We Won a Webby Award! Who Could've Predicted That? And Are All Predictions Bunk Anyway?

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Apr 25, 2026

They celebrate a surprise Webby win and brainstorm five-word acceptance lines. They debate whether predictions help or create self-fulfilling prophecies, referencing a TED talk about AI and prophecy. The episode covers Meta’s employee surveillance, rising anti-tech backlash, and how human data fuels AI. They speculate on job training, AI-driven hiring, and practical tips to manage personalized LLMs.

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Webby Win And Five Word Speech Brainstorm

Dan Blumberg recounts winning the Webby judges' prize and prepping a five-word acceptance speech for a Manhattan ceremony on May 11.
He and Kwaku brainstormed options like “FAFO Fridays are my favorite” and “The Future Needs A Word.”

When Predictions Become Self Fulfilling

Carissa Véliz's TED talk distinguishes predictions that don't change outcomes (weather) from social predictions that become self-fulfilling (insurability, policing).
Dan and Kwaku stress that many algorithmic forecasts gain power because people act on them, turning predictions into reality.

Three Actions To Resist Algorithmic Prophets

Question algorithmic outputs, challenge the authorities behind models, and demand transparency to preserve human agency.
Kwaku lists three actions: refuse blind acceptance, interrogate who built the system, and demand accountability for decisions.

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We won the Webby Award for best tech podcast of 2026!!!

I’m stunned! But Kwaku doesn’t like it when I say stuff like that, because as he reminds me in this “FAFO Friday” edition, “sometimes good things happen to good people.” OK, I'll take it. We won! And now I need to prepare a five word speech to give. "FAFO Fridays Are My Favorite" comes to mind...

But really, who could’ve predicted this? And also, are all predictions bunk? Kwaku just returned from a week at “Big TED” and he reports back that the talk everyone is talking about is “Beware the power of prediction” from philosopher and AI ethicist Carissa Véliz.

What do the story of Oedipus and your insurance premiums have in common? They are both driven by self-fulfilling prophecies, according to Véliz and she warns us, on stage and in her new book, that we should we wary of false prophets — and of relying on AI-driven predictions. Some predictions are useful she says, e.g. weather forecasts are great because the weather doesn’t care what you predict, but others become self-fulfilling prophecies: if an AI says someone is uninsurable and then you deny them insurance then yes, they are uninsurable, but were they before you (or your algorithm) said so?

It all speaks to a powerlessness many of us feel. Speaking of which… Meta just rolled out employee surveillance that tracks keystrokes, mouse clicks, and periodic screenshots — to train AI on their employees' own jobs…. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's house… The anti-data-center backlash is getting physical. And (sorry) here’s a prediction, if people don’t start feeling like they have some agency, we’re going to see more of this (especially in an election year). But as Kwaku puts it, we are the fuel. AI does nothing without us, so let’s reclaim our agency, because…

The Future Needs a Word.

That’s one of the five-word speech options we consider. I’m drawn to it, but not sold on it, so please share your own suggestions…

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