The Human Element in Technology Decisions

In this episode, John and Sven discuss risk and technology ethics. They focus, in particular, on the perennially popular and widely discussed problems of value alignment (how to get technology to align with our values) and control (making sure technology doesn’t do something terrible). They start the conversation with the famous case study of Stanislov Petrov and the prevention of nuclear war.

You can listen below or download the episode here. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon and a range of other podcasting services.

Recommendations for further reading

• Atoosa Kasirzadeh and Iason Gabriel, ‘In Conversation with AI: Aligning Language Models with Human Values’
• Nick Bostrom, relevant chapters from Superintelligence
• Stuart Russell, Human Compatible
• Langdon Winner, ‘Do Artifacts Have Politics?‘
• Iason Gabriel, ‘Artificial Intelligence, Values and Alignment‘
• Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem

Discount

You can purchase a 20% discounted copy of This is Technology Ethics by using the code TEC20 at the publisher’s website.