This week, with news that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Texas’ age verification law for app stores, we check in on how social media bans are going around the globe and what may be coming soon to a state near you. Then, we’re joined by Jeff Sebo, an associate professor at N.Y.U., to discuss new research into “A.I. welfare” and whether A.I. could ever become conscious. And finally, in our latest edition of Tool Time, we show each other some of the latest tech tools we’ve been experimenting with.
 
Guest:
<ul>
 <li><a href="https://jeffsebo.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jeff Sebo</a>, associate professor and the director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at N.Y.U.</li>
</ul>
 
Additional Reading:
<ul>
 <li><a href="https://www.platformer.news/social-media-bans-candice-odgers-haidt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why Social Media Bans Are Gaining Steam</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/24/australia-under-16-social-media-ban-no-substantial-effects-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Four in Five Under-16s in Australia Using Social Media Despite Ban, Study Shows</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/it-turns-out-banning-teens-from-social-media-is-hard.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">It Turns Out Banning Teens From Social Media Is Hard</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://nonhumanminds.org/studying-ai-welfare-empirically/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Studying A.I. Welfare Empirically</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.anthropic.com/research/global-workspace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Global Workspace in Language Models</a></li>
</ul>
 
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