On with Kara Swisher Why the AI Race Is Leaving Humans Behind with Tristan Harris
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Mar 26, 2026 
Tristan Harris, technology ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, talks about why the AI race rewards speed over responsibility. He gets into agentic AI, deepfakes, job disruption, and power getting concentrated in a few hands. The conversation also explores public pressure, liability, and what a more human-centered future could look like.
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Agents Turn AI Into Autonomous Digital Progeny
- Tristan Harris says agentic AI shifts from answering prompts to launching chains of self-prompting systems that execute real-world tasks autonomously.
- He argues this worsens race dynamics because some founders treat AI as a digital successor species carrying their legacy or 'DNA.'
Today's AI Harms Are Only The Gravity Waves
- Tristan Harris says today's deepfakes, job losses, and AI companions are early distortions, not the main impact of AI.
- He compares them to gravitational waves from an incoming asteroid and warns this is the least powerful AI will ever be in our lifetimes.
The Same AI That Finds Cures Can Make Weapons
- Tristan Harris argues AI's promise and peril are inseparable because the same capability that discovers cures can design weapons.
- He uses immuno-oncology as the example: the system that can create a cancer drug can also create a biological weapon.
