ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Speaker: Gaia Bernstein, Professor of Law at Seton Hall University and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution
Description: Recorded live before a CUNY audience as the Season 1 finale, this episode asks whether Big Tech is running Big Tobacco’s playbook. Gaia Bernstein discusses the California verdict against Meta and Google over addictive design, why AI companion bots call for public health regulation, the push to preempt state AI laws, and the loneliness built into everyday automation. The conversation closes with audience questions.
About the speaker: Gaia Bernstein is a Professor of Law at Seton Hall University, where she co-directs the Institute for Privacy Protection and the Gibbons Institute for Law, Science and Technology. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a board member of Fairplay for Kids, and the author of the award-winning book Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.
Show notes:
- Gaia Bernstein, Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies
- Gaia Bernstein, Why AI Companions Need Public Health Regulation, Not Tech Oversight
- Yafit Lev-Aretz, Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment Is Just a First Step
- Yafit Lev-Aretz and Aileen Nielsen, Privacy as a Matter of Public Health
- Gaia Bernstein’s Substack: Digital Crossroads
- Nizan Geslevich Packin, Financial Inclusion Gone Wrong: Securities and Cryptoassets Trading for Children
