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Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband & Geoff Lloyd

Apocalypse (not) now: is AI an existential threat?

Season 1, Ep. 314
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Depending on who you speak to, AI is either going to plunge us into the abyss or improve every aspect of our lives immeasurably. The hype around AI can be disorientating, so let the RTBC team steer you away from the grim end-of-humanity inevitability, as we explore a more nuanced version of the AI story. Our guests Mustafa Suleyman, Dr Mhairi Aitken and Lauren M. E. Goodlad discuss whether the benefits of AI will ever outweigh the risks, why AI hype can serve as a distraction from some very pressing issues, and whether Geoff can ever replace Ed as a more obedient podcast host.


Plus: Despite the technological advances of AI, why are Ed and Geoff still hung up on Ceefax?


Guests

Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of Inflection AI and author of The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma (@mustafasuleyman)


Dr Mhairi Aitken, Ethics Fellow, Alan Turing Institute (@mhairi_aitken / @turinginst)


Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Critical AI Initiative at Rutgers University (@CriticalAI)



More information

Buy a copy of Mustafa’s book here


Learn more about Inflection AI here


Learn more about the Alan Turing Institute and the work Mhairi is doing on children’s rights and AI

Learn more about Rutgers University’s Critical AI Initiative with the journal’s inaugural issue to follow in October 2023


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