2023-08-31
47 分钟Guest host Adam Davidson looks at what might happen to your job in a world of human-level artificial intelligence, and asks when it might be time to worry that the machines have become too powerful. (Part 2 of "How to Think About A.I.")
Hey there, it's Steven Dubner.
Adam Davidson, one of the founders of NPR's Planet Money podcast, is guest hosting a few episodes for us.
They are about the past, present, and even the future of what's being called artificial intelligence, a name, by the way, that practically no one working in AI seems to like.
The episode you're about to hear is part two in a three part series that we are calling how to think about AI.
Here's Adam.
When you dig into all the hype around AI, all the terrifying fears and utopian hope, it all comes down to one question.
When would it become affordable for a company to train an AI system as big as the human brain?
That is Ajaya Cotra.
She's one of a growing number of people who are trying to answer this question.
Will artificial intelligence ever be as powerful as the human brain?
And if so, when will that happen?
That raises another question.
What happens if it reaches that threshold and keeps on growing?
Should we be terrified, thrilled?
Should we hurry it along?
Or should we try to put on the brakes?
Human beings have been through massive technological transformations before.
Agriculture, cities, writing, ocean going ships, the telegraph, the Internet.
Is AI just one more new thing that frees freaks everyone out for a while, and then we figure out how to live with it.
Or is this time different?