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The future of technology is human.
It’s about the leadership that shapes how we experience digital spaces. Bill Powers’ insights on this episode of Navigating Noise show us that successful tech companies focus on more than just the bottom line—they focus on the human element.
As tech thinker, former journalist, and entrepreneur Bill Powers reminds us, this isn’t the first time humanity has faced such a monumental shift. Bill brings a unique perspective to the Navigating Noise podcast, drawing on his experience as a former journalist at The Washington Post, bestselling author of Hamlet’s BlackBerry, and a research scientist at MIT Media Lab. He’s spent years exploring the crossroads of humanity and technology, starting and leading projects like Public Mind, a nonprofit that developed AI tools to improve public discourse.
We discuss what history can teach us about navigating today’s technological upheavals, the power of leadership in shaping tech’s impact on society, and why understanding the human element remains essential.
In this post, we’ll explore my five biggest takeaways from my conversation with Bill on how to humanize technology for a better future.
Make sure you check out the full episode above, wherever you get your podcasts.
Bill emphasized that the challenges we face today with digital technology aren’t entirely new. Every major technological shift—from the invention of the alphabet to the printing press—faced skepticism, disruption, and eventual adaptation.
“There is human pressure through all these tech revolutions to make it more human, to humanize it,” Bill explained. “It’s happening now, and we’ve seen this before with each tech shift.”
We are still in the early stages of adapting to the digital and AI age. The same human push that shaped past innovations will guide us through this digital transformation.
Actionable Next Step: Look to history for lessons. Recognize that discomfort with new technology is part of the process. Adapt by staying focused on how technology can enhance human experiences.
Leadership is the deciding factor in how technology affects our lives. Bill noted that decisions at the top determine everything from user experience to the societal impact of a platform.
“What we’ve learned is the centrality of the leadership question with platforms like these. And that applies to all tech companies,” Bill said. “What are there values really?”
Leadership at platforms like Twitter (now X) demonstrates how drastically one decision can reshape a company’s trajectory and its impact as a digital public square.
Actionable Next Step: Assess leadership not just for business success but for long-term societal impact. Make values and ethics a key part of decision-making in tech leadership.
Bill knows the challenges nonprofits face in the tech world. His team at Public Mind built AI tools to analyze public sentiment, but when Twitter (now X) raised data prices for nonprofits tenfold, it became impossible for them to continue.
“We hand-delivered a letter to Musk asking for a year at the old nonprofit rate so we could adjust, but we never heard back,” Bill said. “It was just the death blow to us.”
The tech ecosystem often prioritizes profit over public good, making it difficult for nonprofit ventures to survive.
Actionable Next Step: Nonprofit tech leaders must build sustainability into their model from the start. Stay aware of financial dependencies and seek diverse funding to avoid reliance on single platforms or companies.
Bill believes the next evolution of social media could involve identity-verified, community-driven platforms. This shift could create safer, more trustworthy online spaces, though it might come at the cost of open access.
“We’re moving toward identity-verified, essentially private public squares, where trust and safety are central,” Bill said. “It’s hard to keep something so big and porous safe and civil.”
Smaller, community-focused digital spaces could lead to more meaningful and productive conversations, like public squares of the past.
Actionable Next Step: If you’re building or managing online communities, prioritize trust and safety. Implement measures like identity verification to create a more humanized, safer digital environment.
At the core of Bill’s message is the need to make technology more human. Every major tech revolution has faced pushback, but each ultimately adapted to meet human needs.
“Every major tech revolution has had a lengthy initial period of difficulty and pushback. There’s pressure now to humanize the digital age,” Bill said. “We’ve built this brilliant tech world—can’t we make it more human?”
The next phase in the digital revolution will be creating technology that puts humanity first.
Actionable Next Step: Humanize your approach to tech development. Prioritize user well-being, societal impact, and inclusivity when designing new platforms or tools.
Bill Powers’ perspective offers a valuable reminder: the digital and AI age may bring new challenges, but it’s not territory we haven’t seen before. From the role of leadership to the need for humanizing technology, Bill’s insights encourage us to draw lessons from history as we shape the future.
For those working in tech—whether in leadership, innovation, or policy—it’s important to stay grounded in the human element. As Bill put it, “It’s already such a brilliant invention—this tech world we’ve built. Can’t we make it more human?”
At Filter Labs, we are working to provide the high-quality, nuanced data needed to guide our decisions. However, it’s clear that the human element remains essential for interpreting this data and driving positive change.
