Episode 2319: Christopher DiCarlo on AI as the latest chapter in our long history of building an all-knowing God

Keen On

Is AI the latest chapter in our long history of creating an all-knowing God? AI ethicist Christopher DiCarlo certainly suspects it is. In his new book "Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, DiCarlo argues that we are creating AI systems with godlike capabilities that will eventually exceed all human intelligence through their ability to make unprecedented inferences and connections. Like so many other self-styled ethicists, DiCarlo emphasizes the urgent need to establish ethical guardrails and principles for AI development. He expresses both hope for AI's potential benefits, particularly in medicine, while warning about the risks of losing control of super intelligent systems that might, one day, develop their own ethical frameworks. Given that AI development is currently largely controlled by profit-driven companies and shaped by geopolitical competition rather than ethical considerations, DiCarlo advocates for raising public awareness and establishing robust international oversight bodies (similar to the IAEA for nuclear weapons) to govern AI development. He argues that AI's potential for systemic manipulation and control makes it potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons, as it wouldn't require human intervention for the technology to destroy humanity.

Christopher is a Senior Researcher at Convergence Analysis, an AI consultancy. He teaches in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto and The Life Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University and is a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University. He is the founder of Critical Thinking Solutions, the Ethics Chair for the Canadian Mental Health Association, a lifetime member of Humanist Canada, and an Expert Advisor for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Christopher has published three books, including an international best-seller. He has won several awards including TV Ontario’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer in Ontario Award and Canada’s Humanist of the Year.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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