AI Podcasts
These episodes comprise our series on the Humanities of Artificial Intelligence. This series was awarded an Action Grant by Indiana Humanities, and received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
What are the first things we think about when someone says Artificial Intelligence? Many of us think of general AIs, like Data, Marvin, or the Cylons. Maybe we think about ChatGPT, Dall-E, or Midjourney. Do you think about Google Maps? How your characters move in a video game? What about the ranking algorithms of Netflix and YouTube? Chances are you’re carrying two or three devices at least partially designed by AI on your person. AI is so ubiquitous we often don’t realize when we’re using it. This talk aims to provide a broad overview of AI so that we can recognize when and where AI is touching our lives.
AI has been the subject of literature since William Grove’s novel The Wreck of the World in 1889, and in cinema since 1927’s Metropolis. Everyone alive has grown up with the idea of artificial intelligence - with those ideas having varying degrees of similarity to actual technology. Star Trek has contributed significantly to these fictional depictions of AI. We explore these contributions in this pane with both Star Trek and technology experts.
Machine learning holds great potential - but also comes with some significant ethical challenges. Listen to experts discuss the technology, and the ethical concerns it creates.
AI isn't sentient - at least not yet. But what would it mean to our systems if that changed? When would (and when should) our legal system begin to recognize the rights of non-human intelligence? What would that change for humans, and for other intelligent beings?
AI is often depicted as a way to find answers to questions. Is this the same as finding truth? Are our current AI technologies structured to find truth? Or are they designed to do something different, and how does that affect their functionality and how they are (and how they should be) used?