Theory of Change #065: Jeff Schatten and Gary N. Smith on AI and its implications

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theoryofchange.flux.community

Artificial intelligence, or at least what we’re calling it, is everywhere in today’s world. Up until very recently, however, most of the software and services using AI haven’t gotten much public attention, and that’s because the primary users of AI historically have been governments, militaries, and giant corporations, all of which have one thing in common— huge amounts of data and huge responsibilities.

In November of last year, the AI industry leaped into the media spotlight with a launch of ChatGPT, a text-based large language model program that can rapidly generate massive quantities of text in the form of articles, stories, and even poetry in response to typed human input.

The attention has been massive. The launch of ChatGPT spurred an arms race in the small world of tech behemoth companies. Google, Amazon, and others have raced to get into the gold rush that Microsoft and its partners at OpenAI created with the launch of ChatGPT.

This is a world that is uncharted territory and there are a lot of implications to the future that seems to be rapidly escalating in a way that is entirely unplanned and certainly unregulated. Now, what does that mean for the future? What does that mean for business? What does that mean for academics?

What does it mean for society at large? There’s a lot to talk about here, and we’re bringing in two panelists to discuss. Gary N. Smith is a professor of economics at Pomona College. Jeff Schatten is an associate professor of business at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

In order to keep Theory of Change sustainable, the full audio, video, and transcript for this episode are available to subscribers only. The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help.

Please join today to get full access with Patreon or Substack.

If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal.

If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.

Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange

Matthew Sheffield on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield

Matthew Sheffield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield

 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe