AI is often framed as a technical challenge, but the real debates are equally political and societal. In this episode, we explore how the way AI is defined shapes regulation, accountability, and public policy. We discuss the importance of public AI, democratic governance, the challenges of regulating rapidly evolving technologies, and why the future of AI depends on the choices society makes today rather than on technological inevitability.
#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning
Guest
B Cavello is Director of Emerging Technologies at Aspen Digital, where they work at the intersection of AI, law, and the question of who gets to shape the technology that is reshaping everything else. They previously advised Senator Ron Wyden on privacy, internet governance, and algorithmic accountability, and before that led research on fairness and transparency at the Partnership on AI. They are a co-organiser of the Public AI Network, a growing coalition making the case that AI should be provisioned like public infrastructure — like electricity, roads, or libraries — rather than left to the logic of private markets. And they have just published a handbook that does something deceptively simple and genuinely important: it traces where the legal definitions of AI actually come from, and shows what happens when you choose one over another.
What is AI: Tools or Gods??
What happens when we stop treating AI as a force of nature and start treating it as what it is: a political choice?
AI: Tools or Gods? is a podcast about the stories we tell about artificial intelligence and why they matter. Each episode, host Caroline De Cock talks with researchers, lawyers, policymakers, and advocates who are building a more grounded, democratic alternative to the dominant AI narrative. No prophecies. No panic. Just honest, rigorous conversation about power, accountability, and what technology is actually for.
A companion to the book AI Tools, Not Gods (BTF Press, 2026, foreword by Brewster Kahle) and a production of information labs.