Taming the Machine, with Nell Watson

06/20/24 • 46 min

Those who rush to leverage AI’s power without adequate preparation face difficult blowback, scandals, and could provoke harsh regulatory measures. However, those who have a balanced, informed view on the risks and benefits of AI, and who, with care and knowledge, avoid either complacent optimism or defeatist pessimism, can harness AI’s potential, and tap into an incredible variety of services of an ever-improving quality.
These are some words from the introduction of the new book, “Taming the machine: ethically harness the power of AI”, whose author, Nell Watson, joins us in this episode.
Nell’s many roles include: Chair of IEEE’s Transparency Experts Focus Group, Executive Consultant on philosophical matters for Apple, and President of the European Responsible Artificial Intelligence Office. She also leads several organizations such as EthicsNet.org, which aims to teach machines prosocial behaviours, and CulturalPeace.org, which crafts Geneva Conventions-style rules for cultural conflict.
Selected follow-ups:

Nell Watson's website
Taming the Machine - book website
BodiData (corporation)
Post Office Horizon scandal: Why hundreds were wrongly prosecuted - BBC News
Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms - Politico
Robodebt: Illegal Australian welfare hunt drove people to despair - BBC News
What is the infected blood scandal and will victims get compensation? - BBC News
MIRI 2024 Mission and Strategy Update - from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)
British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25 million deepfake scam victim - CNN
Zersetzung psychological warfare technique - Wikipedia

Music: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain Declaration

Promoguy Talk Pills
Agency in Amsterdam dives into topics like Tech, AI, digital marketing, and more drama...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson
Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Nell Watson's website
Taming the Machine - book website
BodiData (corporation)
Post Office Horizon scandal: Why hundreds were wrongly prosecuted - BBC News
Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms - Politico
Robodebt: Illegal Australian welfare hunt drove people to despair - BBC News
What is the infected blood scandal and will victims get compensation? - BBC News
MIRI 2024 Mission and Strategy Update - from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)
British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25 million deepfake scam victim - CNN
Zersetzung psychological warfare technique - Wikipedia

Music: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain Declaration

Promoguy Talk Pills
Agency in Amsterdam dives into topics like Tech, AI, digital marketing, and more drama...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson
Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Previous Episode

AI Impacts Survey - The key implications, with Katja Grace

Our guest in this episode grew up in an abandoned town in Tasmania, and is now a researcher and blogger in Berkeley, California. After taking a degree in human ecology and science communication, Katja Grace co-founded AI Impacts, a research organisation trying to answer questions about the future of artificial intelligence.
Since 2016, Katja and her colleagues have published a series of surveys about what AI researchers think about progress on AI. The 2023 Expert Survey on Progress in AI was published this January, comprising responses from 2,778 participants. As far as we know, this is the biggest survey of its kind to date.
Among the highlights are that the time respondents expect it will take to develop an AI with human-level performance dropped between one and five decades since the 2022 survey. So ChatGPT has not gone unnoticed.
Selected follow-ups:

AI Impacts
World Spirit Sock Puppet - Katja's blog
Survey of 2,778 AI authors: six parts in pictures - from AI Impacts
OpenAI researcher who resigned over safety concerns joins Anthropic - article in The Verge about Jan Leike
MIRI 2024 Mission and Strategy Update - from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)
Future of Humanity Institute 2005-2024: Final Report - by Anders Sandberg (PDF)
Centre for the Governance of AI
Reasons for Persons - Article by Katja about Derek Parfit and theories of personal identity
OpenAI Says It Has Started Training GPT-4 Successor - article in Forbes

Music: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain Declaration

Promoguy Talk Pills
Agency in Amsterdam dives into topics like Tech, AI, digital marketing, and more drama...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Next Episode

Introducing Conscium, with Daniel Hulme and Ted Lappas

This episode is a bit different from the usual, because we are interviewing Calum's boss. Calum says that mainly to tease him, because he thinks the word “boss” is a dirty word.
His name is Daniel Hulme, and this is his second appearance on the podcast. He was one of our earliest guests, long ago, in episode 8. Back then, Daniel had just sold his AI consultancy, Satalia, to the advertising and media giant WPP. Today, he is Chief AI Officer at WPP, but he is joining us to talk about his new venture, Conscium - which describes itself as "the world's first applied AI consciousness research organisation".
Conscium states that "our aim is to deepen our understanding of consciousness to pioneer efficient, intelligent, and safe AI that builds a better future for humanity".
Also joining us is Ted Lappas, who is head of technology at Conscium, and he is also one of our illustrious former guests on the podcast.
By way of full disclosure, Calum is CMO at Conscium, and David is on the Conscium advisory board.
Selected follow-ups: