That’s the refrain of Prof. John Wyatt – he argues that the emergence of AI is a revolution event which requires us to ask some fundamental questions about humanity.
This wide ranging discussion with Glen Scrivener, of Speak Life podcast considers some of the following topics:
- How do we learn? Is there a difference between mammalian intelligence and machine inteligence?
- What is language and how do we use it?
- What is a person? How do we train AI to understand and appreciate personhood and the distinctive nature of humans? How do we avoid machine learning human bias?
- What kind of society do we want to live in? How can human life flourish? What’s the end-game of AI?
I love Wyatt’s thought on the future… if for many the hope of AI is a “techno-utopia” which removes ‘friction’ in life – how does that square with the reality that so much human growth and progress (at both macro and micro levels) has come through ‘friction’.
For Wyatt, as a Christian, a key word for him is ‘redemption’ – how can we extract the benefits and mitigate the risks to truly use AI for ‘good’.
John Wyatt published his book on AI in 2021 – ‘The Robot will See You Now’