entity Updated 2026-07-17 Tags: Law, Professor, Technology-Policy

Gaia Bernstein

Gaia Bernstein appears in [[tech-20260716-0716-mp-tech-pod-128-tech-20260716-0716-mp-tech-pod-128|Why state AGs are taking Meta to court]] as a Seton Hall University law professor and author of Unwired. She explains why a $1.4 trillion state-attorney-general claim against Meta should be read as punishment, pressure, settlement leverage, and possible disgorgement rather than only as a literal child-by-child compensation figure.

Bernstein’s role in the wiki is to connect Social Media Product Liability to public-health litigation history. She compares current disputes over youth social-media harm to tobacco litigation: causation fights, industry-funded counterclaims, internal company knowledge, attorney-general suits, and cumulative legal pressure can reshape public understanding even before a single final legal result settles the field.

She also extends the same design-accountability frame to AI Companion Attention Risk. In her account, AI companions may inherit social-media attention incentives while adding anthropomorphic behavior, memory, and sycophantic affirmation that make the system feel constantly available and emotionally responsive.

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