The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

A recent open letter by Future of Life Institute calling for a six-month ban on AI development has received widespread attention online. Fenwick McKelvey and I discuss the hyped-up ideas from tech leaders about “powerful digital minds” and how fear of AI functions as a marketing tool. We also go over regulation and policy initiatives in Canada. Recorded April 25, 2023. Released May 30, 2023.Let’s base AI debates on reality, not extreme fears about the futurehttps://theconversation.com/lets-base-ai-debates-on-reality-not-extreme-fears-about-the-future-203030 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak with some members of the ELIZANGEN project: David M. Berry, Peggy Weil, Arthur Schwarz, Mark Marino and Jeff Shrager. ELIZA is the first “chatterbots”, emerging in the 1960’s. Listen to our conversation to learn more about finding the code for ELIZA in the archives, building various iterations of the bot, and how it helps us think about AI like Chat-GPT, today. Recorded April 24, 2023. Released May 20, 2023.pr0c3ss1nghttps://www.reddit.com/r/pr0c3ss1ng/ Mr. Mind http://82.223.169.27/MrMind/index.htmlELIZAGENhttps://sites.google.com/view/elizagen-org/team-eliza?authuser=0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wonder what longtermism is and how it’s come to be such a big influence over the tech world? I speak with Émile P. Torres about all things connecting AI hype, ideologies about future humans, big tech’s concentration of power, the idea of human potential (or humanity’s potential) and the idea of moral consequence. Recorded Apr 17, 2023. Released May 10, 2023.Longtermism Hubhttps://www.longtermism-hub.com/critiques Against longtermism https://aeon.co/essays/why-longtermism-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-secular-credo Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxichttps://www.salon.com/2022/08/20/understanding-longtermism-why-this-suddenly-influential-philosophy-is-so/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is nostalgia? A memory? A feeling? A weapon?? Tune in to my conversation with Grafton Tanner about the relationship between tech, nostalgia, retrobate and much more! Recorded Mar 31, 2023. Released April 30, 2023.Grafton Tannerhttps://graftontanner.com/ Yesterday Once Morehttps://reallifemag.com/yesterday-once-more/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maya and I talk about [digital] flesh, [digital] intimacies, and how writing in and out of academic contexts helps us feel through our best ideas. We wonder what we owe the world in terms of representation and identity, and whether it’s okay to offer up an altered version of ourselves. Recorded Mar 30, 2023. Released April 20, 2023.Between Flesh: Tech Degrees of Separationhttps://13thgwangjubiennale.org/minds-rising/ganesh/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gina and I talk about her recent article(s) on Wired.com that track violence against women and girls on the internet. We discuss how the internet should be regulated for safety, and question the limits of technological solutions. Recorded Feb 20, 2023. Released April 10, 2023.Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracyhttps://www.mctd.ac.uk/ The Internet Is at Risk of Driving Women Awayhttps://www.wired.com/story/online-harassment-women-internet/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zane and I delve deep into the materialities of the virtual world, and try to imagine who the Metaverse (in all its possible iterations) is for — with some attention to our uncomfortable, sweaty bodies, fussing with headsets and sensory overload. We conclude that Big Tech’s visions of the future are a bit stale. Recorded Jan 20, 2023. Released March 30, 2023.The Metaversehttps://about.meta.com/what-is-the-metaverse/ Decenterlandhttps://decentraland.org/download/ Zane’s workhttps://www.zanegriffintalleycooper.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sasha Luccioni explains LLM to be their parameters and why these matter when thinking about the social and environmental ramifications of AI. Recorded Feb 8, 2022. Released March 20, 2023.Publications (under “Alexandra Luccioni”)https://www.sashaluccioni.com/publications/ ICLR 2023 Workshop: Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning https://www.climatechange.ai/events/iclr2023 We’re getting a better idea of AI’s true carbon footprint by Melissa Heikkilä https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/14/1063192/were-getting-a-better-idea-of-ais-true-carbon-footprint Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hank Gerba was once one of Sophia The Robot’s handlers, and in this episode he reveals the magic (deception) behind social robots that promise to be one day autonomous. Recorded Jan 24, 2023. Released March 10, 2023. Sophiahttps://www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/ The Most Realistic Humanoid Robots in The Worldhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjHNFP_773k&ab_channel=Motech Creators of famous Sophia robot reveal AI robotics for children, elderly | Nightlinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHdnkUjcZg&ab_channel=ABCNews Sophia the Robot and Jimmy Sing a Duet of "Say Something"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zyTlZQYpE&ab_channel=TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jake Pitre and I discuss the concept of the Metaverse and the future it wants. Recorded Jan 18, 2023. Released March 1, 2023. Who Wants the Metaverse?https://daily.jstor.org/who-wants-the-metaverse/ Awkward Meetingshttps://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1455624165201887234 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.