Rationally Speaking #231 - Helen Toner on "Misconceptions about China and artificial intelligence"

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2019

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Helen Toner, the director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), shares her observations from the last few years of talking with AI scientists and policymakers in the US and China. Helen and Julia discuss, among other things: How do the views of Chinese and American AI scientists differ? How is media coverage of China misleading? Why the notion of an "AI arms race" is flawed Why measures of China's AI capabilities are overstated Reasons for optimism and pessimism about international cooperation over AI

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today's episode of Rationally Speaking is sponsored by Givewell.
0:03.5	Givewell takes a data-driven approach to identifying charities where your donation can make a big impact.
0:09.3	Givewell spends thousands of hours every year vetting and analyzing nonprofits so that it can produce a list of charity recommendations that are backed by rigorous evidence.
0:17.9	The list is free and available to everyone online.
0:20.6	The New York Times has
0:21.3	referred to Givewell as, quote, the spreadsheet method of giving. Givewell's recommendations are
0:26.2	for donors who are interested in having a high altruistic return on investment in their giving.
0:30.7	Its current recommended charities fight malaria, treat intestinal parasites, provide vitamin A supplements,
0:35.9	and give cash to very poor people.
0:39.6	Check them out at give well.org.
0:57.6	Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
1:02.5	I'm your host, Julia Galef, and our guest today is my friend Helen Toner.
1:12.6	Helen is the director of strategy at a new think tank at Georgetown University called the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, or C-SET, which researches and advises policymakers on the security impacts of technologies like artificial intelligence.
1:17.9	Before that, Helen was a senior research analyst at the Open Philanthropy Project, and she
1:22.3	just got back from living in China for nine months, getting to know the AI ecosystem there.
1:26.5	We're going to talk about a bunch of
1:27.7	things, including common misconceptions about China and AI strategy, and just how to think about
1:33.6	a topic like this, how to analyze complicated strategic decisions with a lot of uncertainty in them.
1:39.5	So, Helen, welcome to rationally speaking. Thanks so much. So first, give us a little more detail on what you
1:45.8	were doing in China, aside from the most important thing you did there, which was, at my request,
1:51.6	paying a visit to Beijing's replica of the coffee shop from Friends. I really appreciate you
1:56.0	making that pilgrimage on my behalf. It was a pleasure, Julia. And I feel like that that visit in itself says a lot
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -2175 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York City Skeptics, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York City Skeptics and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.