Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast for a lightning round on a variety of topics ranging from aliens to education. Learn more about Connor’s work at https://conjecture.dev.
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We are living in an age of rapid technological advancement, and with this growth comes a digital divide. Professor Luciano Floridi of the Oxford Internet Institute / Oxford University believes that this divide not only affects our understanding of the implications of this new age, but also the organization of a fair society.
The Information Revolution has been transforming the global economy, with the majority of global GDP now relying on intangible goods, such as information-related services. This in turn has led to the generation of immense amounts of data, more than humanity has ever seen in its history. With 95% of this data being generated by the current generation, Professor Floridi believes that we are becoming overwhelmed by this data, and that our agency as humans is being eroded as a result.
According to Professor Floridi, the digital divide has caused a lack of balance between technological growth and our understanding of this growth. He believes that the infosphere is becoming polluted and the manifold of the infosphere is increasingly determined by technology and AI. Identifying, anticipating and resolving these problems has become essential, and Professor Floridi has dedicated his research to the Philosophy of Information, Philosophy of Technology and Digital Ethics.
We must equip ourselves with a viable philosophy of information to help us better understand and address the risks of this new information age. Professor Floridi is leading the charge, and his research on Digital Ethics, the Philosophy of Information and the Philosophy of Technology is helping us to better anticipate, identify and resolve problems caused by the digital divide.
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Do we make conscious decisions? Or are all of our actions predetermined? And if we don’t have free will, are we responsible for what we do? Modern neurotechnology is now allowing scientists to study brain activity neuron by neuron to try to determine how and when our brains decide to act. In this program, experts probe the latest research and explore the question of just how much agency we have in the world, and how the answer impacts our ethics, our behavior, and our society.
This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.
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Original Program Date: May 30, 2015
Host: Emily Senay.
PARTICIPANTS: Christof Koch, Tamar Kushnir, Alfred Mele, Azim Shariff.
Emily Senay Introduction. 00:00
Participant Introductions. 03:39
Now you see your data, now you don’t.
Meanwhile, your precious data has become part of the collective, as it were.
I’m referring to an aspect that might be quite surprising to those of you that are eagerly and earnestly making use of the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The data that you enter into an AI app is potentially not at all entirely private to you and you alone. It could be that your data is going to be utilized by the AI maker to presumably seek to improve their AI services or might be used by them and/or even their allied partners for a variety of purposes.
You have now been forewarned.
All those people eagerly using generative AI ChatGPT are potentially falling into an insidious trap, namely entering confidential info that they assume will be ironclad confidential. Here’s what they and everyone needs to know.
While many have claimed to fix politics, very few even came close. Centuries have come and gone with their empires and ideals. Despite the many attempts to reform and improve the political landscape, the issues at hand remain largely unchanged. Corruption, inequality, and moral decay continue to plague governments around the world. It is clear that simply implementing new systems or electing the same leaders is not enough to address these longstanding issues. To truly reform and reverse the decay we see will need more. It will take a multifaceted approach that involves both systemic changes and individual actions, and some radical new ideas.
Many people find themselves today in countries that are repeating history. Inflation that only taxes the working class. Scandals from politicians that care not for the country nor the people they claim to represent. Lies of taxing the wealthy while continuing to burden all others with the shackles of debt. Fear and alarm echoed through every channel of state media that does nothing but leave the public despondent and hopeless about their future. Constant pandering and pilfering by people who see the nation they reside in as nothing but a sinking ship to be looted and left.
Fixing political systems has been a problem prominent in my mind for a long time. With the current order and systems of governance collapsing globally many have begun to ponder this as well. Unfortunately for the simple-minded, I foresee the rise of autocracy, be it communism, socialism, republicanism, or fascism. Such a thing cannot be averted and in fact, many people I doubt would even want it to be. The world has cried out far too long for order, and sooner or later every society will heed that call. Proof enough of this observation would be the nationalist movements that have gained widespread traction in 2022. While I won’t name them such parties and movements have spawned in virtually every western nation. The reason for this is painfully simple: democracy has failed in many people’s lives. It has failed to increase wages or lower housing costs, or even provide reasonable public services.
Release the Kraken! You are undoubtedly familiar with that famous catchphrase as especially uttered by actor Liam Neeson in The Clash of the Titans.
Perhaps the same sentiment can be applied these days to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Generative AI ChatGPT is already in the news and will likely garner added attention once the API portal access is opened, leading to either a boon in new uses or a bust in terms of adverse consequences. Here’s the scoop.
Anders Sandberg is “not technically a philosopher,” he tells IEEE Spectrum, although it is his job to think deeply about technological utopias and dystopias, the future of AI, and the possible consequences of human enhancement via genetic tweaks or implanted devices. In fact, he has a PhD in computational neuroscience. So who better to consult regarding the ethics of neurotech and brain enhancement?
Sandberg works as a senior research fellow at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (which is helmed by Nick Bostrom, a leading AI scholar and author of the book Superintelligence that explores the AI threat). In a wide-ranging phone interview with Spectrum, Sandberg discussed today’s state-of-the-art neurotech, whether it will ever see widespread adoption, and how it could reshape society.
To ban, or not to ban, that is the question. I would guess that if Shakespeare were around nowadays, he might have said something like that about the recent efforts to ban the use of a type of AI known as Generative AI
Here’s the deal.
Some rather high-profile bans have been announced regarding the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT. We need to closely examine these bans and decide whether they make any sense. Here’s the scoop.
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has captured rare footage of a black hole eating up a start and creating a gas cloud that is as large as the solar system.
They say that actors ought to fully immerse themselves into their roles. Uta Hagen, acclaimed Tony Award-winning actress and a legendary acting teacher said this: “It’s not about losing yourself in the role, it’s about finding yourself in the role.”
In today’s column, I’m going to take you on a journey of looking at how the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used for role-playing. This is not merely play-acting. Instead, people are opting to use a type of AI known as Generative AI including the social media headline-sparking AI app ChatGPT as a means of seeking self-growth via role-playing.
You might be wondering why I didn’t showcase a more alarming example of generative AI role-playing. I could do so, and you can readily find such examples online. For example, there are fantasy-style role-playing games that have the AI portray a magical character with amazing capabilities, all of which occur in written fluency on par with a human player. The AI in its role might for example try to (in the role-playing scenario) expunge the human player or might berate the human during the role-playing game.
My aim here was to illuminate the notion that role-playing doesn’t have to necessarily be the kind that clobbers someone over the head and announces itself to the world at large. There are subtle versions of role-playing that generative AI can undertake. Overall, whether the generative AI is full-on role-playing or performing in a restricted mode, the question still stands as to what kind of mental health impacts might this functionality portend. There are the good, the bad, and the ugly associated with generative AI and role-playing games.
On a societal basis, we ought to be deciding what makes the most sense. Otherwise, the choices are left in the hands of those that perchance are programming and devising generative AI. It takes a village to make sure that AI is going to be derived and fielded in an AI Ethically sound manner, and likewise going to abide by pertinent AI laws if so established.