Books are at the heart of an ongoing AI controversy with 7.5 million books being used to train AI without the authors’ knowledge or consent. So, should AI be allowed to steal books? Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong speak to award-winning author Kate Mosse about the growing debate over AI and authorship. They’ll also explore how the publishing industry is responding and whether AI systems have the legal right to absorb millions of books?Plus, with AI generated books on the rise, could this technology ever truly replace human writers? What does the future hold for authors, readers, and the publishing world?Presenters: Kevin Fong & Aleks Krotoski
Producer: Rachael O'Neill
Sound: Gav Murchie
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30:27
Can AI Save Darth Vader?
Aleks and Kevin step into the world of actors “banking” their voices for use after death. With the help of AI your favourite actor can continue to appear on screen for years after they've gone. But what does that really mean? What’s a performance without the actor behind it? Benjamin Field is the producer behind the AI Sir Michael Parkinson podcast, where the late interviewer talks to new guests thanks to AI technology. Benjamin explains how the technology works, and the ethical concerns that it poses. Plus he describes how he sees the technology as a way to create more work for actors. Impressionist Alistair McGowan has portrayed everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to John Major to Boris Johnson. He explains that a voice is more than sound waves, but about soul, character and personal strength. Can those elements be replicated by AI? And do we want them to be? Produced by Emily Esson
Researched by Juliet Conway A BBC Audio Scotland production.
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28:23
What Is Trump's AI Agenda?
Ai is at a turning point, Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong ask what direction it will take and who is advising the most powerful man in the world on what vision of AI to pursue?There are numerous camps vying for President Trump's favour over how to develop Ai. There are those demanding that it be allowed to run free without the burden of innovation stifling regulation. Others still cling to the notion that the risks of rampant Ai still need to be curbed, while a third camp want to see 'big tech' working even closer with government to harness the power of this new 'wonder technology' and beat China both economically and in cyber security.Who will be listened to, and what does it mean for the rest of a world that's a good deal more sceptical about the potential of Ai and its risks? Andrew Strait Associate Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute helps Aleks and Kevin understand the various characters pushing their Ai agendas, while Nobel prize winning economist Daron Acemoglu explains the possible consequences of what's being proposed and how it is only a very narrow view of what Ai could be and how it could benefit mankind.Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
Researcher: Juliet Conway
Sound: Sean Mullervy
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28:59
Should AI have a 'kill switch'?
Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong explore our fears around AI, where they come from andwhether we're worrying about the right things?Listener Paul asks 'if AI gets so smart wouldn't it realise it was a threat to society and switch itself off?' Its the stuff of Sci-fi fantasy, an artificial intelligence that gets so smart it decides it doesn't need humanity anymore. But if AI were ever to get that powerful and for many its a very big 'if' why would it want to do that? Kevin and Aleks speak to Dr Kanta Dihal who researches the stories we tell ourselves about technology and ask her why they seem to have become increasingly apocalyptic.Do these far-flung futures distract us from much more immediate problems with AI and is that their purpose? Professor Michael Rovatsos explains the issues AI raises today and what’s being done counter them.Presenters: Aleks Krotoski & Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
Sound: Sue Maillot & Sean Mullervy
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28:42
Will AI Eat Itself?
Listener Gordon is worried that as AI content spreads across the web there'll be proportionally less and less human content for the AI’s to be trained on with the result their output will just get blander and blander.He’s right to be worried, Aleks and Kevin explore the phenomena of ‘model collapse’ the inevitable breakdown of an AI to give useful results if its training data is already AI produced. Speaking to NYU data scientist Professor Julia Kempe the pair discover that training on AI generated data also means a brick wall in terms of improving AI performance. There is hop however according to Shayne Longpre of the Data Provenance Initiative the answer is to put humans back in the loop to curate the data for the AI’s and teaching them what’s good data from bad.Presenters: Aleks Krotoski & Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
The Artificial Human is a BBC Audio Scotland production for Radio 4
Every day, we read something new about Artificial Intelligence - it'll take our jobs, it'll teach our kids, it knows more about us than we do ourselves... but how much of that is hype, and how much is, or will be reality?
Part of our problem with AI is that it feels impenetrable and mysterious, especially when even those building it aren't entirely sure how it works.
In a new series, Aleks Krotoski (The Digital Human, Radio 4) and Kevin Fong (13 Minutes to the Moon, BBC World Service) set out to 'solve' AI. Or at the very least, to answer our questions on all things artificial intelligence-related. These are the questions that really matter to us - is AI smarter than me? Could AI make me money? Will AI save my life or make me its slave?
These questions predate the current frenzy created by the likes of Chat GPT, BARD and LlaMA. They've been in our collective psyche ever since the very first thinking machines. Now these fears and excitement are a reality. This series arrives at a critical moment.
UK