{"podcast":{"title":"Future of Life Institute Podcast","slug":"future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471","podcast_index_feed_id":1112471,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/future-of-life-institute-podcast-4e4d1fa5-a878-4cb2-91be-91c3ce266dfd","website_url":"http://podcast.futureoflife.org","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/J_n37RCZqjxGWjRTeSwa1kYSzes1V2OR3ShI3uGkwh8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81MmU5/MDZjZGQ5OTI0MDc5/YTk2ZTAxYTgwYTNk/M2VlOC5qcGc.jpg","author":"Future of Life Institute","episode_count":271,"summary":"The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change. The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions. FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-01T06:20:26.948551+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471"},"episode":{"title":"How AI Hacks Your Brain's Attachment System (with Zak Stein)","slug":"how-ai-hacks-your-brain-s-attachment-system-with-zak-stein","published_at":"2026-03-05T16:59:46+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471/how-ai-hacks-your-brain-s-attachment-system-with-zak-stein","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471","url":"https://share.transistor.fm/s/6883f432","audio_url":"https://media.transistor.fm/6883f432/135329e0.mp3","summary":"Zak Stein is a researcher focused on child development, education, and existential risk. He joins the podcast to discuss the psychological harms of anthropomorphic AI. We examine attention and attachment hacking, AI companions for kids, loneliness, and cognitive atrophy. Our conversation also covers how we can preserve human relationships, redesign education, and build cognitive security tools that keep AI from undermining our humanity. LINKS: AI Psychological Harms Research Coalition Zak Stein official website CHAPTERS: (00:00) Episode Preview (00:56) Education to existential risk (03:03) Lessons from social media (08:41) Attachment systems and AI (18:42) AI companions and attachment (27:23) Anthropomorphism and user disempowerment (36:06) Cognitive atrophy and tools (45:54) Children, toys, and attachment (57:38) AI psychosis and selfhood (01:10:31) Cognitive security and parenting (01:26:15) Education, collapse, and speciation (01:36:40) Preserving humanity and values PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://podcast.futureoflife.org Twitter (FLI): https://x.com/FLI_org Twitter (Gus): https://x.com/gusdocker LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-of-life-institute/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-rCCy3FQ-GItDimSR9lhzw/ Apple: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1170991978 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Op1WO3gwVwCrYHg4eoGyP","meta_description":"Zak Stein is a researcher focused on child development, education, and existential risk. He joins the podcast to discuss the psychological harms of anthro…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6280,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471/episodes/how-ai-hacks-your-brain-s-attachment-system-with-zak-stein/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471/how-ai-hacks-your-brain-s-attachment-system-with-zak-stein.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}