TechTank

With the 2024 elections around the corner, political tensions are running high, and there isconsiderable concern about how generative AI will affect campaigns and election turnout. Thisweek, on the TechTank Podcast, co-host Darrell West will engage in a conversation on thesecrucial matters with Sarah M.L. Bender, an accomplished JD candidate from the University ofMichigan and the author of the article titled "Algorithmic Elections" in the Michigan LawReview.

From November 28, 2022: In this episode of the podcast, co-host Darrell West speaks to Nicol Turner Lee, senior fellow in Governance Studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings and Tom Wheeler, a visiting fellow in Governance Studies and the author of a forthcoming Brookings book, “Techlash” about Twitter's future, and the consequences of recent tumultuous changes at the company.

In the last year, bank failures have dominated the news cycle. On this episode of the TechTank podcast,co-host Nicol Turner Lee will discuss why the technology sector has been particularly sensitive to recentbank failures, and what the future of banking looks like in the digital age. Joining the TechTank podcastto help discuss the future of banking is Aaron Klein, who is the Miriam K. Carliner Chair in EconomicStudies and Senior Fellow at the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution.

Consumer demand for wireless services continue to increase in the U.S., prioritizing the need for more licensed and unlicensed spectrum as more services migrate to mobile platforms. On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee sits down with Scott Blake Harris, Senior Spectrum Advisor, Office of the Assistant Secretary, National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) about the forthcoming National Spectrum Strategy.

There has been considerable interest in recent months in generative AI that can answer questions, develop videos, write code, and perform many other tasks. On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host, Darrell West, is joined by a distinguished expert, John Villasenor, professor of engineering, law, public policy, and management at UCLA and co-director of its Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy to discuss if generative AI will take jobs. Will it be possible for organizations to use these new tools to automate job tasks and reduce dependence on human labor?

On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host, Darrell West, dives into howWikipedia handles content moderation, disinformation, and bias. The site is a trusted source ofinformation for many people, but little is known about how it makes decisions and handlescontroversies surrounding its material. Guests are Isabelle Langrock, a PhD candidate at theAnnenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, who is writing adissertation on Open Knowledge Production and Digital Access; and Kent Campbell, aStrategist at Reputation X, a firm that researches Wikipedia references, talk pages, and historicalediting patterns.

In this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, guest host Mishaela Robison, research assistant in Brookings Center for Technology Innovation, talks with Annie Wu Henry, former social media producer and strategist for U.S. Senator John Fetterman’s campaign. Described as Fetterman’s “TikTok Whisperer” by the New York Times, Henry discusses how social media and technology are changing the way voters, and society more generally engage with politics.

On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, guest host Mishaela Robison will sit down with Dr. JoanDonovan, Research Director of Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center and Emily Dreyfuss, a journalist,who leads the Shorenstein Center News Leaders Program, to discuss their book, Meme Wars: The UntoldStory of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).

On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee will discuss thefuture of local news and the effects of the internet on traditional business models and the qualityof investigative journalism. The episode will also correlate rising levels of misinformation to aneroding local news landscape. Podcast guests are Courtney Radsch, postdoctoral research fellowat UCLA, and Steve Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News.