Julia Angwin, now the founder of Proof News, has built her career on the frontlines of the battle for data privacy. As an award-winning investigative journalist, she's exposed the hidden costs of our digital lives - from Facebook's privacy breaches to algorithms perpetuating racial bias in criminal sentencing. She's reimagining journalism itself as a tool for reclaiming agency in an era of surveillance-powered advertising and infotainment.
In this eye-opening conversation, Julia shares insights from her journey to empower individuals and hold the powerful accountable. She delves into the perils and promise of AI, the evolving role of journalists in the age of algorithms, and the critical importance of end-to-end encryption.
Whether you're concerned about the erosion of privacy or eager to harness your data for good, you won't want to miss Julia's thought-provoking perspective.
In the meantime, here are five key takeaways that capture Julia's vision for a future of empowered privacy:
Julia founded Proof News to infuse reporting with mathematical rigor. She explains:
"Journalism has to prove its worth... I think we need to distinguish ourselves by saying, look, we have a rigorous process for collecting evidence, analyzing evidence, and most important part of proof, in my opinion, is acknowledging the limitations of your proof."
To stay relevant in an era of ubiquitous opinion, Julia believes journalism must embrace the epistemological discipline of "proofs" - meticulously gathering evidence, analyzing it objectively, and transparently acknowledging the limits of available facts.
Proof News took the initiative to test major AI chatbots' responses to common voter questions. Julia shares:
"We tested the leading five AI models on it and they were quite bad at answering those questions... The measure of success in AI is sometimes refusal."
By proactively assessing AI's effects on democratic processes, Julia models a powerful new role for journalists as vigilant watchdogs keeping pace with technological change - a kind of "civic garbage collection" that holds algorithms accountable.
Julia sees personal AI as a way for people to reclaim agency from exploitative tech giants:
"These tech companies... are my gatekeepers to the world. Their algorithms determine what I see, what I don't see... when I suddenly saw [personal AI] as something beyond just productivity, but as like an actual challenge to power, I was super into it."
After years of critiquing surveillance capitalism, Julia now believes empowering people with their own AI could help level the playing field. While not a panacea, democratized AI may provide a needed check on asymmetric power dynamics.
Julia envisions a future where AI helps people understand themselves better, not just compare themselves to others:
"What is currently happening is someone is taking information about us and then essentially comparing it to everyone else in the world... But actually, what I want is - am I happier or sadder than I was yesterday, right?"
She imagines AI reoriented away from fueling platform-induced envy and toward tools for meaningful self-reflection and personal growth - "self-awareness as a service" where we reclaim our data to gain authentic insight.
With governments pressuring tech platforms to create encryption backdoors, Julia sees the right to encrypt as crucial for preserving intimate communication:
"If you don't have an encrypted messaging app like Signal or WhatsApp on your phone, you are basically exposing yourself to sort of unlimited surveillance... Encryption is the only technological prevention we have right now for sort of like that last bastion of intimate communication that we want to keep private."
As authoritarian impulses seek to eliminate secure communication, Julia finds hope in younger generations intuitively grasping the need for digital discretion. She believes defending encryption is essential for safeguarding human dignity.
Stay in the loop with exclusive content, product updates, and news: