ETH Global Lecture Series: The Digital Ape
!VERSCHOBEN!: Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Computing Science at Oxford University, will take us on a journey showing how the human race’s relationship to AI technology is evolving in the first decades of the 21st century.
The Digital Ape: Being Human in the Age of AI
Humanity has given birth to a new kind of animal - a great ape with almost magical, even angelic-like powers. Whether actively or passively, we must choose whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) will empower or oppress humankind. Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Computing Science at Oxford University, will take us on a journey showing how the human race’s relationship to AI technology is evolving in the first decades of the 21st century. Exploring the most significant transformations of the human species since its first steps out of Africa, this lecture will inspire self-reflection and leave you with the profound question, “What does it now mean to be human?”
Reviewing the rise of Artificial Intelligence, as well as the foundation for its methods and techniques, Shadbolt identifies the deployment of AI at home and work. Technology has enabled universal access to information, access to goods and services (for those who can afford them), and instantaneous access to maps. “Intelligent” describes nearly everything around us from the objects in which we work to the machines with which we live, and from the transportation in which we travel to our daily entertainment. Individuals now use, and even wear, digital tools that enhance nearly every aspect of their cognition.
Yet, the base nature of man still motivates the selection of a mate, the food we eat, and the inclination to wage war, as well as create great art. Only, in today’s world, humankind leverages the products of digital technology to fulfil its base desires. Is the digital ape on the verge of a new Age of Enlightenment? Alternatively, will our machines evolve so quickly that they will outwit us all? Will humankind allow AI to lead the way to a very unpleasant and collectively diminished future - a future in which a relatively small group of super-enhanced digital elites make choices for the rest of us?
