AI and Us - what Artificial Intelligence means for our lives

If AI is to be better utilised in medicine, the machines would have to be fed individual datasets. But especially with regard to health data, many people are hesitant. So, AI forces us to think about our relationship with data protection and with individuals’ rights.  In Episode 10 of “AI and Us”, we also ask whether we can and should leave moral decisions to an AI – in the company of Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz, Milica Gašić, Tobias Matzner, Daniel Rückert and Aimée van Wynsberghe.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

No technology is inherently all good or all bad. It depends how we use it. AI helps some global players to increase their turnover. In the service of autocratic regimes, it could monitor entire societies. But it can also be used to control power and water supplies more efficiently. That’s why we should agree whom AI is supposed to benefit and how it can be regulated.  A “human AI” that expands human intelligence for the good of our societies and the planet has the potential to make the world a better place. At present, however, certain groups in society are bearing the negative consequences of AI. Alexander von Humboldt Professor Aimée van Wynsberghe regards the way we handle AI as a social experiment. In Episode 9 of “AI and Us”, she is joined by AI experts Martin Butz and Tobias Matzner to consider the ethical, ecological and social issues that have to be borne in mind when dealing with AI.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

Recently, an AI completed Ludwig van Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony. Experts and listeners were enthusiastic. Will AI soon outstrip us, at least in some fields? It is certainly indisputable that AI can process far, far more data than a human.  In Episode 8 of “AI and Us”, Humboldtians Martin Butz, Tobias Matzner and Daniel Rückert discuss whether it is conceivable that an AGI, an artificial general intelligence, will be developed in the foreseeable future. That would be an AI whose abilities and behaviour were not restricted to a certain segment of the world. Unthinkable, says Alexander von Humboldt Professor Aimée van Wynsberghe. She calls for a debate on the ethical issues and social consequences that are already generated by existing forms of AI.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

An AI that is so like us that we can’t tell it apart from a human being is a scary thought. The idea is sinister, but a long way from reality. At least, at the moment. Because today’s AI still has problems holding a targeted conversation. Even when AI is embedded in an artificial body it lacks the emotions and knowledge of the world to be able to behave as we do. Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz and Milica Gašić explain exactly what will always probably make artificial intelligence different from us.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.