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Ever wonder what decisions go into the making of a political ad? We’ll talk about the things you see, hear, and read in campaign commercials and think about the way all the elements come together to nudge viewers toward inferences that help—or hurt—candidates. Do political ads really work? Which ones are working in 2016, and why?

In America today, your understanding of the truth rests upon who you are, where you live, and who gets your vote. It’s no surprise then that trust in the media, once a given, is equally fractured — presenting a danger not only to democracy but to the fabric of society itself. Through a perilous maze of political identities, how can the news deliver the facts and reunite us...

Algorithms can now identify faces, drive cars, translate text, and even write news stories. This same technology, used wisely, can help us tackle some of the most pressing social problems of our time—from inequality to mass incarceration. Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mulanthainan will illustrate intuitively how these technologies work and why he thinks they can be u...

Modern campaigns combine psychology, data, analytics, and technology to persuade and mobilize voters. The smartest campaign teams try to be one step ahead of the voters they’re targeting, even as the 24-hour news cycle and the social media echo chamber move constantly to keep up with this unprecedented election. This session engages political scientists, experts, and campa...

Every major social platform has to wrestle with its influence on society and how its leaders’ decisions affect people. But one site that hasn’t made many headlines is Reddit, a network of hundreds of thousands of communities for people to connect across shared interests, in politics, jokes, hobbies, life struggles, and countless other topics. From new content policies to p...

An opportunity to hear Axios Founder and Executive Editor Mike Allen discuss journalism and politics of the day with documentary filmmaker and journalist Perri Peltz.

Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in today’s chaotic, connected world? Two visionary thinkers take you on a whirlwind tour of the 21st century, revealing how "new power" — open, participatory, and peer-driven — is reshaping politics, business, and society. New power works like a current, not a currency — and it is most forceful when it surges — and understand...

We are increasingly living in different realities of news, politics, and information — a trend that’s undermining the shared foundation of “truth” necessary for proper functioning of society. At risk are public health, elections, and democracy itself. But America’s “fake news” problem actually runs much deeper. What are the roots of our broken information ecosystems, who i...

In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. The rapid growth of generative A.I. — surpassing expectations with over 100 million users of the technology in a short span of time — is a testament to its distinct intelligence and unique approach to problem-solving. There are many upsi...

Technology used to be a lot more accessible, open, and ethical. It was driven by optimistic tinkerers rather than big companies. That changed. The entire industry and ecosystem is now ruled by a handful of companies rather than upstarts. American tech giants are now among the most powerful institutions in the world, rivaling governments in their power over media, culture,...

Marty Baron has a larger-than-life reputation among journalists, who revere him one of the best editors in a generation. Multiple Pulitzer Prizes — and Oscar-winning narratives — only punctuate his passion for excellence in reporting. Since joining The Washington Post as executive editor in 2013, Baron has pursued the kind of investigative journalism for which the paper is...

Even if we stopped emitting carbon tomorrow, trillions of tons would remain in our atmosphere, causing climate change for generations. While natural, agricultural drawdown techniques are being deployed, high-tech carbon capture tools are getting major buzz in the environmental movement. From direct air capture to retrofitting power plants, what are the most promising solut...

Job loss from automation is not inevitable. It is a choice. The fundamental technology design pattern is that economic activity increases and jobs grow when you use technology to do more, rather than just to cut costs. What is the nature of the “more” we should be doing? What are the policies that might encourage it? What is the future shape of the economy that we already...

Each year, new technology transforms how we connect, how we move, and how we pay. But nearly two billion people remain “unbanked.” So do financial technology innovations decrease or deepen the divide between the have and the have-nots? As economies become increasingly digital, what are the stopgaps we need to deploy to protect and empower all? From crypto to credit to port...

Economic uncertainty continues its reign of confusion, vexing financial leaders, regulators, and consumers with worrisome inflation and unpredictable markets. Experts weigh in on whether we can avoid a recession, what today’s banking and political difficulties signal about the future of lending and saving, and how workplace developments, A.I. advances, and complex geopolit...

Our laws and policies surrounding the protection of personal information were written for an earlier time, and they need to be completely overhauled for the Internet era. On the one hand, the collection of data — more widespread by business than by government, and impossible to stop — should be facilitated as an ultimate protection for society. On the other, standards unde...

Machines are making a lot of decisions that used to be made by humans. Computer-driven algorithms can determine everything from which friends we keep up with on Facebook, to the prices that we pay for goods and services, to which neighborhoods get more attention from political candidates. But how do we hold machines accountable for the decisions they make? What’s at stake...

As of this writing, 28 journalists have been killed in 2018, 262 were imprisoned in 2017, and 58 are currently marked as missing. Every day in countries across the globe, journalists put their lives at risk to expose the truth: truth about human rights, political corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crime. What can journalists (and the rest of us) do to secure their...

Our coffee makers, phone chargers, washing machines — our lives — are powered by the humble flip of a switch or press of a button. And it’s easy to lose sight of where the energy that powers our everyday conveniences comes from. Fossil fuels, predominantly through transportation and electricity, account for roughly 74 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. As the principa...