Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Our choices and experiences of the world are increasingly shaped by the powerful systems and technologies around us. From the social media apps hijacking your attention and algorithms quietly curating your reality, to the markets profiting from confusion and AI systems slowly eroding your thinking: somebody else is deciding what ‘good’ choices look like. Often that means good for them, not for you.
Against this backdrop, how can we – individually and collectively – reclaim our power to choose and shape the future?
BIT's annual President’s Lecture explored how we might respond to this changing landscape of human experience. Can ‘boosts’ help individuals become better decision-makers and exercise greater agency? Can we shape markets and institutions to make it easier for everyone to choose well? Can AI become the ultimate ‘bicycle for the mind’, amplifying human capability rather than replacing it?
We were joined by BIT’s President Emeritus, David Halpern, and Chief of Innovation & Partnerships, Elisabeth Costa, to explore these questions and what behavioural science tells us about reclaiming our agency and boosting our capabilities.
Our choices and experiences of the world are increasingly shaped by the powerful systems and technologies around us. From the social media apps hijacking your attention and algorithms quietly curating your reality, to the markets profiting from confusion and AI systems slowly eroding your thinking: somebody else is deciding what ‘good’ choices look like. Often that means good for them, not for you.
Against this backdrop, how can we – individually and collectively – reclaim our power to choose and shape the future?
BIT's annual President’s Lecture explored how we might respond to this changing landscape of human experience. Can ‘boosts’ help individuals become better decision-makers and exercise greater agency? Can we shape markets and institutions to make it easier for everyone to choose well? Can AI become the ultimate ‘bicycle for the mind’, amplifying human capability rather than replacing it?
We were joined by BIT’s President Emeritus, David Halpern, and Chief of Innovation & Partnerships, Elisabeth Costa, to explore these questions and what behavioural science tells us about reclaiming our agency and boosting our capabilities.
