{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"AI: Tools or Gods?","title":"AI: Tools or Gods? | Is the AI doom narrative a Western export? - Part 1 (ft. Payal Arora)","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1393,"description":"Part 1 of this two-part podcast explores the growing divide between Western fears of AI and the more optimistic, practical ways technology is being used across the Global South. The conversation challenges dominant narratives around AI, arguing that digital tools can empower people, create opportunities, and expand global connection when approached with creativity, agency, and human-centered thinking rather than fear and restriction.#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearningGuestPayal Arora is a digital anthropologist and Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University. She has spent two decades doing fieldwork in some of the places the AI conversation most rarely reaches: factory towns, slums, townships, and favelas across India, Brazil, China, South Africa, and the Middle East. She is the author of The Next Billion Users and From Pessimism to Promise, both grounded in that fieldwork, and Forbes named her the next billion champion and the right kind of person to reform tech. Her work has been cited by many thousands of researchers, read across many thousands of classrooms, and it makes one of the most uncomfortable arguments in contemporary technology studies: that the story we tell about AI being dangerous is not a neutral observation. It is a story shaped by where you stand.🔗LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/payalarora 🔗Website: payalarora.com","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/vsXB1WV1l6ai7eqWIB5XYC9TbwaLsQGXDfaywCO2OjE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mNTQz/YzM0NzQ4NmYzNDRi/MDU0NDNlMzE2MjUw/ZDY3Zi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}