Amy Webb on Artificial Intelligence, Humanity, and the Big Nine

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🗓️ 11 March 2019

⏱️ 85 minutes

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Summary

Futurist and author Amy Webb talks about her book, The Big Nine, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Webb observes that artificial intelligence is currently evolving in a handful of companies in the United States and China. She worries that innovation in the United States may lead to social changes that we may not ultimately like; in China, innovation may end up serving the geopolitical goals of the Chinese government with some uncomfortable foreign policy implications. Webb's book is a reminder that artificial intelligence does not evolve in a vacuum--research and progress takes place in an institutional context. This is a wide-ranging conversation about the implications and possible futures of a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly part of our lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.6	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:17.6	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:20.5	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:24.8	back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:29.0	We'd love to hear from you.
0:31.0	Today is February 12th, 2019, and my guest is futurist and author Amy Webb.
0:40.0	She is the founder of the Future Today Institute.
0:43.0	Her latest book is The Big Nine, how the tech titans and their thinking machines could
0:48.4	warp humanity.
0:50.0	Amy, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:51.9	Thanks for having me.
0:53.8	Your book's a warning about the challenges we face that are going to face the dealing
0:56.9	with the rise of artificial intelligence.
0:59.4	What is special about the book, at least in my experience reading about AI and worries
1:03.9	about artificial intelligence, is that it doesn't talk about AI in the abstract, but actually
1:09.4	recognizes the reality that AI is mostly being developed within very specific institutional
1:15.8	settings in the United States and in China.
1:18.6	So let's start with what you call The Big Nine.
1:20.6	Who are they?
	...

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