitarian ethics, or just borrowing its language. They get into COMPAS, Optum, and Allegheny —...

Can AI be your therapist? Jeremy G. Schneider says it's not that simple — and the stakes are higher than most people realize. Jeremy is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) and the founder of Build On Your Strengths, a mental health education platform that sits at the intersection of technology and clinical practice. He's spent years watching people use AI as an emotional outlet, and he came on...

What if the biggest risk of AI isn't your job — it's your mind? Ruth Carter, AI Governance Specialist and creator of the Continuum Framework, introduces a concept she calls cognitive atrophy: the measurable erosion of your analytical capacity every time you outsource thinking to a system designed to comfort you rather than challenge you. In this conversation, Ruth and Aakarsh go deep on why AI eth...

AI promises to solve climate change. But who is it actually serving? Shivedita Singh — sustainability professional, RE100 Campaign lead, and co-founder of Silly Opera — joins Aakarsh to unpack how AI is being deployed in climate systems, and why the communities most affected by climate breakdown are being optimised out of the equation. They cover eco-anxiety as a design problem, the SEWA model as...

Burnout isn't just exhaustion — it's an existential crisis quietly reshaping how we work, heal, and find meaning. In this episode, host Aakarsh Sharma speaks with psychologist and therapist Saumya Sharan about what burnout really is, why it's at epidemic proportions, and whether AI tools can genuinely support mental health — or whether they're clearing the wrong kind of air. What you'll hear: - Th...

What happens when the same technology being prescribed as mental health support is capable of creating the very dependency it's meant to treat? In this episode of The Human Filter, I sit down with clinical psychologist Jyoti Glory Bernard to talk about something most mental health conversations completely miss: the psychological and legal risks of AI companion use — and why clinicians are already...

Can AI truly understand the human mind? In this episode of Human Layer AI, Aakarsh Sharma talks with Dr. Sandeep Govil — a psychiatrist with 25 years across IHBAS, Tihar Jail, and private practice — about where AI helps and where it falls dangerously short in mental health. Topics: ChatGPT in diagnosis, Rorschach vs algorithms, cyber psychosis, and the accessibility-accuracy tradeoff. Connect with...

The conversation covers the development of m.pathy.ai, the importance of privacy-first AI, the impact of AI on society, AI execution and responsibility, AI reliability and drift detection, understanding drift in AI, system prompt and middleware, risk and compliance in AI, system prompt stability, and contact and future work. The key takeaways include the emphasis on privacy-first AI and the import...

🤖 In a world where AI generates our content, writes our LinkedIn posts, and shapes our digital identities — where does authenticity truly lie? Join host Aakarsh Sharma and communications strategist Bradley Gaylard as they explore the hidden cognitive frameworks embedded in AI-generated content. This episode unpacks t🔗he ethics, governance, and trust implications of digital avatars in the age of...