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AI's existential risks: Why Yoshua Bengio is warning the world
- YouTube

AI's existential risks: Why Yoshua Bengio is warning the world

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, reflects on the growing excitement around artificial intelligence. At a recent AI conference he attended, Owen observes that while startups and officials emphasized AI's economic potential, prominent AI researcher Yoshua Bengio voiced serious concerns about its existential risks. Bengio, who's crucial to the development of the technology, stresses the importance of cautious public policy, warning that current AI research tends to prioritize power over safety.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at this big AI conference in Montreal called All In. It was all a bit over the top. There were smoke machines, loud music, and food trucks. It's clear that AI has come a long way from the quiet labs it was developed in. I'm still skeptical of some of the hype around AI, but there's just no question we're in a moment of great enthusiasm. There were dozens of startup founders there talking about how AI was going to transform this industry or that, and government officials promising that AI was going to supercharge our economy.

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AI is turbocharging the stock market, but is it all hype?
AI is turbocharging the stock market, but is it all hype?

AI is turbocharging the stock market, but is it all hype?

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, explores how artificial intelligence is turbocharging the stock market and transforming our economy. With AI driving the S&P 500 to new heights and drastically boosting NVIDIA's stock, researchers predict a future where we could be 1,000 times wealthier. However, Owen raises critical questions about whether this rapid growth is sustainable or simply a bubble ready to burst.

So whatever your lingering skepticism of this current moment of AI hype might be, one thing is undeniable: AI is turbocharging the stock market and the economy more broadly.

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How is AI shaping culture in the art world?
How is AI shaping culture in the art world? | GZERO AI

How is AI shaping culture in the art world?

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, recounts his conversation with media theorist Douglas Rushkoff about the cultural implications of the ongoing AI revolution, which raised a couple of questions: Will AI enhance cultural production, similar to Auto-Tune and Photoshop, or produce art that truly moves society. Will people even care about its role in cultural production? However, Owen notes that current AI-generated content often lacks the cultural depth that our art and culture demand.

So, I recently had a wonderful conversation with the media theorist Douglas Rushkoff about what this current moment in AI means for our culture.

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How AI models are grabbing the world's data
Inside AI's data frenzy: The controversial practices fueling artificial intelligence | GZERO AI

How AI models are grabbing the world's data

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, examines the scale and implications of the historic data land grab happening in the AI sector. According to researcher Kate Crawford, AI is the largest superstructure ever built by humans, requiring immense human labor, natural resources, and staggering amounts of data. But how are tech giants like Meta and Google amassing this data?

So AI researcher Kate Crawford recently told me that she thinks that AI is the largest superstructure that our species has ever built. This is because of the enormous amount of human labor that goes into building AI, the physical infrastructure that's needed for the compute of these AI systems, the natural resources, the energy and the water that goes into this entire infrastructure. And of course, because of the insane amounts of data that is needed to build our frontier models. It's increasingly clear that we're in the middle of a historic land grab for these data, essentially for all of the data that has ever been created by humanity. So where is all this data coming from and how are these companies getting access to it? Well, first, they're clearly scraping the public internet. It's safe to say that if anything you've done has been posted to the internet in a public way, it's inside the training data of at least one of these models.

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Can AI help doctors act more human?
- YouTube

Can AI help doctors act more human?

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, explores the rather surprising role artificial intelligence could play in the healthcare industry's efforts to reconnect with humanity. Doctors have become busier and are spending less time with their patients, but AI has been touted as a solution to enable them to foster more human connections.

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How neurotech could enhance our brains using AI
How neurotech could enhance our brains using AI | GZERO AI

How neurotech could enhance our brains using AI

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, host of the Machines Like Us podcast, explores the immense potential of neurotechnology. On the heels of Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink making the headlines again, he examines how this technology, now turbocharged by artificial intelligence, could transform our lives. However, it is not without potential pitfalls, which call for regulatory discussions surrounding its use.
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Will AI further divide us or help build meaningful connections?
Will AI further divide us or help build more connections? | GZERO AI

Will AI further divide us or help build meaningful connections?

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and director of its Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy, takes stock of the ongoing debate on whether artificial intelligence, like social media, will further drive loneliness—but at breakneck speed, or help foster meaningful relationships. Further, Owen offers insights into the latter, especially with tech companies like Replika recently demonstrating AI's potential to ease loneliness and even connect people with their lost loved ones.

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AI and war: Governments must widen safety dialogue to include military use
AI and war: Governments must widen safety dialogue to include military use | GZERO AI

AI and war: Governments must widen safety dialogue to include military use

Marietje Schaake, International Policy Fellow, Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and former European Parliamentarian, co-hosts GZERO AI, our new weekly video series intended to help you keep up and make sense of the latest news on the AI revolution. In this episode, Marietje insists that governments must prioritize establishing guardrails for the deployment of artificial intelligence in military operations. Already, there are ongoing endeavors ensuring that AI is safe to use but, according to her, there's an urgent need to widen that discussion to include its use in warfare—an area where lives are at stake.
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