PCAST: Discussion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Enabling Science and AI Impacts on Society
"Inflection point"
"LLMs are just the beginning"
...and coming for the physical world
"AI can augment humans" [starting asking: which ones and why? WB]
"Profound social impact" - propagate issues we had for centuries [well beyond known biases: important but not a red herring]
...and then "free-riding" ;-) on work done by the European Commission back in 2018
Big issues indeed: industry dominates AI talent acquisition and development; consolidation of industry dominance also because of the necessary computation needs (latter was a hot topic in Teramo last week as well 😉dropbox.com/s/rh7ued1ho2wh…]
That “What can we do” Q. - I guess the A very much depends on whom you ask [public-minded innovation sure but incentives? The Chat helping you out when cancelling your NYTimes sub is a bad example IMHO bc similar dark patterns should just be banned under consumer protection law]
“I think we need to rethink what we want from AI, which is inseparable from rethinking AI” @DAcemogluMIT
[The most down-to-earth concerns about AI heard so far came from guess whom? An economist!]
Humans v. Big Tech’s business models and dystopian LLM visions?
[Agreed: we cannot become more productive if we receive advice that we don’t understand 😳]
Social scientists’ necessary albeit inconvenient role here: spreading the bad news 👇
“A big shock will be necessary” @DAcemogluMIT - and, IMHO, it’ll need to go beyond “Rethinking AI”: it’s about the computational ecosystem more generally (ok: me obsessing with cloud computing since last week’s presentation)
Worth mentioning is also the [total] absence of the public agenda setting role in digital technologies so far (not just innovation, but what type and direction of digital innovation do we want?)
Worrying: centralisation of data, and LLMs could amplify that @DAcemogluMIT - big elephant in the room (would’ve been good question for the incensed Google on the first panel)
[Is there a German word for unresolved problems of the digital past becoming worse in a new tech cycle?]
💯agree with an economist 😊: we need an holistic discussion on how science and technology are evolving if left on their own devices
The train between Rome and the airport where the idea for this conference emerged is called Leonardo Express #brilliantideatrain
Second time I see @vestager live, first time was at the 2019 special advisors conference - thinking of Heike (met her on train back to the airport with her and discussed ecosystems)
"The move to establish minimum standards builds on efforts in recent decades to write minimum security standards, especially in the energy industry, and Thursday’s document makes clear that similar measures are coming for other critical infrastructure sectors"
"Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience" – We will place responsibility on those within our digital ecosystem that are best positioned to reduce risk and shift the consequences of poor cybersecurity away from the most vulnerable..."