Last month a company in San Francisco called OpenAi released an artificial intelligence system called GPT-4 - a successor to its hugely popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. The latest version can respond to images, write captions and descriptions - processing up to 25,000 words at a time. Researchers claim GPT-4 shows “sparks of artificial general intelligence” - in other words it can match or exceed human capabilities in tasks a person can do.But there are concerns this latest technology could be used to spread disinformation alongside worries over privacy, jobs and even society itself if more rules aren’t quickly introduced. Key figures in the tech industry - including Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, and Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak - have signed an open letter asking for a pause on “giant AI experiments” so that policymakers can catch up. There are potentially wide-ranging benefits to these advances. In recently published guidance on the responsible use of AI, the UK government described it as one of the "technologies of tomorrow” contributing £3.7bn ($5.6bn) to the UK economy last year alone. So what might the social impact of these increasingly powerful AI systems be? If greater regulation is needed, who is responsible? And, if we don’t control it, is there a chance that one day these machines will outsmart and replace us?Celia Hatton is joined by:Prof Yoshua Bengio - professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the Université de MontréalBoaz Barak - the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard UniversityLindsay Gorman - a former advisor to the Biden administration on tech strategy. She's currently a Senior Fellow for Emerging Technologies at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy in Washington DCAlso featuring:Greg Clark – a Conservative MP and chair of the UK government’s science and technology committee Stuart Russell - Professor of Computer Science at the University of CaliforniaPhoto: Ai-Da Robot poses for pictures with a self portrait in the Houses of Parliament in London before making history as the first robot to speak at the House of Lords / Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA WireProduced by Pandita Lorenz and Ellen Otzen

In this discussion, Samuel Woolley, an expert on disinformation, highlights the challenges generative AI poses to democratic processes. Lindsay Gorman reveals how deepfakes can manipulate electoral narratives and the global implications. Scott Babwah Brennen emphasizes the need for effective AI content labels in political ads to maintain candidate trust. The conversation addresses regulatory hurdles and the urgent necessity for policies to combat the misuse of AI, especially as elections approach, pointing towards a future where misinformation could be even more pervasive.