How Is Predictive AI Shaping Our World? With AI Philosopher Carissa Véliz
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Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Serenti. AI models now advise on everything from war, crop output, and marriages. Algorithms determine whether we can get a loan, a job, an apartment or an organ transplant. Carissa Valise, associate professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, argues that
Today's computer scientists now play the same role as the oracles of the ancient world and the astrologers of the Middle Ages, where when we cede ground to these predictions, we lose control of our own lives. On today's episode, Valise sits down with Tom Chatfield, technology philosopher and author, to discuss her new book, Prophecy, Prediction, Power and the Fight for the Future, and how predictive systems are transforming power, responsibility, and human agency today. Let's join our host Tom Chatfield now with more. Carissa. It was a great pleasure to talk to you.
And I'm going to start with a a very kind of simple question. Why did you decide to write a book about prophecy? It's great to be here. Thank you so much, Tom. I found prophecy very interesting, partly because I'm a philosopher and I'm interested in ancient Greece and there is this thread that runs through the history of humanity of how much we rely on on prediction and how important it is.
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