据前员工向《WIRED》透露，由谷歌前产品经理特里斯坦·哈里斯（Tristan Harris）共同创立、并曾出现在热门纪录片《社交困境》（The Social Dilemma）中的“人道技术中心”（Center for Humane Technology，简称CHT），正在裁减其16名非创始人员工中的约一半。该组织将终止其政策研究和诉讼工作，转而专注于其所谓的“由创始人主导”的项目。
The Center for Humane Technology, the online safety group cofounded by former Google product manager Tristan Harris and featured in the hit documentary The Social Dilemma, is laying off about half of its 16 non-founder employees, ex-staffers tell WIRED. The organization is ending its policy research and litigation work to focus instead on what it calls “founder-led” projects.
这九名离职员工中包括执行主任朱莉·吉拉多（Julie Guirado）和战略高级总监卡米尔·卡尔顿（Camille Carlton）。此次裁员发生在该中心接连在法庭上战胜多家社交媒体公司之后。这些诉讼援引了该组织的研究成果，指控这些平台被刻意设计成让儿童沉迷屏幕。
The nine departures, which include executive director Julie Guirado and senior director of strategy Camille Carlton, arrive shortly after the center scored a series of major courtroom victories against social media companies. The lawsuits drew on its research alleging that the platforms were deliberately designed to keep kids glued to their screens.
然而，据16名前员工称，尽管取得了这些成功，该组织内部多年来一直对发展方向存在争论。其中大多数人今年早些时候在接受《WIRED》采访时要求匿名，因为他们担心会面临职业上的后果。
But amid that success, internal debates had been brewing for years over the organization’s direction, according to 16 former workers, most of whom spoke with WIRED earlier this year on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional repercussions.
CHT的董事会最终认定，同时扮演由哈里斯领导的倡导团体和产出政策报告的智库这两个角色，使组织不堪重负。董事会上周宣布，未来该组织将专注于由创始人主导的举措，包括“公众教育、定向简报和私下协调”，以延续他们“触达广泛受众并与有影响力的决策者建立联系”的成功经验。
CHT’s board ultimately determined that trying to operate both as an advocacy group fronted by Harris and a think tank producing policy papers had stretched it too thin. Moving forward, the organization will focus on initiatives with its founders at the forefront, including “public education, targeted briefings, and private coordination,” building upon their success “reaching broad audiences and engaging influential decisionmakers,” the board announced last week.
董事会补充说，协助诉讼和评估人工智能工具等工作将被取消，但并未明确说明具体的裁员人数。
Functions such as assisting in litigation and evaluating AI tools would be eliminated, the board added, without specifying an exact number of layoffs.
董事会主席普雷马尔·沙阿（Premal Shah）在一份向《WIRED》发表的声明中表示：“当前加速出现的人工智能风险要求我们集中采取单一策略。我们选择专注于自己一直以来最擅长的领域，以便能够应对这一挑战。”
“This moment of accelerated AI risk demands we focus on one strategy, and we have chosen to focus on what we have always done best so that we can meet the moment,” board chair Premal Shah said in a statement to WIRED.
近年来，哈里斯已加入日益壮大的警示声浪，呼吁警惕先进人工智能所带来的风险，并警告称，如果软件失控，就可能引发“人工智能接管”。他上个月对NBC新闻表示：“我们必须立即行动，以免为时已晚。”
In recent years, Harris has joined a growing chorus of voices sounding the alarm about the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence, warning of a potential “AI takeover” if the software evades control. “We have to act right now before it’s too late,” he told NBC News last month.
该中心鼓励人们签署一份要求暂停人工智能发展的重大请愿书，并协助组织了国会关于聊天机器人危险性的听证会。它还就针对人工智能实验室设计选择的诉讼和调查提供了建议，其中包括由一名与ChatGPT互动后自杀的青少年父母对OpenAI提起的 ongoing 诉讼。哈里斯还主演了上个月在Netflix上映的纪录片《人工智能文件》（The AI Doc），该片敦促观众要求国会介入，以保护公众免受这项技术风险的影响。
The center encouraged people to sign a major petition to pause AI development and helped organize a hearing in Congress about the dangers of chatbots. It also advised on lawsuits and investigations probing AI labs for their design choices, including an ongoing case filed against OpenAI by parents of a teenager who died by suicide after interacting with ChatGPT. Harris also starred in a documentary released on Netflix last month, The AI Doc, which urges viewers to demand that Congress intervene to protect the public from the technology’s risks.
“人道技术中心”（Center for Humane Technology）成立于2017年，在争取资金和关注以塑造人工智能政策方面，与一些历史悠久的非营利组织以及众多新晋机构展开竞争。来自OpenAI及其他实验室的人工智能代理发起的网络攻击，再次引发了要求科技开发者为设计和工程缺陷承担责任的呼声。
Founded in 2017, the Center for Humane Technology competes with well-established nonprofits and numerous newer entrants for funding and attention to shape AI policy. Cyberattacks by AI agents from OpenAI and other labs have renewed calls to hold tech developers liable for design and engineering failures.
该中心年度预算约为600万美元，储备金也大致相同，其资金主要来自富裕家庭和基金会。但随着其将更多资源倾注于哈里斯，一些前员工担心，这些资源可能会从他们认为是更紧迫的问题上被转移开去——即人工智能对民主和公民自由的影响。
With an annual budget of roughly $6 million and a similar amount in reserves, the center has been funded by wealthy families and foundations. But as it doubles down on Harris, former employees fear resources might be diverted away from addressing what they believe are more pressing concerns about AI’s impact on democracy and civil liberties.
盖尔·巴恩斯（Gail Barnes）在该中心早期曾负责社交媒体策略，她表示，董事会正在放弃原本旨在将哈里斯的名气“转化为持久压力”的工作，而这种压力本有助于推动企业内部的真正变革。
Gail Barnes, who advised the center on social media strategy in its early days, says the board is dropping work that was supposed to convert Harris’ fame “into durable pressure” that could help facilitate real change inside companies.
巴恩斯说：“这究竟是明智之举，还是某种退缩，取决于你认为当前制约人工智能发展的关键因素是‘人们尚未听到相关论点’，还是‘这一论点缺乏制度性执行力’。而人道技术中心显然选择了前者。”
“Whether that is wisdom or a retreat depends on whether you think the binding constraint on AI right now is still ‘people haven’t heard the argument’ or ‘the argument has no institutional teeth.’ CHT is picking the first,” Barnes says.
大明星哈里斯擅长制造引人入胜的简短言论，长期以来，他一直是媒体、会议和国会山上的常客。“他非常聪明，而且表达清晰，”一位前CHT同事说。“他本可以毫无困难地在‘黑暗面’度过整个职业生涯。但出于某种原因，他最终意识到这种做法是有问题的。”哈里斯与自诩为“无限滚动”功能发明者的阿扎·拉斯金，以及曾在英伟达从事开发者培训工作的兰迪·费尔南多共同创立了该中心。
Big Star Harris excels at producing compelling sound bites, and he has long been a fixture in the media, at conferences, and on Capitol Hill. “He’s brilliant. He’s articulate,” a former CHT colleague says. “He could have easily spent his entire career on the dark side. For whatever reason, he came to appreciate that this was messed up.”Harris cofounded the center with Aza Raskin, the self-proclaimed inventor of the infinite scroll, and Randy Fernando, who once worked in developer education at Nvidia.
他们的目标是推动科技公司对其产品所带来的社会影响承担更多责任。在早期，这意味着要审视诸如科技公司是否助长政治激进化或损害青少年心理健康等问题。哈里斯用来描述这些问题的措辞很快被整个硅谷所采用。
The goal was to push tech companies to take more responsibility for the social consequences of their products, which in the early days meant examining issues like whether they were fomenting political radicalization or harming the mental health of teenagers. The language Harris used to describe these problems was quickly adopted across Silicon Valley.
今年在法庭上披露的Meta内部文件显示，早在2018年，该公司研究人员就曾考虑联系哈里斯，当时他关于应用程序被刻意设计成具有成瘾性的警告开始受到广泛关注。2020年Netflix推出《社交困境》后，他的全国知名度进一步提升。
Internal documents from Meta released in court this year show company researchers discussed reaching out to Harris as early as 2018, when his warnings that apps were intentionally designed to be addictive entered the mainstream. His national profile grew further with the release of The Social Dilemma on Netflix in 2020.
“《社交困境》在推动科技问责这一倡导领域的发展方面发挥了巨大作用，这一点怎么强调都不为过，”另一家非营利组织的负责人说。该负责人同样要求匿名，以保护与CHT的关系。
“It’s hard to understate how helpful The Social Dilemma was for launching tech accountability” as an advocacy field, says a leader at another nonprofit, who also sought anonymity to protect their relationship with CHT.
但前员工称，在组织内部，哈里斯有时会与团队发生冲突，争论是将精力集中在消费者、科技公司还是立法者身上。一些同事对哈里斯频繁变化的想法感到沮丧，称该组织的文化“过度忙碌”且“令人发疯”。沙赫反驳了这种说法，但也承认，鉴于其使命的紧迫性，该中心的文化节奏确实很快。
But inside the organization, Harris sometimes clashed with his team about whether to focus their efforts on consumers, tech companies, or lawmakers, former staffers say. Some colleagues grew frustrated with Harris’ frequently shifting whims, describing the organization’s culture as needlessly “frenetic” and “insanity-inducing.”Shah disputed the characterization, but acknowledged the center’s culture is fast-paced given the urgency of its mission.
据熟悉该项目的人士称，该中心曾开发过一门在线课程，面向希望学习如何构建人性化系统的科技工作者。尽管这门课程吸引了数千名参与者，但随着哈里斯将重点转向对人工智能的担忧，CHT最终决定将其停办。这些人还表示，另一项旨在为教育工作者提供资源以理解屏幕时间相关问题的计划也被搁置了。一位前员工称，哈里斯始终认为该中心是“他向全世界发声的工具”。
The center developed an online course at one point for tech workers who wanted to learn how to build humane systems, and while it drew thousands of participants, CHT decided to retire it as Harris’ focus shifted to concerns about AI, according to people familiar with the project. Another initiative to create resources for educators to make sense of issues around screen time fell by the wayside, the people say. Harris kept coming back to the center being “a vehicle for him to speak to the world,” according to one ex-employee.
前员工们表示，该中心由哈里斯和拉斯金出镜的播客和视频吸引了大量观众。哈里斯还成功与美国议员及顶尖科技公司的负责人举行了私下会面。前员工们形容该组织的策略是更强调“顶层”行动主义，而非人们更熟悉的“基层”行动主义，而一些人认为这种做法偏离了方向。
The center’s podcasts and videos featuring Harris and Raskin have attracted large audiences, former workers say. Harris also landed private meetings with US lawmakers and executives at top tech companies. Former employees describe the group’s strategy as putting more emphasis on “grasstops” activism over the more familiar “grassroots,” which some viewed as misguided.
沙赫表示，CHT相信“大众传播能够创造基层压力，从而推动顶层采取行动”，并指出哈里斯“是全球极少数能够受邀并有效与跨越政治光谱的大众媒体受众沟通的人之一”。一些前员工声称，CHT的创始人希望继续留在硅谷内部圈子中，因此对批评自己曾供职或拥有密切私人关系的公司持更为谨慎的态度。（沙赫否认了这些描述，并表示CHT“一直以来都对各大公司持严厉态度。”）
Shah says CHT believes “mass communications creates grassroots pressure, which unlocks action from the grasstops” and that Harris “is one of the very few people in the world who is invited and can communicate effectively to mass media audiences across the political spectrum.”Some former employees allege that CHT’s founders were eager to remain Silicon Valley insiders, and thus were more reluctant to criticize companies where they previously worked or where close personal contacts have worked. (Shah disputes the characterizations and says CHT “has always been tough on companies.”)
一些前员工称哈里斯的管理风格令人疲惫，这导致团队人员流动率很高。据多位前员工透露，2023年，员工们在一次团队 retreat 结束后感到不满，因为他们被要求参加一些他们认为是过度私人的信任建立练习。前员工们表示，CHT的独立董事会成员随后介入此事，哈里斯也后来辞去执行主任职务，转而担任该组织的主席。
Some ex-employees described Harris’ management style as taxing, which they allege led to high turnover. In 2023, employees returned from a staff retreat feeling upset after being asked to participate in trust-building exercises they felt were overly personal, according to several former workers. CHT’s independent board members got involved, and Harris later stepped down as executive director to become the organization’s president, according to the former employees.
沙赫表示，员工流动率“源于问题分析方式以及实现组织核心使命的方法存在差异”。他还否认哈里斯的职位变动与静修营期间发生的事件有关。
Shah says that employee turnover "stemmed from differences in problem analysis and approaches to achieving the organization’s core mission.”He also denied that Harris’ role change was related to what happened at the retreat.
无论CHT内部曾发生过怎样的动荡，哈里斯用来针对科技公司的更广泛策略显然取得了成效。2021年，美国各州的总检察长对Meta展开了调查，随后以该公司涉嫌误导青少年及其父母为由对其提起诉讼。今年，Meta同意以数十亿美元和解部分诉讼。包括听取过拉斯金证词的一个陪审团在内，多个陪审团在单独的案件中裁定该公司需承担额外处罚。其他社交媒体平台今年也同意和解类似的诉讼。
Whatever turmoil may have been happening inside CHT, the broader strategy Harris used to go after tech companies was paying off. In 2021, state attorneys general across the US opened investigations into Meta and later sued the company for allegedly misleading teens and parents. This year, Meta agreed to settle some of the lawsuits for billions of dollars. Juries, including one that heard testimony from Raskin, put the company on the hook for additional penalties in separate cases. Other social media platforms agreed to settle similar litigation this year.
今年早些时候，在接受《WIRED》杂志采访时，另一家科技非营利组织的负责人称赞了CHT在州议会和法庭中那些不那么引人注目的工作。这位人士如今表示，组织方向的转变“令人失望”。“变革源于社会运动和民主，而非名人和密室交易。”
In an interview with WIRED earlier this year, the leader of the other tech nonprofit praised CHT’s less flashy work in statehouses and courtrooms. The shift away from it is “disappointing,” the person says now. “Change comes from movements and democracy, not celebrities and backrooms.”
一些前员工表示，他们预计CHT将越来越像他们开玩笑地称之为“帮助特里斯坦中心”的组织。沙赫则表示，该组织唯一的目标是确保“当今最具影响力的技术能够服务于人类”。
Some former employees say they expect that CHT will increasingly resemble what they jokingly refer to as the “Center of Helping Tristan.”Shah says the organization’s sole goal is ensuring “today’s most consequential technologies serve humanity.”