We meet the robot saints – sculptures made of wood and wire, of cams and pulleys during medieval times – that might just help us understand this new AI age we all find ourselves living in.
LEARN MORE about these inventions by reading City University of New York Professor Christopher Swift’s 2015 paper about these automated figures.
Today
A Lost Passport in Berlin… and Baku… and Baghdad
Co-host Kelly McEvers has lost her passport – more than once. A lot more than once, actually. And all those mistakes led to some big life moments. And if you want to hear more about Kelly’s encounters with Zora, check out her story from This American Life. Hosted by Simplecast, a ... Show More
10m 53s
Oct 20
Pumpkin Patches and Haunted Hotels: An Autumnal Mailbag
Kelly, Jerome, and Amanda answer some questions from a very autumnal mailbag – from visiting the LA version of a classic pumpkin patch (80 degrees, full sun, in a parking lot) to the best ways to get some chills and thrills ahead of Halloween.Places mentioned in this episode:The ... Show More
18m 53s
Jun 2017
AI, Machine Learning and Human Creativity
<p>Just as manufacturing automation cuts into human jobs, the prospect of creative artificial intelligence raises the specter of robot writers, robot artists and robot musicians who never sleep and always agree with their patron. But paranoia aside, where will creative machine le ... Show More
1h 17m
Apr 2024
Robots and the People Who Love Them
Shermer and Herold discuss: social robots, sex robots, robot nannies, robot therapists • flying cars, jetpacks and The Jetsons • Masahiro Mori • emotions, animism, mind • emotional intelligence • artificial intelligence • large language lodels • ChatGPT, GPT-4, GPT-5 and beyond • ... Show More
1h 13m