555. New Technologies Always Scare Us. Is A.I. Any Different?

555.新技术总是让我们感到害怕。是人工智能有什么不同吗?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2023-08-31

47 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

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.")

单集文稿 ...

  • 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?