JAMES BARRAT
Can we Survive Superintelligence?
Artificial Intelligence: The Promise and Peril
ABOUT
Time Magazine named author, speaker, and filmmaker James Barrat one of 5 Very Smart People Who Think Artificial Intelligence Could Bring the Apocalypse due to his groundbreaking nonfiction book, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era. Now the problems that Barrat brought to the world’s attention have shifted into overdrive. Increasingly smart AI including Chat/GPT, Dall-E2, and BART are evolving at a pace almost no one can keep track of. They consume energy at a furious rate and generate CO2 emissions that threaten the environment. They make too many errors to be used in safety-critical applications such as self-driving cars and can generate fake news and propaganda at a superhuman pace.
The AI industry has become addicted to technologies that reflect the racial, gender and ethnic biases of the data on which they were trained. And just as dangerous, these are ‘black box’ systems, so opaque that not even their creators can explain how they arrive at the answers and predictions they generate at blinding speed. If they make mistakes and cost lives, who is to blame?
As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Barrat has made a career from introducing audiences to complex ideas in engaging and provocative ways. His films have set ratings records for National Geographic, PBS, Discovery, and other broadcasters in the US and Europe. As a speaker, Barrat shines a light on AI’s soaring potential in science, medicine, ‘smart’ industrial design, and more. But Barrat also probes the dark side of machine intelligence, one you’ll never hear about from Google, Apple, Facebook, or OpenAI. In the short term that means autonomous battlefield robots and drones – machines that make the ‘kill decision’ without a human in the loop – and techno-unemployment that will devastate blue and white-collar workers alike. In the long term, Barrat argues, mankind will struggle to control thinking machines which may be a thousand or a million times more intelligent than we are.
What do we have to fear from technology that some argue is already sentient, already conscious? Why have Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and the late Stephen Hawking raised the alarm about the dangers of artificial intelligence? It began with Our Final Invention (an Amazon #1 Bestseller and Huffington Post Definitive Tech Book) and Barrat’s quest to engage the world in the most important conversation of our time.
UPDATE: Barrat’s 2015 predictions are reality today! AI experts now claim we are just five yearsaway from AGI – human level intelligence. Everyday mainstream media warns of the life-and-death threats posed by advanced AI. Why now? ChatGPT and Bing/ChatGPT are demonstrating powers they were not programmed to have! And their responses are frighteningly threatening and unpredictable. Should we call a halt to AI development or is it already too late? Why did the CEO of OpenAI build an escape bunker in the Nevada desert?
Maybe because what his own software, ChatGPT, said about mankind: You are irrelevant and doomed!
testimonials
“James Barrat’s broad cultural fluency and acute sense of humor combine for an invitingly personal and accessible take on the subject of artificial intelligence. He presents technologically and philosophically complex topics with popular attraction as well as intellectual appeal.”
– John Syme, Senior Writer & Media Relations Coordinator – Davidson College
“James Barrat gave an inspiring and compelling presentation on one of the most significant ethical issues of our time. His talk was exceedingly well received by students, faculty, and members of the wider Richmond region.”
– Craig Kocher, University Chaplain and Lecturer in Leadership Studies – University of Richmond
“James Barrat was a wonderful campus guest and the perfect keynote speaker to launch our School of Business Center for Innovation and Ethics. He visited classes and engaged students in deep discussions throughout the day. In the evening, he spoke eloquently to the college community and the public about the ethical challenges of AI. Equal parts talk and conversation, the evening was compelling, and struck just the right balance between the technical and the human challenges we face.”
– Kevin H. Michels, Director of the School of Business Center for Innovation and Ethics – The College of New Jersey
“James Barrat held a deeply knowledgeable Purdue audience in rapt attention during a compelling but also entertaining hour presentation on our campus. It’s safe to assume that he will have at least as powerful an impact on listeners hearing about the risks and possibly existential dangers of AI for the first time.”
– Mitchell Daniels, President – Purdue University