What if you could talk to your audience and ask what it thinks of your next product? What if you could test your ads or social content with a simulated version of 200 to 1,000 members of your audience in less than 1 minute? In this fascinating conversation, James He, founder of Artificial Societies, reveals how AI-powered audience simulation is transforming the way we experiment with ideas before putting them into the world.

From his journey as a Cambridge social science researcher frustrated by the difficulty of running human experiments, to building a platform that creates "artificial societies" from real social media profiles, James walks us through the technology that's making market research faster, cheaper, and more experimental than ever before.

We explore the mechanics of how chatbots can mimic real human behavior patterns, the surprising 82-83% accuracy rates in predicting content performance (beating the founders themselves at 57-67%), and the philosophical implications of giving everyone the power to experiment without real-world consequences.

What You'll Discover: • How AI chatbots trained on real social media profiles achieve 82% accuracy (beating human experts at 57%) • The exact process from start to finish • Why traditional surveys miss the crucial element of social influence • Real examples of testing 10x more content variants than ever possible • The ethics of modeling people through AI

The Bigger Picture: James's vision goes beyond marketing optimization. Could giving everyone "experimental superpowers" help us find our individual and collective "golden path"? We explore the implications of a world where anyone can test ideas without real-world consequences

Perfect for: Product managers, marketers, social scientists, AI enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the future of human experimentation

Guest: James He, Founder of Artificial Societies, Cambridge social science researcher, former misinformation researcher

Key Topics: AI simulation, behavioral science, social influence, content optimization, research ethics, democratization of experimentation

Subscribe for more conversations where AI meets human behavior and emerging technologies shape how we understand ourselves.

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Who’s the Audience of Magic? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🪄

From TikTok tarot readings to “manifesting crypto gains”, we explore how audiences are engaging with magic to reassert individual agency, reinterpret identity, and regain some level of control over systems trying to define them. In this episode, Fran has a magical conversation with hosts of the Five and Nine podcast, cultural strategist A.X. Mina and writer, artist and media scholar Dorothy R. Santos PhD. Fran, AX and Dorothy dissect AI-generated audience personas to ask what happens when machine learning tries to map belief. Throughout, they reflect on the rise of mystical frameworks not as escape, but as resistance: a response to overexposure, over-simulation, and a growing desire to feel agency again. Whether it’s tarot as feedback loop, divination as dialogue, or witchcraft as subculture, magic is increasingly where audiences go to find meaning beyond the algorithm.

The Audiences Podcast is the audience discovery show. We talk to guests who build audiences for a living. And as we discuss what it takes to build an audience, we explore new emerging audiences in fashion, tech, media and many other industries. Subscribe to never miss an episode.

Subscribe to never miss an episode.

Hosted by: Francesco D’Orazio

Guests: AX Mina & Dorothy Santos

Produced by: Sal Morton

Music: DJ Tennis

Supported by Pulsar

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Who’s the Audience of Romance? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🌹🎬

Romance, Romance. Wherefore art thou, Romance? In this episode, Francesco D’Orazio talks with film analyst and industry researcher Stephen Follows to examine how the script has flipped on romantic storytelling in entertainment. From the big-screen romances that dominated the 90s to today's streaming-friendly, binge-worthy love stories, Fran and Stephen delve into why romance as a genre is thriving in books and TV but struggling on the silver screen. Discover how shifts in audience values around gender and sexuality, technological advancements, and changing viewing habits are redefining romantic storytelling. Are romantic movies truly gone with the wind, or are they simply evolving into something new entirely?

The Audiences Podcast is the audience discovery show. We talk to guests who build audiences for a living. And as we discuss what it takes to build an audience, we explore new emerging audiences in fashion, tech, media and many other industries. Subscribe to never miss an episode.

Subscribe to never miss an episode.

Hosted by: Francesco D’Orazio

Guests: Stephen Follows

Produced by: Sal Morton

Music: DJ Tennis

Supported by Pulsar

X https://x.com/audiencedisco

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@audiencespodcast

IG https://www.instagram.com/audiencespodcast/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.