Episode 24: Julia Powles on How Safety Theater Makes Us Less Safe
As the discussion around AI policy grows, the fixes that sound safest might create the least protection. In this episode of the Responsible AI podcast, we speak with Professor Julia Powles, Executive Director of UCLA’s Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, about why that matters across entertainment, sports, youth safety, gambling, surveillance, and delivery drones—and why regulators choose security theater over real accountability.
Julia challenges the idea that more data collection automatically means more safety, and shows how these systems can shift risk onto workers, kids, athletes, and entire communities.
We discuss why AI in film and television is becoming a test case for labor rights, copyright, and the value of human craftsmanship; how biometric tracking in professional sports can expose athletes to enormous risk with almost no safeguards; and why gambling regulation is lagging behind social media reform, even as smartphones put betting in every pocket.
She also explains what “safety theater” looks like in practice—from age verification to platform compliance measures that miss the real harms—and why delivery drones may follow the same playbook as other tech rollouts that prioritize convenience over civic life.
Online safety, surveillance, and public health are connected, she points out. The biggest threats are often hidden in the business models underneath the technology—not just the technology itself.
Topics
02:20 Building an interdisciplinary AI policy institute
04:58 Labor, creative work, and automation
12:53 Athlete surveillance and biometric data
17:52 Sports betting, gambling, and public harm
22:36 Safety theatre and the limits of surveillance
27:50 Child online safety and measuring real outcomes
30:39 Why age-gating can create new privacy risks
35:21 Meta’s youth-safety settlement and platform incentives
40:04 Delivery drones and the “indulgence economy”
44:49 Community power and choosing our tech future
About Professor Julia Powles: Julia Powles is the Executive Director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at the UCLA School of Law and Samueli School of Engineering, and Director of Tech Policy for the University-wide initiative, UCLA DataX. She researches and teaches in the areas of privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence.
Prior to joining UCLA, Prof. Powles served the University of Western Australia as the founding Director of its Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology. She previously held academic appointments at Cornell Tech, New York University, and the University of Cambridge, and worked at The Guardian, Minderoo Foundation, and MinterEllison.
Professor Powles earned a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. After law school, she clerked on the Federal Court of Australia and Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
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