Casey Mock

Technology, Policy, and Society



For more than a decade, Casey Mock has been explaining technology to lawmakers and lawmakers to technologists — and thinking about what happens to the rest of us when one dominates the other.

He currently serves as Senior Policy Director for the Anxious Generation Movement, where he advises NYU social psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Haidt on global policy strategy, leads engagement with governors' offices and legislative leaders on phone-free schools and safer-by-design social media policies. Casey spearheaded the development of the Childhood Index, a fifty-state ranking designed to drive policy competition among states on children's wellbeing online and offline. He is a regular contributor to Haidt's Substack, After Babel.

He also teaches graduate students at Duke University — courses include Politics and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation, Politics, and Society — and writes on technology and society at Tomorrow's Mess.

Previously, as Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer at the Center for Humane Technology, Mock designed and led the policy and public affairs function from a half-time position to a team of nearly ten employees and consultants — shaping Biden administration policy, California state policy, and the national debate on AI accountability. He led the drafting of state and federal AI product liability legislation. Casey also partnered with leading tech justice plaintiffs' attorneys and journalists to raise public awareness about the risks to kids from companion chatbots in conjunction with the filing of the first lawsuits against Google and Character.Ai after their product led to the death of a teenager.

He has served governors of both parties, advising on 'transformational' budget policy and economic development; remade the state sales tax landscape as Amazon's national state tax policy lead; led start up of USAID programs across nine countries; and taught in a rural Moldovan high school as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Mock holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School and a B.A. in Classical Literature, History, and Archaeology from the University of Tennessee. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia.


Mock is an award-winning essayist whose nonfiction has placed first at the Bethesda Literary Festival, been named a finalist for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Award, and a semifinalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award. His policy writing appears regularly in After Babel, with additional work in Newsweek, CalMatters, and the Australian Journalism Review.

Recent Essays


Mock speaks on artificial intelligence policy and accountability, children and technology, the politics of algorithmic systems, and the institutional failures that allow both to compound. His talks are written to be read as well as heard — he comes from a writing background, and it shows.

He is available for keynote engagements, academic conferences, policy convenings, and media appearances.

Recent Keynotes & Presentations

  • “Officers of the Court in the Age of the Algorithm” Arkansas Bar Association Annual Meeting — June 2026
  • “AI and Polarization: The Coming Fracture” Louisiana Public Affairs Research Council Annual Meeting — April 2026
  • “Machines of Counterfeit Loving Grace: Artificial Intelligence and Kids’ Mental Health” Nebraska Child Health and Education Alliance Annual Meeting — December 2025
  • “The Ethics of Technology: Navigating AI, Media, and the Anxious Generation” National Conference on Ethics in America, West Point Military Academy — November 2025
  • Mining the Need for Human Connection in an Age of Unreality Re:Publica Berlin — May 2025
  • “No Escape: Silicon Valley's Hidden Quest for Dominance” University of Tennessee, College Scholars Kovac Lecture — April 2025
  • “From Papyrus to the Printing Press to GPT: Safeguarding Truth Amid Technological Change” Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia — November 2024 (keynote)
  • “Dial Zero to Never Speak to an Operator: On Entering an AI-Powered Bureaucratic Labyrinth” Persuasive Algorithms Conference, Max Planck Institute — November 2024