Peter Scott, author, TedX speaker, and futurist, worked at NASA’s JPL laboratory after receiving his Masters Degree in Computer Science from Cambridge. Raising kids made him realize the potential impact of AI to do both good and harm. He left NASA and switched careers to feel confident he was doing all he could to secure their future. He recently published Artificial Intelligence and You after publishing Crisis of Control five years back. 

Listen and learn: 

1. When will we achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI)… and is that the right goal for the AI community? 
2. Why we weight the potential of AI doing harm about five times as much as the potential for it doing good. 
3. What’s the biggest global problem AI might solve in the near term. 
4. How DeepMind’s AlphaFold protein folding technology could change humanity. 
5. What does it mean to be human in an era when machines can do more tasks historically reserved for humans? 
6. Why Peter blames Big Tech for “breaking” democracy. 
7. What Peter expects will be AI’s greatest achievement in the next decade. 
8. Why the evolution of a digital race hinges on global economic incentives.

References in this episode: 

• Peter’s site: humancusp.com
• Peter’s podcast: AIandYou.net
• Reducing “radicalization pathways” in social media feeds
• Stuart Russell’s AI textbook  
• Dr. Mark van Rijmenam on AI and the Future of Work 
• Peter Scott’s homage to Monty Python… and how it relates to AI