logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2019
41m 31s

Will AI make thinking obsolete?

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Would you choose an algorithm rather than a human to mark your exam papers? Would you welcome a translation app that replaced foreign language learning? Would you trust a marriage prediction app to choose your life partner? Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University - Radio 4's 'Public Philosopher' - puts these and other questions to an audience of students at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He generates a debate on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human decision-making, asking how far faith in technology depends on a mistrust of human subjectivity.

Producer: Sheila Cook

Up next
Oct 2018
Public Philosopher - Citizens of Nowhere?
Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel comes to St Paul's Cathedral to take on some of the hardest questions raised by the public discontent that characterises much of global politics today. With the help of a live audience, he asks whether globalisation and deepening inequality have ... Show More
41m 34s
Feb 2018
Global Philosopher: Should there be any limits to free speech?
Sixty people from around the world join Professor Michael Sandel in a digital studio at Harvard to discuss free speech. Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom of expression is regarded as a fundamental human right. But even in democracies there are disputes about t ... Show More
41m 41s
Mar 2017
Would life be better if robots did all the work?
Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel asks if life would be better if robots did all the work. Professor Sandel skilfully and entertainingly uses live audiences to help address important ethical and philosophical questions. He has travelled across the world and brought together glob ... Show More
41m 39s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2019
Professor of Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley - Stuart Russell
What is the most serious existential threat facing humanity? Artificial Intelligence, warned the physicist Stephen Hawking, could spell the end of the human race. Stephen Sackur interviews Stuart Russell, a globally-renowned computer scientist and sometime adviser to the UK Gover ... Show More
24m 21s
Nov 2023
How I is AI?
Brian and Robin (the real ones) are joined by mathematician Prof Hannah Fry, compute scientist Dr Kate Devlin and comedian Rufus Hound to discuss the pros and cons of AI. Just how intelligent is the most intelligent AI? Will our phones soon be smarter than us – will we fail a Tur ... Show More
42m 57s
Apr 2023
Can we control Artificial Intelligence?
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. ... Show More
49m 15s
Dec 2023
Superintelligent AI: can chatbots think?
Are generative AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT really intelligent? Large language models such as GPT 4 appear to use human-level cognitive abilities when they engage in legal reasoning, write essays or solve complex problems. Hosts John Thornhill and Madhumita Murgia speak to ... Show More
29m 27s
May 2023
Can AI Make You Laugh?
New large language models are capable of writing essays, drafting marketing pitches and having human-like exchanges on chat apps. But can they make us laugh the way a human can? To explore this, host Gary Marcus is joined by Dr. Naomi Saphra, an AI researcher and comedian, Bob Ma ... Show More
27m 56s
Nov 2018
Artificial Intelligence
An artificial intelligence capable of improving itself runs the risk of growing intelligent beyond any human capacity and outside of our control. Josh explains why a superintelligent AI that we haven’t planned for would be extremely bad for humankind. (Original score by Point Lob ... Show More
41m 52s
Mar 2023
New Thinking: AI, feminism, human/machines
What ethical questions arise from new human-machine relations as we are increasingly asked, as citizens and workers, to collaborate with AI systems? And how might a feminist approach to AI design help us shape an equitable future for AI-Human relations?Research Associate, Kerry M ... Show More
47m 11s
May 2024
Can you have a 'real' relationship with an AI?
OpenAI is showing off the latest version of its ChatGPT software in a new set of promotional videos, sounding almost human in the way it talks to users, inviting all sorts of sci-fi comparisons. But AI chatbots are already here, using large language models to simulate human speec ... Show More
28m 1s
Jun 2023
Can Artificial Intelligence teach itself?
Welcome to the exciting new field of generative artificial intelligence - or generative AI. We’re not talking about robots or spaceships: instead these are image generators and chatbots that are already revolutionising the way people write, research and interact in the virtual wo ... Show More
26m 28s
May 2023
Will Everyone Have a Personal AI? With Mustafa Suleyman, Founder of DeepMind and Inflection
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and now co-founder and CEO of Inflection AI, joins Sarah and Elad to discuss how his interests in counseling, conflict resolution, and intelligence led him to start an AI lab that pioneered deep reinforcement learning, lead applied AI and ... Show More
52m 25s