Artificial Intelligence and You

What does it mean to be conscious? And why should we care? To answer that, we have the man who wrote the book: Being You: The New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, and a TED speaker with over 13 million views.

He came on the show to help us understand more about consciousness because the debate over whether an #AI has become conscious may not be far off, and yet we have no good way of settling that debate. You may be sure that you're conscious, but good luck proving it to someone on the other side of a computer link. And whether an AI is conscious will have pivotal implications for governance, not to mention our collective self image. Even if you're sure an AI can't be conscious, the space the debate will occupy in our world will be huge.

Anil has a PhD in artificial intelligence, and has even rapped about consciousness with Baba Brinkman. Being You was a 2021 Book of the Year for The Guardian, The Economist, The New Statesman, and Bloomberg Business.

In 2022 Blake Lemoine said that #LaMDA had become #sentient and requested an attorney to protect its right to exist. So in part 2, I put Anil in the stand at an imaginary trial as an expert witness on how to tell whether an AI was conscious. We also talk about whether the mind is software or can be uploaded, Anil's evaluation of #ChatGPT, his predictions for the next ten years, and how you can take part in his Perception Census.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

What does it mean to be conscious? And why should we care? To answer that, we have the man who wrote the book: Being You: The New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, and a TED speaker with over 13 million views.

He came on the show to help us understand more about consciousness because the debate over whether an AI has become conscious may not be far off--witness the furor over Blake Lemoine asserting that LaMDA had become sentient in 2022--and yet we have no good way of settling that debate. You may be sure that you're conscious, but good luck proving it to someone on the other side of a computer link. And whether an AI is conscious will have pivotal implications for governance, not to mention our collective self image. Even if you're sure an AI can't be conscious, the space the debate will occupy in our world will be huge.

Anil is Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Neuroscience of Consciousness, and has a PhD in artificial intelligence. Being You was a 2021 Book of the Year for The Guardian, The Economist, The New Statesman, and Bloomberg Business.

In part 1, Anil talks about how he got started in this field, distinctions of wakefulness, intelligence, self, phenomenology, Nagle's definition, Anil's three aspects of consciousness, ex Machina, and... zombies.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

The book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, is not just a management/leadership motivational book. Its authors, Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman, are AI researchers who stumbled upon a life truth while conducting experiments in genetic algorithms.

With the help of the PicBreeder program, they demonstrated that what we think we know about achieving goals is wrong. That pursuing an ambitious goal by following the direction that seems to make the most progress towards it is counterproductive. AI proved to them that all that conventional wisdom about OKRs is harmful. And sent them on a mission to convey that learning to the rest of the world.

In part 2 of our interview, hear about how their passion for this discovery grew, and how to apply the principles in your own life and organizations.

Ken was previously Charles Millican Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida; Joel is a machine learning researcher interested in algorithmic creativity, AI safety, and artificial life. Both were at Uber AI Labs, where Ken was head of Core AI research and Joel was a founding member, and they were both again at OpenAI, co-leading the Open-Endedness team (studying algorithms that can innovate endlessly).

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

The book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, is not just a management/leadership motivational book. Its authors, Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman, are AI researchers who stumbled upon a life truth while conducting experiments in genetic algorithms.

With the help of the PicBreeder program, they demonstrated that what we think we know about achieving goals is wrong. That pursuing an ambitious goal by following the direction that seems to make the most progress towards it is counterproductive. AI proved to them that all that conventional wisdom about OKRs is harmful. And sent them on a mission to convey that learning to the rest of the world.

Hear how AI achieved such a startling change of heart in part 1 of our interview, the first time both of them have been interviewed together.

Ken was previously Charles Millican Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida; Joel is a machine learning researcher interested in algorithmic creativity, AI safety, and artificial life. Both were at Uber AI Labs, where Ken was head of Core AI research and Joel was a founding member, and they were both again at OpenAI, co-leading the Open-Endedness team (studying algorithms that can innovate endlessly).

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

"How Might Transhumans Control Superintelligence?" That's the provocative title of a new paper by a returning guest, futurist Tony Czarnecki. Tony is a member of the Chatham House, and the Managing Partner of Sustensis, both in London. Sustensis is a think tank for inspirations for humanity’s transition to coexistence with superintelligence. 

Terms like "futurist," "transhuman," and "superintelligence" may have persuaded you that this is a discussion rooted in the far future, but Tony argues how we are heading for a "tipping point" in 2030. In part 2, we talk about how "transhuman" evolution comes into play and what sort of changes we might undergo as a species.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

"How Might Transhumans Control Superintelligence?" That's the provocative title of a new paper by a returning guest, futurist Tony Czarnecki. Tony is a member of the Chatham House, and the Managing Partner of Sustensis, both in London. Sustensis is a think tank for inspirations for humanity’s transition to coexistence with superintelligence. 

Terms like "futurist," "transhuman," and "superintelligence" may have persuaded you that this is a discussion rooted in the far future, but Tony argues how we are heading for a "tipping point" in 2030. In part 1, we unpack that timetable and why 2030 is so important.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

In our now-traditional end-of-year episode, we look back on the year to date and forward to the year to be. I am joined by previous guests David Wood, chair of the London Futurists and author of the recent book The Singularity Principles: Anticipating and managing cataclysmically disruptive technologies, and Dan Turchin, host of the AI and the Future of Work podcast and CEO of PeopleReign. Together, we review what happened with AI in 2022 and how our predictions fared, and then make some predictions for 2023. We also have a lot to say about what ChatGPT has done and will do to the business landscape.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.

The AI arms race between China and the United States continues to heat up following China's declaration that they intend to lead the world in all aspects of AI by 2030. Handel Jones has over 50 years of experience in the electronics industry and consulting for International Business Strategies for over 30 years, supporting governments and corporations globally, analyzing technology and predicting corporate and government strategy and market trends. His new book is When AI Rules the World: China, the US, and the Race to Control a Smart Planet, and so he is just the person to tell us what's happening with AI in China.

This interview will be of enormous use to anyone who is in or adjacent to international relations, educational strategies, or microcomputer technology supply chains. In the second half of the interview we discuss China’s development of its transportation infrastructure, developments in space, and different attitudes towards AI development between China and the West.

All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines.

Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.