In this clip from the Beauty at Work podcast, Glen Weyl and Jaron Lanier explore a fundamental disagreement at the heart of today’s AI debates: Should technology be grounded primarily in human uniqueness—or in diverse, distributed systems?

Weyl explains why his deepest concern about AI is not whether it challenges human dignity, but whether it promotes a totalizing, singular logic that flattens diversity across human, natural, and institutional systems.

Lanier responds by drawing a sharp line between technology and other human pursuits. While science, math, and art can exist abstractly, he argues that technology cannot exist without a beneficiary. When people are no longer clearly named as that beneficiary, technology quickly becomes self-justifying—and ultimately serves power rather than humanity.

Together, this exchange surfaces a core tension shaping the future of AI:
Is technology anchored by human responsibility, or by systemic complexity? And what happens when either anchor is lost?

You can watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/CS9TFn_NpK4

To learn more about Jaron and Glen’s work, you can find them at: 

• Jaron Lanier - https://www.jaronlanier.com/ 
• Glen Weyl - https://glenweyl.com/

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This episode is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust (https://templetonreligiontrust.org/)

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