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AI&Us: with Wendy Hall and Sue Black
Who is keeping us safe? The rise of AI assurance
While tech giants race to build more powerful models, the real question is who is keeping them in check. In this second episode, co-hosts Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, and Sue Black OBE, Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University, join forces to cut through the complexity of AI safety and assurance.
The podcast is produced and published by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, where both are Fellows.
In the second episode, they argue that leaving AI safety solely to tech companies is not an option, exploring the urgent need for global governance, public AI education, and a brand-new profession of AI auditors.
Key Topics Covered:
- Global governance and independent oversight: Why ensuring AI safety requires international cooperation, civil society involvement, and independent authorities to check frontier models.
- The UK's AI assurance opportunity: How the UK is leveraging its existing expertise in financial auditing to pioneer a massive new industry in AI safety measurement and assurance.
- Public education and digital literacy: The urgent need for national, open-access education campaigns to help the general public recognise deepfakes, avoid scams, and upskill for an AI-driven world.
- Personalised AI tutors: The future potential and safety challenges of using AI as individualised teaching assistants to support students at varying skill levels.
- The evolution of tech careers: Dispelling the myth that AI will permanently eliminate jobs, focusing instead on how careers will adapt into flexible portfolio roles and new disciplines like AI assurance.
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1. Forget the Terminator: Here is what actually matters in AI
19:51||Season 1, Ep. 1Headlines constantly warn us about sentient machines, superintelligence and physical robots, but the immediate realities of artificial intelligence are less cinematic and closer to home.In this inaugural episode, co-hosts Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, and Sue Black OBE, Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University, join forces to break through the hype around artificial intelligence.The podcast is produced and published by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, where both are Fellows.In the first episode, they argue that fears around the Terminator are less important than the people and ideas who will ensure AI develops in ways that benefit society.Key Topics Covered:The Terminator myth: Why physical robots are currently too expensive to replace human care workers and everyday jobs.The scaling paradox: How artificial intelligence breaks traditional economic rules by becoming more expensive to run as it scales up.The tech monoculture: Why most venture capital funding goes to men, and how a lack of diverse thought shifts the focus away from solving major global problems.Data centres and the environment: Navigating the massive energy and water consumption of AI, alongside the future engineering potential to turn data centres into local heat generators.Pre-flight safety checks: Why we need independent oversight of frontier models