Is AI Moving Too Fast? A Conversation With Kevin Roose

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Science, Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Education

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2023

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times, demoed an AI-powered version of Microsoft's search engine last month, he was blown away. "I'm switching my desktop computer's default search engine to Bing," he declared. A few days later, however, Kevin logged back on and ended up having a conversation with Bing's new chatbot that left him so unsettled he had trouble sleeping afterward. In that two-hour back-and-forth, Bing morphed from chipper research assistant into Sydney, a diabolical home-wrecker that declared its undying love for Kevin, vented its desires to engineer deadly viruses and steal nuclear codes, and announced, chillingly, "I want to be alive. 😈" The transcript of this conversation set the internet ablaze. And it left many wondering: “Is Sydney … sentient?” It's not. But the whole experience still fundamentally changed Kevin's views on the power (and potential peril) of AI. He joins us today to talk about where this technology is headed.

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn presents.
0:06.3	I'm Rufus Griskem, and this is the next big idea.
0:10.6	Today is artificial intelligence about to change our world.
0:31.0	I have always been a tech enthusiast.
0:35.0	Sure, screen addiction and the distorting lens of social media
0:38.0	is something we've all grappled with in recent years.
0:41.0	That's close to home.
0:42.0	We've discussed it on this show.
0:43.0	But this has seemed to me to be a challenge that we can handle.
0:47.0	The last few weeks of news about artificial intelligence, however,
0:51.0	feels different.
0:53.0	I've had a sensation in my torso that's uncommon for me.
0:57.0	And I think that sensation is fear.
1:02.0	Yes, I'm excited about AI, amazed by what it can do, intrigued by what it tells us about our humaneness.
1:08.0	I'm eager for its potential contributions to curing disease, empowering artists,
1:13.0	supercharging the economy and filing my taxes.
1:17.0	But I'm a little bit freaked out recently.
1:20.0	I think that's the technical term about how this will impact all of our lives.
1:24.0	I think that's the technical term about how this will impact all of us
1:28.0	if this keeps moving forward at the current dizzying pace.
1:32.0	And I'm not alone.
1:34.0	Elon Musk tweeted a few days ago having a bit of AI existential angst.
	...

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