6 big ethical questions about the future of AI

In 2017 I had the incredible honour to deliver the Boyer lectures. I grew up with the Boyer lectures! I don’t remember a time when they weren’t part of the conversation. This series was about how the digital world has become fast, smart and connected. I started to ask the hard and thorny questions about the nature of our humanness and how to build a digital world in which we want to live. This thinking kick-started the ambitious work of the 3A Institute to build a new branch of engineering for a safe, sustainable and responsible future.

On the 9th of December in 1968, Douglas Engelbart gave the "Mother of All Demos" — the most important hour in the history of computing. I cowrote this four-episode podcast series with my friend Mark to explore the transformations that completely changed the relationship between humans and our machines. Start by listening to this first episode wherever you normally find your podcasts. Follow this link to explore some of the supplementary material on the blog.

This is a great read if you are new to cybernetics. I recommend it to all our new starters at the 3A Institute! It’s an insightful history of cybernetics, pulling together threads in the history of technology from the invention of radar in World War II to cryptocurrencies and VR. It explores the fascinating characters and events that have shaped how we understand machines and humanity. And if you can find a copy, I really recommend reading this alongside Maurice Trask’s The Story of Cybernetics -– it has Vaucson’s digesting duck on the cover in happy orange!

This book documents a fabulous exhibit that shares the same name. The curator Jasia Reichardt showed us a world where computers create with us!

Ok, so this is one of mine. I remember sketching out the plan for this book in between conference sessions while in Geneva. This is what happens when you bring a cultural anthropologist and computer scientist together to write a book. Diving a Digital Future explores the vision that has driven the ubiquitous computing research program and the contemporary practices that have emerged — both the motivating mythology and the everyday messiness of lived experience.

Broad is a beautiful writer. She’s also a Senior Fellow working with my team at the 3A Institute — lucky us! Ellen puts humans squarely at the centre of the conversation about artificial intelligence. A thought-provoking examination of humans both as the source of data that machines access and interpret, and as the designers of AI. This book asks the big questions and delves into some hard conversations. A timely and important read. I reckon I said this on the back of the book when it came out, and I still firmly believe it.

This book gives us a different way into considering Australian history. You’ll also find an excellent review of Dark Emu in the New York Times.