The Brave Technologist

Ken Liu (Computer Science PhD at the Stanford AI Lab) and Erik Chi (CS PhD at UMich) are the Creators of the Open Anonymity Project, which lets people prove things about themselves online without revealing their identity. In this episode we explore what it means for AI systems to "know" you; why today's so-called privacy modes fall short; and how the next generation of AI systems could be built with privacy as a default, rather than an afterthought.
Key Takeaways: 
What "unlinkable inference" means and why it changes the privacy model of AI chat tools

What actually happens to your data the moment you hit "send" in a typical AI system

Why incognito mode in AI tools is largely a UI illusion, rather than a real privacy protection

The role of metadata in identifying and profiling users, and how "secretary models" could enable personalization without sacrificing privacy

How anti-censorship and privacy intersect in a future dominated by agentic AI systems

Why now is the time to rethink assumptions about privacy in AI tools

Guest Bio:
Ken Liu is a Computer Science PhD student at the Stanford AI Lab, advised by Percy Liang and Sanmi Koyejo. His research focuses on foundation models and data/user privacy, and the intersection between the two. His recent work studies the privacy properties of AI (such as membership, memorization, and unlearning), and various AI privacy tools (such as anonymization, differential privacy, and federated learning). His papers have earned spotlights at top venues, and his findings have been deployed at scale on Android. Ken also led a team to a 1st-place win at the US-UK PETs Prize sponsored by the White House OSTP and the UK Government. Previously, Ken spent time at Google DeepMind, Carnegie Mellon University, Meta, Apple, and Amazon.
Erik Chi is a CS PhD at UMich, advised by J. Alex Halderman. His research focuses on security and privacy, particularly network security and anti-censorship. He worked on a new standard for implementing and distributing censorship circumvention protocols—a standard that's now being adopted by VPN vendors to help millions of users access the free Internet. He also did content moderation (surveillance) and recommendation systems at ByteDance before realizing how censors will evolve in the AI era.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Ed Gaudet, CEO and founder of Censinet, shares how cybersecurity threats have evolved from data breaches to full-scale operational disruptions, and why modern resilience strategies must go beyond prevention. He explains why ransomware has fundamentally changed the stakes, how AI is rapidly expanding the attack surface, and what organizations are getting wrong about risk. He also highlights the human and cultural factors that remain the weakest link in security and why leadership is critical to driving real change.
Key Takeaways
How ransomware has raised the stakes from financial loss to real-world consequences, including risks to human life

The overlooked ways AI is entering organizations through existing tools, and how this is creating new vulnerabilities

Why organizations must shift from prevention-only strategies to prioritizing response and recovery capabilities

How human behavior and organizational culture continue to be the biggest risk factors in cybersecurity

What a modern, holistic resilience strategy looks like across people, processes, and technology

Guest Bio: Ed Gaudet, CEO and founder of Censinet, is a seasoned software executive with over 25 years of experience driving product innovation, marketing strategy, and sales growth across startups and public companies. As CMO at Imprivata, he led the company's transformation into healthcare and later served as GM of the award-winning Imprivata Cortext platform. Previously, he led corporate development, sales, and marketing at Liquid Machines, helping shape its go-to-market strategy ahead of its acquisition by Check Point Software.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Jourdan Hathaway, Chief Business Officer at General Assembly, discusses her experience integrating AI agents into her admissions team, including stories of real-world complexities, edge cases, and unexpected messiness of the implementation. We also explore the evolving AI skills gap and how companies have now shifted from expecting basic AI literacy to prioritizing skills like AI workflow design, critical thinking, and the ability to build AI-driven business solutions.
Key Takeaways: 
Which new human roles are emerging around AI optimization and oversight, even as repetitive tasks are automated

How human strengths like judgment and ambiguity navigation remain critical as AI takes over first drafts, pattern recognition, and execution speed

What implementing AI agents actually looks like in practice, and why edge cases and human psychology matter more than expected

The evolving role of mentorship and how being specific, proactive, and action-oriented makes people far more likely to invest in your growth
Guest Bio: Jourdan Hathaway is Chief Business Officer at General Assembly (a global leader in AI skills training), where she oversees marketing, sales enablement, client delivery, admissions, student experience, career services, alumni relations, and partnerships. 
 
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Andy Maskin, Director of AI Creative Technology at Publicis Sapient, explains why brands are shifting from SEO to "AI visibility," where success is no longer about ranking on search engines but instead showing up in tools like ChatGPT. He also explains how agentic AI fails without clean data and modernized systems.
How MCP (Model Context Protocol) enables AI agents to communicate and coordinate tasks using natural language across systems

Why the most transformative AI use cases won't come from prototypes, and how technical debt is a hidden blocker

Ways AI is pushing companies to rethink customer experience, such as eliminating friction from chatbots

Examples of AI transformation features from companies layering agentic systems on top of legacy infrastructure and unclean data

Guest Bio:
Andy Maskin is Director of AI Creative Technology at Publicis Sapient. He's a Generative AI SME in both theory and practice, with a current focus on agentic marketing applications. Across his career he's focused on the way technology is impacting consumer trends, and has led and built innovation labs. Andy's thought leadership has been published in major trade publications.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Dr. Maha Hosain Aziz, an international relations professor at NYU and Global Foresight Advisor at the World Economic Forum, highlights the often-overlooked societal, economic, and psychological impacts of AI adoption. She explores the growing anxiety around job displacement and the emerging "occupational identity crisis" occurring as AI reshapes industries and how people define purpose and stability in their careers. She also reveals how shifts in world order, the rise of tech companies as powerful global actors, and increasing mental health concerns are all interconnected in the age of AI.
Key Takeaways: 
Mental health challenges linked to AI-driven uncertainty

The Rising reliance on AI for emotional support

How global power dynamics are shifting as BigTech gains influence

The "occupational identity crisis" as AI reshapes our relationship with work

Guest Bio:
Dr Maha Hosain Aziz has crafted a portfolio career in global risk and future trends based at NYU's MA International Relations Program: She is a professor leading the annual global risk prediction project with crowdsourced consultancy Wikistrat, and creating data-driven risk indices and apps; a risk and foresight expert advising the World Economic Forum; co-chair in AI policy at think tank The Digital Economist; and senior advisor (geopolitics) at impact firm Enlighten Advisory.
She has written a trilogy of books: 7-time award-winning bestseller Future World Order (2019 & 2025), Global Spring (2026) and 10 Shock Events By 2030 (2026). She created the 10-time award-winning VR/AR political comic The Global Kid (2021), which is based on the 7-time award-winning original comic she drew (2016). She's also working on Evolution (2026), a comic about global extremism.
She is a global citizen with Pakistani roots who grew up in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US, studying at Brown (BA), Columbia (MA) and the LSE (MSc, PhD).
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte