Ben Moskowitz — optimist working at the intersection of new technology, rights, and public policy.https://benmoskowitz.com/en-ushttps://benmoskowitz.com/2025/11/10/conscious-commerce-building-an-ai-economy-that-works-for-people/https://benmoskowitz.com/2025/11/10/conscious-commerce-building-an-ai-economy-that-works-for-people/(Cross-posted here: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/conscious-commerce-building-an-ai-economy-that-works-for-people/) A quiet switch just flipped in the economy. For the first time, large language models can do consumers’ shopping for them. You can now ask ChatGPT to recommend a product an...Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTAgentsAIConsumer ReportsOpinionhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2025/02/20/building-consumer-agency/https://benmoskowitz.com/2025/02/20/building-consumer-agency/(cross-posted here: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/building-consumer-agency/) Agentic AI has profound implications for every part of society. A world in which everyone has access to a personal AI tutor means big changes to education. A world in which everyone has access to a personal medi...Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTAgentsAIConsumer ReportsR&DUncategorizedhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2024/11/27/engineering-loyalty-by-design-in-agentic-systems/https://benmoskowitz.com/2024/11/27/engineering-loyalty-by-design-in-agentic-systems/(cross-posted here: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/engineering-loyalty-by-design-in-agentic-systems/) From managing personal data to facilitating complex transactions, AI agents will be acting on behalf of users in new and interesting ways. With these innovations comes a need to examine h...Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTAgentsAIConsumer ReportsLoyal Agentshttps://benmoskowitz.com/2024/10/28/reflections-on-two-years-of-operating-an-authorized-agent-service-and-launching-a-paid-upgrade/https://benmoskowitz.com/2024/10/28/reflections-on-two-years-of-operating-an-authorized-agent-service-and-launching-a-paid-upgrade/(cross-posted here: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/reflections-on-two-years-of-operating-an-authorized-agent-service-and-launching-a-paid-upgrade/) When the consumer internet was getting built back in the 1990s, privacy wasn’t part of the design. Almost by accident, the economy of the int...Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMTAgentsConsumer ReportsPrivacyhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2024/06/17/why-are-we-experimenting-with-generative-ai/https://benmoskowitz.com/2024/06/17/why-are-we-experimenting-with-generative-ai/(Cross-posted here: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/why-are-we-experimenting-with-generative-ai/) Today we launched an invite-only beta of AskCR, an experimental chatbot that helps people get to CR’s trusted information faster. We imagine some people may have questions about why CR is usin...Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTAIConsumer Reportshttps://benmoskowitz.com/2020/01/01/bens-2019/https://benmoskowitz.com/2020/01/01/bens-2019/Twenty nineteen. The word of the year is “impunity.” Here’s a nice symbol of the moment: the founder of WeWork reportedly wanted to be the world’s first trillionaire, the president of the world and live forever — but all he succeeded in doing was evaporating $40bn of market capitalization on a fa...Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTAnnual reviewhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2018/12/31/bens-2018/https://benmoskowitz.com/2018/12/31/bens-2018/2018—just the facts. Internet pioneer John Perry Barlow died—and with him, perhaps some of my internet utopian streak. Stephen Hawking died, leaving warnings about automation and capitalism. “Space Force” is a thing. Corruption and the murder of journalists in broad daylight. Contemporary writers...Mon, 31 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMTAnnual reviewhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2017/12/31/bens-2017/https://benmoskowitz.com/2017/12/31/bens-2017/Twenty seventeen: Donald’s first year. A year of exhaustion and planetary confusion and excess. Bitcoin briefly topped $20,000. Geopolitics is a reality show and no one knows what’s real anymore. This year we arrived at, and moved well beyond, some of the foreseen conditions of technological and...Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:00:00 GMTAnnual reviewhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2017/08/31/dwayne-the-swamp/https://benmoskowitz.com/2017/08/31/dwayne-the-swamp/My 100% unironic take: Dwayne Johnson, the former WWE superstar known as The Rock, should run for president of the United States of America. Check it out on Quartz.Thu, 31 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMTUncategorizedhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2017/04/04/the-irony-of-the-internet-freedom-agenda/https://benmoskowitz.com/2017/04/04/the-irony-of-the-internet-freedom-agenda/I wrote a piece for Quartz Ideas on irony and tragedy of Hillary Clinton, architect of the internet freedom agenda, and the prospects of a “splinternet”: The open internet, she suggested, could help open up closed societies and support the “peace and security that provide a foundation for global...Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMTNet neutralityPoliticsQuartzhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2017/01/23/hit-refresh-on-high-school-civics/https://benmoskowitz.com/2017/01/23/hit-refresh-on-high-school-civics/I wrote a piece for Quartz Ideas on the need to overhaul high school civics: To holistically prepare this new generation for life in an open society, what’s needed is a new model for high-school civics; one that integrates American history and government, critical thinking, media literacy, and di...Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTUncategorizedhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2017/01/01/bens-2016/https://benmoskowitz.com/2017/01/01/bens-2016/Twenty sixteen: the year of Trump; the first swing of a wrecking ball that could demolish the liberal world order. It was also the year we discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting our nearest star. Might not be too early to start saving for the trip. In January, I hosted a meeting on Video & the […Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTAnnual reviewhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2016/05/29/new-mission/https://benmoskowitz.com/2016/05/29/new-mission/After more than five years, I’m transitioning to become a volunteer Mozillian. Working at Mozilla Foundation was a dream come true. As an open internet advocate, I could not imagine a better place to advance those values. When I joined, the Foundation was mostly a non-profit legal entity housing...Sun, 29 May 2016 00:00:00 GMTUncategorizedhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2016/03/02/true-donald-trump-story/https://benmoskowitz.com/2016/03/02/true-donald-trump-story/In 2012 I was traveling through China and had made my way to Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province. In the Shaanxi province you have Mt. Hua (华山), one of the Five Great Mountains of China. It’s a 12-18 hour hike to the summit, which is typically done overnight because you don’t want to see […Wed, 02 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMTFunPoliticshttps://benmoskowitz.com/2016/01/01/bens-2015/https://benmoskowitz.com/2016/01/01/bens-2015/Twenty fifteen: the year of Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan massacre, millions of Syrian refugees and a series of farcical presidential debates that ultimately delivered Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. You get the feeling that the world is headed in the wrong direction and the processes we have a...Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTAnnual reviewUncategorizedhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2015/07/17/would-you-leave-the-walled-garden-internet-org-ux-in-images/https://benmoskowitz.com/2015/07/17/would-you-leave-the-walled-garden-internet-org-ux-in-images/Internet.org justifies itself as a development project, for people like “poor fishermen” who are new to the internet or can’t afford it. But according to some accounts, that’s just not the profile of who’s using the service. In India, as many as 80% of internet.org users are already familiar with...Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTDesignDigital DivideMozillaNet neutralityStrategyZero ratinghttps://benmoskowitz.com/2015/07/11/nows-the-time-for-collaborative-video-on-wikipedia/https://benmoskowitz.com/2015/07/11/nows-the-time-for-collaborative-video-on-wikipedia/This post outlines one step toward bringing collaborative video editing to Wikipedia. For years, the idea of a video-rich Wikipedia has animated free knowledge advocates, public media, and educators. But the technical complexity involved in enabling collaborative video editing has always put this...Sat, 11 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTCreative CommonsInnovationLearningMakerPeer productionPopcornSoftwareStrategyWebMadeMoviesWikipediahttps://benmoskowitz.com/2015/06/03/investing-in-web-literacy-tools-for-thinking/https://benmoskowitz.com/2015/06/03/investing-in-web-literacy-tools-for-thinking/Mozilla Foundation is currently in strategic reflection — how will we invest in web literacy over the next few years? In the last five years, we’ve grown the Mozilla Foundation to 80 people and a $20m operating budget. We have lots of experience in learning and leadership development, and an evol...Wed, 03 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTEconomic developmentEquityInnovationLearningMozillaStrategyWeb Makershttps://benmoskowitz.com/2015/05/05/internet-org-is-offensive/https://benmoskowitz.com/2015/05/05/internet-org-is-offensive/Try to picture one of the millions of people who convert their very limited income into mobile network credit. For many, a mobile account balance is effectively their first bank account. For this kind of person, “sponsored data” can be a smart way to socialize technology usage, accelerate adoptio...Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTDigital DivideEconomic developmentEquityM4DNet neutralityZero ratinghttps://benmoskowitz.com/2015/01/11/lamour-plus-fort-que-la-haine/https://benmoskowitz.com/2015/01/11/lamour-plus-fort-que-la-haine/In an old cover, a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist is drawn in passionate, loving embrace of an Islamic extremist. ”Love is stronger than hate” reads the headline. I’ve no doubt that extremists would be appalled by this symbolic invitation to modernity, tinged with in-your-face homosexuality that only s...Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTPoliticshttps://benmoskowitz.com/2014/03/17/a-civics-education-for-privacy/https://benmoskowitz.com/2014/03/17/a-civics-education-for-privacy/The Mozilla advocacy and campaign teams are meeting this week to plan a multi-year “privacy, security, surveillance” campaign. We’re searching for an issue where we can make a real impact. I am pushing for “security” to be tip of our campaign’s spear. Something like “we want to know that our devi...Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMTDrumbeatFilmmakingInnovationLearningMozillaStrategyTalksWeb Makershttps://benmoskowitz.com/2013/11/04/i-drove-the-mars-rover-curiosity-and-you-can-too/https://benmoskowitz.com/2013/11/04/i-drove-the-mars-rover-curiosity-and-you-can-too/Over the past year, Mozilla and the U.S. Department of Energy have been quietly collaborating on a project to demonstrate connected learning and workforce training opportunities on the modern web. As part of US Ignite and Mozilla Webmaker, members of the Mozilla community have produced a shared v...Mon, 04 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMTDesignDrumbeatFriendsFunInnovationLearningMakerMozillaSoftwarehttps://benmoskowitz.com/2013/03/25/the-time-i-won-a-massive-can-of-pringles-at-a-japanese-arcade/https://benmoskowitz.com/2013/03/25/the-time-i-won-a-massive-can-of-pringles-at-a-japanese-arcade/Earlier today I was waiting for a friend at an arcade in Fukuoka, Japan. Saw a claw machine where the prizes were massive Pringles cans. “I’m going to win that enormous Pringles can.” I said to myself. “Sour cream and onion.” ¥100 per try. I was out of ¥100 coins (from playing Street Fighter, of […Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMTFunhttps://benmoskowitz.com/2011/10/25/mozilla-and-the-maker-spirit-of-hypercard-resedit-and-imovie/https://benmoskowitz.com/2011/10/25/mozilla-and-the-maker-spirit-of-hypercard-resedit-and-imovie/Like everyone else, the death of Steve Jobs has me thinking. I’ve mainly been thinking about how much cooler Apple was before the iOS era. Before Apple distilled personal computing into 114 pixel icons with rounded corners and turned it into a cycle of continuous consumption, it was a very differ...Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTDrumbeatFilmmakingFunMakerMozillaSoftwareWebMadeMovieshttps://benmoskowitz.com/2011/04/27/i-got-a-cease-desist-letter-today/https://benmoskowitz.com/2011/04/27/i-got-a-cease-desist-letter-today/Last year, at the height of the mania, I considered running a far-advance presidential campaign for Levi Johnston, father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild. Why not? He’d be a good a candidate as her, maybe as qualified. I registered the domain name http://levi2028.com, but quickly abandoned the idea....Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMTFun