Babbage: Fei-Fei Li on how to really think about the future of AI

Babbage from The Economist

The Economist

Science And Technology, News, News & Politics, Tech News

4.8 • 807 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A year ago, the public launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm and it was followed by many more generative artificial intelligence tools, all with remarkable, human-like abilities. Fears over the existential risks posed by AI have dominated the global conversation around the technology ever since.

Fei-Fei Li, a pioneer that helped lay the groundwork that underpins modern generative AI models, takes a more nuanced approach. She’s pushing for a human-centred way of dealing with AI—treating it as a tool to help enhance—and not replace—humanity, while focussing on the pressing challenges of disinformation, bias and job disruption.

Fei-Fei Li is the founding co-director of Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence. Fei-Fei and her research group created ImageNet, a huge database of images that enabled computers scientists to build algorithms that were able to see and recognise objects in the real world. That endeavour also introduced the world to deep learning, a type of machine learning that is fundamental part of how large-language and image-creation models work.

Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor.

Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, this episode of Babbage is available to listen to for free, but if you want to listen every week, you'll need to be an economist subscriber.
0:08.5	And good news, we're running a Black Friday sale. Between Thursday the 23rd and Monday the 27th in November, you can sign up to Economist Podcast Plus for half price.
0:19.7	For just $2 or pounds or euros a month, you'll get access
0:23.5	to all of our award-winning podcasts. For full details, search online for Economist Podcast Plus.
0:32.4	Zero Small Business Accounting Software puts more financial control at your fingertips. So you have the
0:39.5	mite to master everyday admin, like raising invoices, staying on top of VAT, managing payroll, and controlling
0:48.2	your cash flow. Let your clever little digits loose on zero and get smarter accounting for your small business at your fingertips.
0:57.7	Search zero with an X and keep your finger on the button. The Economist Chat GPT.
1:15.6	Maybe you've heard of it.
1:17.6	If you haven't, then get ready.
1:19.6	Sometimes it can feel like artificial intelligence just appeared out of the blue a year ago.
1:25.6	Because this promises to be the viral sensation
1:28.1	that could completely reset how we do things.
1:31.7	For most people, chat GPT was a shock.
1:35.2	This algorithm could produce sentences almost like a human.
1:38.8	It was uncanny and perhaps a bit scary.
1:43.2	Our guest today, though, well, she saw it all coming.
1:46.7	In fact, Faye Faye Lee laid the critical groundwork for the technology
1:51.1	that underpins large language models and image creation models,
1:55.2	and which has accelerated progress in AI in the past decade.
2:00.3	Faye Faye-Lee is a computer scientist at Stanford University
2:03.2	and the founding co-director of the University's Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.