Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the AI and Technology Ethics Podcast, where we explore the ethical side of AI and emerging tech. I'm Sam Bennett, a philosophy PhD student at the University of Georgia. And I'm Roberto Garcia, a philosophy professor who is all about logic at El Camino College in Los Angeles. We are your guides on this philosophical adventure.
Speaker: In the AI and Technology Ethics podcast, we interview philosophers and authors about their latest work. It could be a new journal article or a groundbreaking book.
Speaker: Our podcast is divided into three key areas. First, we tackle the ethical dilemmas woven into the fabric of AI and tech. Asking questions like, is it ethical to entrust self -driving cars with life or death decisions? Or who bears responsibility when AI goes awry, especially in contexts like autonomous weapons? But our podcast doesn't stop at ethics. We venture into other areas of philosophy, like philosophy of cognitive science and aesthetics.
Speaker: For instance, we explore what defines a flourishing aesthetic life and whether the algorithms on Netflix and Spotify enhance or diminish our aesthetic experiences. We also dive into philosophical questions like, can AI genuinely possess consciousness?
Speaker: And what insights into human intelligence can we glean from deep learning neural nets? Our guests are a diverse group not confined to philosophers alone. We engage with authors and experts hailing from computer science, sociology, and psychology because we believe their perspectives are integral to comprehending the role of AI in our world.
Speaker: Sam, we've been friends for several years now and only recently did you approach me about this podcast. I'm curious, what excites you the most about this venture? Well, I'm very intrigued by issues in aesthetics. Like what would it take to call an AI system a genuine artist? Yeah, a lot of machines are just experts at imitating. Totally. And I'm also fascinated by ethical questions about smartphones.
Speaker: You know, for over the last 10 years, smartphones have radically transformed our social world. So how should we think about that, both in terms of human flourishing, but also in terms of moral duties to others and even ourselves? Right. Like maybe I have a duty to myself to avoid manipulative apps in order to protect my own autonomy. Exactly. Yep. Speaking for myself, I'm excited to delve into the consequences of humans using algorithms that they don't really understand.
Speaker: Right, machine learning algorithms are often opaque, as they like to say. And it's because their equations can contain millions, even billions of terms, so they are inscrutable even to the computer scientists or mathematicians who designed them. And this would seem to make the alignment of algorithms with human values much more difficult. I'd say so. And so I hope everyone listening will stay tuned for our upcoming episodes where we venture deeper into these pressing questions.
Speaker: Boom. Nice. Should we say bye? The music can do the talking.
