AI - the end of humanity or the next evolutionary step?
Moral Maze
BBC
4.4 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2023
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
AI – the end of humanity or the next evolutionary step?
Computers are becoming more powerful. Much more powerful. Last week, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel Corporation died. A computer industry billionaire, he came up with ‘Moore’s Law’ which observed that the power of computers doubles every couple of years. Today a microchip can contain 50 billion transistors, each narrower than a strand of human DNA.
The war of the robots has begun. Microsoft’s ‘ChatGPT’ and its rival, Google’s ‘Bard’ allow you to have a conversation with a computer, much as you would with another person. But it’s not just talk. As well as writing essays, presentations, legal documents and sermons, artificial intelligence can also produce art. We’ve accepted that machines can beat us at chess, but might they soon also beat us at poetry, painting and music? Could they make Shakespeare look second rate? Or will art without human input always be worthless?
Some people are impressed by the quality of what AI can create, but others are scared. It’s one thing for computers to process our knowledge, but quite another when a machine starts to teach itself. If it behaves just like a real person, will we trust it more than we should? Can machines display morality and if not, is it safe to allow them to make decisions for us? We worry that AI might take over our jobs, but should we really be worrying that it might replace humanity altogether?
Some see AI as the next evolutionary step, the latest development by mankind, with potential to transform lives for the better. But what are the risks in asking technology, however impressive, to solve human problems? Should we be excited by AI, or could artificial intelligence mark the start of the end of humanity?
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell Presenter: Michael Buerk Editor: Tim Pemberton
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Good evening. The warnings today verged on the apocalyptic and made those science fiction fears about robots taking over suddenly sound real. |
| 0:12.7 | Elon Musk and more than a thousand tech industry researchers and executives published an open letter, |
| 0:18.5 | calling for a six-month pause in the development of artificial intelligence, |
| 0:22.8 | which they said might eventually outnumber, outsmart and replace us. |
| 0:27.9 | We risk losing control of our civilization, they said. |
| 0:31.2 | Well, the latest AI chatbots such as Microsoft's Chat-GPT-4, |
| 0:37.2 | sound like humans, perform in many cases better than humans. |
| 0:40.9 | They can write songs and poetry. They can come up with A grade university essays in seconds. |
| 0:46.4 | Pass in the top 10% of American bar examinations, knockout recipes, even produce medical |
| 0:51.6 | diagnoses to match those of specialist consultants. A boon or a |
| 0:55.9 | threat? To the arts, where do they stand if AI gets to the stage of making Shakespeare seem |
| 1:01.8 | second rate? To our jobs, Goldman Sachs has just said two out of three jobs in the developed world |
| 1:07.7 | will be affected by AI. To the fabric of society, when AI can make the fake |
| 1:13.4 | more convincing than the truth. Should we be excited or terrified, will AI liberate us, make us |
| 1:20.3 | redundant, or replace us altogether? That's our moral maze tonight. The panel, flawed humans |
| 1:25.6 | all, Anne McElvoy, columnist and executive of the news and commentary |
| 1:29.0 | feed Politico. Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh University, |
| 1:35.4 | the historian Tim Stanley and the chief executive of the NHS Foundation, Matthew Taylor. |
| 1:39.9 | Matthew, we even had a white paper here today on AI. Our government doesn't seem to be too worried proposing light touch regulation. |
| 1:48.2 | Are you worried or do you think this is all overhyped? |
| 1:50.8 | Yeah, I've changed my view on this. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.