American Thought Leaders

Is the end of privacy inevitable? Is programmable money inevitable? Is it inevitable that artificial intelligence will eliminate most of the world’s white-collar jobs?

Oxford professor Carissa Véliz argues that such claims are a red flag.
She’s the author of the new book “Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future.”
Someone who says a future is inevitable is trying to get you to do something and benefit from your belief, she argues.
She is convinced that such self‑fulfilling prophecies only work if we believe them and she urges people to defy these narratives by asking: Who is predicting this future? Who benefits? What data supports it—and what missing data might contradict it?
Véliz is a philosopher and author who specializes in privacy and the ethics of artificial intelligence. She is an associate professor of philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI and a Fellow at Hertford College at the University of Oxford.
Prediction, Véliz explains, is a business model: diagnose a problem, promise that more data will solve it, then sell tools to analyze the huge datasets institutions don’t know how to use.
Throughout history, rulers have attached themselves to prophets. Today, that role is played by immensely rich and powerful tech executives who advise governments and control key infrastructure and access to citizens via social media.
In our interview, we discuss how surveillance and behavioral prediction undermine and erode an open society where people should have the freedom to speak, protest, and be anonymous.
Other questions we discuss: Do “digital natives” like Gen Z and Gen Alpha—who have never experienced a true non-digital world—even understand the role of privacy? And what are the best antidotes to the harms of digital life?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this exclusive interview with FBI Director Kash Patel, we dive into the FBI’s campaign to take down scam centers around the world, from Burma to the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, the FBI launched Operation Blackout, a 16-month campaign that dismantled four of the world’s largest scam centers.
Working with international partners—notably including China’s Ministry of Public Security—the FBI seized over $15 billion, arrested more than 300 individuals, and freed thousands of trafficked victims who had been forced to work at these scam compounds.
The amount of money Americans have reported losing to fraud has increased over threefold from 2020 to 2025, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. And nearly half of that in 2025 went to romance cryptocurrency scams—known as pig-butchering scams.
Scammers use texts to build trust before luring victims into fake investments that drain their life savings. Then they move and launder the money through crypto wallets.
So what can people do to avoid being scammed? Will the FBI be returning all the seized money? And why has the FBI chosen to work with China on tackling these scam compounds? How can the Chinese regime be trusted to work in good faith?
In this wide-ranging interview, we also discuss the FBI’s fight to catch spies, investigate transnational repression, cut bureaucratic red tape, and prevent the next terrorist attack.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Almost a year after the Washington Declaration, Armenia is trying to turn a hard-won peace with Azerbaijan into something lasting. In this conversation, Armenia’s ambassador to the United States, Narek Mkrtchyan, explains what the agreement means on the ground and why the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity could reshape the region and the country’s future.

“We sit in a very tough neighborhood. We sit in a very interesting geography. We are at the crossroads of Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, South Caucasus,” Mkrtchyan says.
Mkrtchyan describes how Armenia is trying to turn geography into strategy through the development of diplomacy, new trade routes, and international partnerships. He views this as more than a peace process—it’s a chance to redefine Armenia’s place in the region.
“In the center is the concept of crossroads of peace,” Mkrtchyan says.
Recently, Armenia also got approval for the biggest artificial intelligence factory in the region—a $4 billion project that officials say could help make the country a hub for computing power and advanced technology.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Americans are ripped off in the billions annually through romance “pig-butchering” scams—the most dominant type. But who’s really behind them?

The shocking reality is the vast majority of these scammers are trafficked victims, enslaved across more than 60 countries and forced to scam or face torture.
“You’re working 17-hour days. You’re catatonic. You’re not getting sleep. You start to doze. They‘ll electrocute you, and if you refuse to scam, they’ll torture you,” said Timothy Blackwood, an award-winning Canadian-American film director.
His film “Scam Slave: From Hell to Home” follows a Ugandan man promised a high-paying job in Thailand, only to be kidnapped by a Myanmar-based crime syndicate.
“There’s all different types of scams going on there. There’s villas, there’s strip clubs, there’s clinics to support the staff that are managing and running these compounds,” Blackwood says.
These scam centers in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar generate billions that fund even more advanced operations.
“It’s not simply in the horrific statistics of how many billions of dollars are being scammed from Americans annually, but the human cost to people’s lives.”
In this episode, I dive into how these operations stay hidden and what can actually be done to stop them.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Since the sexual revolution and the introduction of no-fault divorce in 1969, the institution of marriage in America has undergone a profound transformation.
Katy Faust, founder of children’s rights organization Them Before Us and co-author of a book by the same name, argues that marriage has changed from a permanent, child-centered union to a vehicle for adult fulfillment.
And now new reproductive technologies—from IVF to surrogacy—are making parenthood possible in ways never seen before.
For many, this is progress. But at what cost?
Faust argues that for decades, we have prioritized adult desire over a child’s fundamental right to be known, loved, and raised by their biological mother and father.
In this episode, she walks me through many complex questions: What makes something a natural right? What is the true impact of divorce on children? Why isn’t surrogacy just a neutral transaction? And for countries facing shrinking birth rates, why is IVF perhaps not the right solution?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.