Spotlight Twelve: A World Without Choices - Jacob Ward on AI, Agency and The Architecture of Choice

In this Redefining AI Spotlight, we introduce Jacob Ward and the conversation that Lauren Hawker Zafer had with him on AI, Agency and the Architecture of Choice. Jacob Ward is a journalist and correspondent with two decades of experience uncovering how innovation shapes society — and how it quietly shapes us. Jacob has served as technology correspondent for NBC News, covered the consequences of emerging technologies across major broadcast platforms, and led one of the world’s most influential science publications as editor-in-chief of Popular Science. He is the author of The Loop: How Technology/AI Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back, a revelatory book examining how algorithmic systems influence human agency. He also founded The Rip Current, a media platform that investigates the hidden forces driving modern life. The upcoming conversation explores AI not only as a technical phenomenon but as a profound human one, reshaping choice, perception, culture, and leadership. Together, Lauren and Jacob unpack what it means for executives and operators to scale AI in a way that protects human judgment, respects cognitive limits, and strengthens organisational decision-making. Expect a dialogue that challenges assumptions, reframes risk, and pushes leaders to consider not just what AI can do, but who we become when we use it. #techpodcast #squirro #ai