Episode 5 - Inevitability
To quote Sarah Connor, "There is no fate", so why do so many people buy into the narrative that AI is inevitable so we might as well get on board (or throw up our hands in despair)? Josh and Ray get to the bottom of this, realise that Skynet might happen after all, and channel the great Lina Khan: "Where we are is not just the inevitable outcome of market forces or technological development. It's a result of choices we've made, and policies we've enacted or not enacted. And we can change that. We can. We must."
Mentioned in this episode:
- Noam Chomsky on The Big Idea with Andrew Marr, 1996-02-14: Chomsky explains that Marr wouldn't be in the position he is unless he was predisposed to stay in the mainstream understanding of neoliberal politics.
- Half of young people want to grow up in a world without internet, New research, published by British Standards Institution, shows that half (47%) of young people aged 16 to 21 would prefer to be young in a world without the internet. [PERMALINK]
- The fallacy of the "human-in-the-loop" as a safety net for Generative-AI applications in healthcare, by Jeff Clark. See the references in the article for studies. [PERMALINK]
- US airport screenings fail to detect mock weapons in 95% of tests, 2015 study. [PERMALINK]
- TSA Misses 70% Of Fake Weapons But That's An Improvement, 2017 study showing improvement. [PERMALINK]
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Cover art by Anya K. Jordan @anyakjordan.bsky.social
Theme music by Xylia
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