CDT Tech Talks

Mar 05 2025 144 ep. 27 mins 188
CDT Tech Talks Podcast artwork

Tech Talks are a podcast imagined and created by the folks over at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). We're a 501(c)3 nonpartisan nonprofit organization that fights to put democracy and human rights at the center of the digital revolution. We work to promote democratic values by shaping technology policy and architecture, with a focus on equity and justice. #techtalkcdt Support CDT's work with a donation: https://cdt.org/techtalk/

  Technology
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Talking Tech with Greg Nojiem on The Current State of PCLOB

Mar 05 2025 17 mins  
On January 27th, the Trump Administration made headlines with a controversial move to dismiss three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent agency responsible for ensuring transparency and accountability in U.S. surveillance practices. With the attempted removal of these members, including the Chair, the board now lacks a quorum

Talking Tech with Mona Elswah & Emna Mizouni on Moderating Magrabe Arabic Content on Social Media

Feb 23 2025 23 mins  
In today’s episode, we dive into an often overlooked but incredibly important issue: content moderation in non-dominant languages, specifically Maghrebi Arabic dialects. Recently, CDT released a groundbreaking report titled "Moderating Maghrebi Arabic Content on Social Media," which explores the challenges, gaps, and opportunities in ensuring fair and effective moderation of Arab

Tech Talk: Talking Tech with Umang Bhatt on Algorithmic Resignation

Jan 12 2025 30 mins  
In today’s episode, we tackle a fascinating question: What happens when an AI system deployed by a company decides to "resign"—stopping its recommendations or restricting access to its outputs? Can such actions help mitigate reputational or legal risks for organizations? To help us explore this, we’re joined by Dr. Umang Bhatt, Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow at the Ce

Talking Tech on Bias and Equity in AI Systems with Alexandra Givens & Raffi Krikorian

Oct 21 2024 31 mins  
In this episode, we explore the vital topic of bias and equity in AI systems. Joining the conversation are two esteemed guests: Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer at the Emerson Collective, and Alexandra Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Tune in as we unpack the challenges and opportunities in making AI more equitable for all.In this episo

Talking Tech with Jen Caltrider & Michal Luria on AI Companions

Oct 07 2024 25 mins  
AI chatbots have quickly taken the world by storm with more people than ever integrating them into their daily lives. Many are familiar with the big name chatbots that can write recipes as Shakespearean poems or summarize obscure topics. But one type of chatbot, AI romantic companions, are less known despite the fact that they fill an especially personal role for their users. For t

Talking Tech on Algorithmic Disability Determinations

Sep 05 2024 44 mins  
More and more people turn to quantified health, achievement, and ability measures, such as fitness apps and economic measures of well-being every single day. As part of this trend, medicalized approaches to human health often describe people in terms of statistics and data, sometimes failing to capture more important details. In particular, the quantified approach falls short in de

Talking Tech with Josh Kroll on The NIST Privacy Framework

Jul 19 2024 28 mins  
New internet-based technologies have boomed with unprecedented access to data and data management tools. While this has facilitated innovation, it has also left many personal users and companies alike with limited knowledge about the uses and potential harms of their data. Balancing innovation and data privacy often requires tailored approaches, which is what the National Institute

Talking Tech with Paul Gowder on The Networked Leviathan

Jun 25 2024 26 mins  
It’s a modern day reality that large social media platforms deliver political information to many citizens, making these companies’ policies for removing and blocking speech critical to politics and culture. Emergencies such as the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar can be traced in part to misinformation and hate speech sh

Talking Tech with Grace Gedye and Matt Scherer on AI Legislation

May 31 2024 23 mins  
Recently, legislative bodies across the United States have exploded as lawmakers in over 10 states introduced several closely related bills to tackle AI- systems and their impacts on various facets of society. From hiring practices to education, insurance, housing, lending, government services, and even criminal sentencing, the scope of these bills is vast and far-reaching and will

Talking Tech with Rachel Cummings & Daniel Susser on Differential Privacy

Apr 04 2024 29 mins  
In recent years, differential privacy has emerged as a promising solution for enhancing privacy protections in data processing systems. However, beneath its seemingly robust framework lie certain assumptions that, if left unquestioned, could inadvertently undermine its efficacy in safeguarding individual privacy. Here to discuss their recent papers on differential privacy is Rache