If the improving technology results in an infinite supply of freakishly convincing Donald Trump speeches, that does strike me as dystopian. The idea that these could be generated in an almost infinite supply and could crowd out authentic photos, videos and writing is highly concerning. There's another great character in the book named Ian Goodfellow who says we're really going to have to change the way we view what we see online. We may have to shift our point of view. That may be a hard thing for society to do. But as this technology progresses, we may have to do that.
Imagine a world where AI is everywhere — where self-driving cars roam the streets and chatbots can do your homework. Oh, wait. That world already exists. This is exciting news for some. For others, it's slightly terrifying. Whichever camp you fall into, there are two questions we should all be asking: Where is this technology going? And what will happen if we let it develop unchecked? For answers, we turn to Cade Metz, a tech reporter at the New York Times and author of "Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World."
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• This episode first aired in June 2021.
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