I'm Alan Alda, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

This week we're talking about artificial intelligence. We're hearing the voices of people who have created it and studied it.

People who are hopeful and people who are scared. Sometimes they're the same people.

AI can do fantastic things. How about better batteries? How about more efficient energy distribution?

I could picture a time when medicine is completely changed.

We're already seeing now the use of AI to make accurate diagnosis

for things like urinary tract infection, ear infection in children, skin cancers,

and so that's all doctorless.

If you think it's dangerous to have these things in existence, then you'd have to ban them.

But if you ban them, then you don't get the benefits for them.

On the other hand, how dangerous is artificial intelligence?

Could it actually cause the extinction of humanity?

I think something like that is possible in the near future unless we act very fast.

My worry is less about the AI itself, and at least for now, it's about how people will be interacting with these chatbots. These systems are coming at a far greater cost than most of us

realize. We really have 20 years or less to turn the boat around

in terms of the amount of carbon that we're producing.

This seems dangerous.

Dangerous, dangerous.

Dangerous, dangerous.

Is it dangerous?

AI is in social media, it's in our devices.

It is poking us, nudging us, shaping our thoughts.

...