As AI becomes more and more integrated into every aspect of our lives, it has the potential to transform our world socially, politically, and economically. This month we feature six episodes from the archive that tackle some of the most urgent questions about our growing reliance on AI and the radical changes it might bring about.
While future AI might be excellent at appearing conscious, could AI ever actually become conscious? In 2019 Josh and Ken put that question and more to Susan Schneider, Director of the AI, Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut and author of Artificial You: A.I. and the Future of Your Mind. What if it were technologically possible to hack our brains and create new senses for humans, such as echolocation or magnetoception? Earlier that year Josh and Ken asked neuroscientist David Eagleman, author of The Brain: The Story of You.
Can algorithms really be objective when they are created by biased human programmers? Josh and Ken ran the code on the ethics of algorithms with Angèle Christin from Stanford University, author of Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms. As we add more and more smart devices to our network, how will this augmented connectivity affect the way we live? Josh and Ken question the Internet of Things with renowned computer scientist Carl Hewitt, editor of Inconsistency Robustness (Studies in Logic).
With the rapid advancements in automated technology, will more and more of our workers will lose their jobs to AI? Debra and Ken worked hard on that question with Juliana Bidadanure from Stanford University, Faculty Director of the Stanford Basic Income Lab. Champions of autonomous vehicles say that they will be safer than human controlled vehicles. But how do we program these vehicles to act ethically? Laura and Ken took the wheel with Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene, author of "Our Driverless Dilemma: When Should Your Car be Willing to Kill You?"
Evolving Artificial Intelligence
| Episode Title | Guest | Related Content | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Conscious Machines | Susan Schneider, Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, University of Connecticut | Machine Consciousness | |
 | Hacking the Brain: Beyond the Five Senses | Neuroscientist and Entrepreneur David Eagleman | Hacking Our Sense Perceptions | |
 | The Ethics of Algorithms | Angèle Christin, Professor of Communication, Stanford University | Should Algorithms Decide? | |
 | The Internet of Things | Carl Hewitt, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT | Privacy and the Internet of Things | |
 | A World Without Work | Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure, Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University | Automation and the Future of Work | |
 | Driverless Cars at the Moral Crossroads | Joshua Greene, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University | When Driverless Cars Must Choose |