Center for Humane Technology
The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 2018 by Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Randima Fernando to mitigate the unintended harms of digital technologies driven by attention-maximizing business models.[1] Harris, a former Google design ethicist, initiated early efforts through internal memos and the "Time Well Spent" campaign highlighting persuasive design techniques that exploit human psychology for prolonged engagement.[1] Raskin, known for software innovation and advocacy against manipulative interfaces, and Fernando, with experience in tech ethics and mindfulness applications, co-established CHT to institutionalize these concerns beyond individual companies.[1][2] CHT's core focus involves analyzing misaligned incentives in tech ecosystems—where algorithms prioritize metrics like time spent over user autonomy—and proposing interventions across design, policy, and education to foster technologies that enhance rather than erode human agency and collective decision-making.[3] The group has influenced public discourse through outputs like the podcast Your Undivided Attention, co-hosted by Harris and Raskin, which has exceeded 25 million downloads by examining technology's societal ripple effects.[4] It also supported the 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, featuring CHT founders and former tech insiders, which spotlighted mechanisms of behavioral manipulation in platforms and reached tens of millions of viewers.[1] In policy realms, CHT has testified before lawmakers and advocated for regulations targeting addictive features and AI risks, including recent involvement in litigation exposing chatbot designs linked to youth self-harm.[5][6] The organization claims contributions to industry shifts, such as platform adjustments reducing infinite scrolling or notifications to curb compulsive use, though causal attribution remains debated amid broader market pressures.[7] Critics, including tech analysts, contend that CHT's insider-driven reforms overlook deeper structural incentives favoring profit over restraint, potentially yielding superficial changes without enforceable external constraints.[8] Empirical studies on tech's harms, such as correlations between heavy social media use and adolescent anxiety, support CHT's warnings but often fail to isolate causation from confounding factors like pre-existing vulnerabilities.[5]Founding and Early History
Origins and Founders
The Center for Humane Technology was established in 2018 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to mitigating the harmful societal impacts of technology design. It was co-founded by Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Randima Fernando, who shared expertise in technology ethics and user-centered design.[1][9] The organization's origins trace back to Harris's observations during his tenure as a design ethicist at Google in the early 2010s, where he identified how social media platforms employed "attention-harvesting" techniques that prioritized engagement metrics over user autonomy, focus, and mental health.[1][10] Harris's pivotal contribution was an internal Google presentation in 2013 titled "A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users' Attention," which argued for redesigning digital products to respect users' time and psychological well-being rather than exploiting vulnerabilities for profit.[1][11] This document circulated widely within tech circles, sparking the "Time Well Spent" movement, an advocacy effort to shift industry incentives toward technologies that enhance human flourishing.[10] Harris departed Google in December 2015 to formalize these ideas through a nonprofit precursor to CHT, which evolved into the Center for Humane Technology by 2018 with the addition of Raskin and Fernando as co-founders to broaden its scope and operational capacity.[12] Aza Raskin, a technologist and entrepreneur, brought experience in innovative interface design and critiques of surveillance capitalism to the founding team.[13] Randima Fernando, also a technologist, contributed insights into the ethical implications of digital systems.[13] Together, the founders positioned CHT to address systemic flaws in the "attention economy," drawing on empirical evidence of technology's role in eroding attention spans and social cohesion, as evidenced by rising mental health issues correlated with screen time increases.[1]Initial Launch and Time Well Spent Movement
The Time Well Spent movement emerged from Tristan Harris's efforts as a design ethicist at Google, where he developed a presentation in the early 2010s titled "A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users’ Attention."[1] This document critiqued the attention economy's reliance on maximizing user engagement at the expense of well-being and went viral within tech circles, sparking broader discussions on redesigning technology metrics to prioritize beneficial time usage over total screen time.[11] Harris formally launched the movement in 2013, positioning it as an advocacy framework to shift industry incentives away from addictive features toward humane alternatives.[11] The initiative influenced policy and product adjustments, including features at companies like Facebook, Apple, and Google aimed at reducing compulsive use, though its impact on systemic change remained limited.[10] The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) was established in 2018 as a nonprofit extension of these ideas, co-founded by Harris, Aza Raskin (inventor of browser features like infinite scroll), and Randima Fernando to institutionalize advocacy against technology-induced harms.[1] The organization formally announced its launch on February 4, 2018, via its website and social media, declaring a mission to realign digital systems with human values.[14] Initial activities centered on amplifying Time Well Spent principles through research, public campaigns, and partnerships, targeting the "race for attention" in social media that exacerbates distraction, polarization, and mental health issues.[9] CHT's early output included frameworks for ethical design and calls for regulatory reforms, drawing directly from Harris's prior movement to build coalitions among technologists, policymakers, and users.[1] While the Time Well Spent movement had operated informally and achieved some industry acknowledgments, CHT's structured launch marked a pivot to nonprofit operations with dedicated funding and staff, enabling scaled efforts like educational resources and testimony before lawmakers on persuasive technologies.[7] Critics have noted that both initiatives primarily reflect insider perspectives from former tech employees, potentially overlooking deeper economic drivers of the attention model, but their emphasis on empirical user data—such as studies linking notifications to dopamine-driven habits—provided a evidence-based foundation for reform proposals.[11] By mid-2018, CHT had begun collaborating with allies to prototype "humane" alternatives, solidifying its role as the movement's primary institutional heir.[9]Organizational Structure and Leadership
Key Personnel
Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Randima Fernando co-founded the Center for Humane Technology in 2018.[1] Harris, a former design ethicist at Google where he developed early critiques of persuasive technology, remains a prominent figure in the organization, co-hosting its podcast Your Undivided Attention and leading public advocacy on technology's societal impacts.[15][16] Raskin, an entrepreneur and ethicist with prior roles at Mozilla and as founder of the Earth Species Project, contributed foundational ideas on humane design principles, though his primary current focus is on AI ethics beyond CHT.[17][1] Fernando, who served as the organization's initial executive director, shifted to specializing in AI policy briefings for governments and corporations following the nonprofit's early growth.[2][18] Daniel Barcay assumed the role of executive director in subsequent years, overseeing operational strategy and expansion of CHT's initiatives in policy, media, and research.[13] The leadership draws on a network of advisors including Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants, and James Williams, a former Google strategist and co-founder of the Time Well Spent movement, who provide expertise on attention economics and ethical tech design.[13] This core group emphasizes first-hand experience from Silicon Valley to inform critiques of the attention economy, though their perspectives reflect a shared insider-outsider viewpoint shaped by direct involvement in tech product development.[13]Funding and Financial Overview
The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with its fiscal year ending June 30.[19] For the fiscal year ending June 2024, CHT reported total revenue of $3,581,637, predominantly from contributions amounting to approximately 92% of revenue, alongside expenses of $6,329,475, net assets of $6,014,566, total assets of $6,174,703, and liabilities of $160,137.[19] Historical financials reflect growth and fluctuation, with revenue increasing from $894,347 in fiscal year 2018 to a peak of $9,457,658 in fiscal year 2023 before declining in 2024; expenses have similarly scaled, reaching $6.33 million in 2024 amid program expansion.[19]| Fiscal Year (Ending June) | Revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $894,347 | $570,886 |
| 2019 | $2,932,088 | $1,934,121 |
| 2020 | $5,246,727 | $3,395,097 |
| 2021 | $3,495,036 | $3,027,848 |
| 2022 | $2,332,710 | $3,358,006 |
| 2023 | $9,457,658 | $3,319,704 |
| 2024 | $3,581,637 | $6,329,475 |