It seems you can’t tap a keystroke or flip someone the bird these days without a chatbot named Elektra or Boron popping up to ask ‘Do you need a hand with that?’.
Even as online assistants become our advisors, confidantes and, for some people, therapists, it’s not all beer and candy-crush. While the tech may enhance productivity and promise to solve our most wicked global problems, like any disruptive technology, it also possesses much darker potential.
A greater than human intelligence is about to arrive on the planet, not from outer space, but off our laptops.AI expert, Professor Toby Walsh
In late 2024, the so-called Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, suggested there’s a 10% to 20% chance that AI will lead to human extinction within three decades. We didn't like those odds, so we sat down with Australia’s very own godfather, AI expert, Professor Toby Walsh, to interrogate the risk that superintelligent machines become our overlords – or worse still, eliminate us altogether.
As well as being Chief Scientist of UNSW's AI Institute, Walsh has written multiple books on the subject, addressing the risks and rewards of what some are calling the fourth industrial revolution. In this week’s episode, he helps us examine how AI might change our experience of life and death – from the end of human biology to the inception of digital consciousness. Together we unmask The Singularity, tackle the ethics of robot warfare and discover which one of us is afraid of the virtual afterlife.
The positive side of you having all of this digital footprint is that it's the source material to make the virtual you that could be there for your descendants, to be able to talk to you”
Never ones to shy away from the big questions, we ask: What are the chances that digital immortality becomes reality? How might an algorithm start a nuclear war? And as for AI assistants, could such beguiling minions really pose an existential threat to humanity? Professor Walsh warns us that if we’re not careful, they just might.
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Credits
Grave Matters is an SBS Audio podcast about death, dying, and the people helping us do both better. Find it in your podcast app, such as the SBS Audio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or LiSTNR.
Hosts: Anthony Levin and Nadine J. Cohen
Producer: Jeremy Wilmot
Writers: Anthony Levin and Nadine J. Cohen
Art and design: Karina Aslikyan
SBS team: Joel Supple, Max Gosford, Bernadette Phương Nam Nguyễn, and Philip Soliman
Guest: Toby Walsh
HelplinesIf you'd like to speak to someone, you can reach a counsellor at Beyond Blue at any time, day or night, by calling 1300 22 4636 or visiting www.beyondblue.org.au. Also, Lifeline offers 24/7 crisis support on 13 11 14, and Embrace Multicultural Mental Health supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In an emergency call 000.
