AI vs Women & The End of The Introvert with Patti Balbas, Felina Tan, Jen Campbell and Jag Sharma - E107
The world is doomed to be run by one of two things; beautiful dumb people, or untrustworthy AI.
With over 20 years at the top of the marketing game, Patti Balbas is perfectly placed to help us understand how, in a ‘charismocracy’, charm will win over the masses rather than diligence.
We also dive deep into a worrying, emerging pattern in AI’s use cases which has the potential to undo decades of societal progress for women - unless we act now…
This episode of Disconnected covers:
AI, safety, and women’s harm
Digital harm vs. physical harm and regulation of each
Big tech strategy and Meta’s shift away from messenger
‘Charismocracy’ and the future of work
Youth, parenting, and human skills in an AI era
Episode Highlights:
“Should companies be allowed to release like all these powerful AI tools without proving they've stress tested them for social harm, especially women, the way that we do with other industries?” - 10:05 - Felina Tan
“I just think it's shocking that there's all this rigour around something like toilet paper, yet the lack of rigour around transparency and all of that when it comes to AI.” - 13:45 - Patti Balbas
“Anthropic has dropped their commitment to safety from their mission statement… and that saddened me. It’s a step in the wrong direction, for sure.” - 14:10 - Patti Balbas
“Abuse has become monetisable, and part of the infrastructure… we’re not just talking about harassment here. We're seeing structural inequality being automated.” - 18:00 - Jag Sharma
“It's not going to get better in the next few years, because all the US is doing and all Donald Trump is doing is eliminating DE&I… I don't see it getting fixed. It's just something everybody has to be aware of.” - 20:05 - Jen Campbell
“if we're not careful, the future is going to belong to the beautiful and dumb.” - 25:45 - Patti Balbas
“It got me thinking about that episode from Black Mirror called Nosedive… where status is literally quantified as popularity. I think we're living in it already, it's just that it's gonna become worse and worse.” - 31:05 - Felina Tan
“In an AI‑saturated world, intellect becomes commoditised and charisma becomes the differentiator… The danger is when distinction becomes performance rather than substance.” - 38:20 - Jag Sharma
Links & references:
Patti Balbas:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattibalbas/
Jen Campbell:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-m-campbell/
Felina Tan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felinagabrielletan/
Jag Sharma: