Age of AI

For our season opener, Young Diogenes has a chat with Chris and Medlir about some cool new things large language models can now do for us. Specifically, why some companies, like Google with Gemini, are choosing to concentrate on increasingly larger context windows (i.e., the size of the text, music, video prompt, etc., that the AI can parse).   And why being able to load an entire book, a movie, o...

Medlir asks Lukas Andriukaitis, Board member of Lithuania-based Civic Resilience Initiative (CRI), what it means to work and live at the frontier of the new misinformation / disinformation space. They discuss the current atmosphere in the region and beyond, in terms of threat of misinformation/disinformation. They consider both the benefits and the drawbacks of AI-enabled technologies as billions...

Luca Bertuzzi joins Medlir for a discussion on the EU AI Act passed by the European Parliament on March 13th. Among other things, they discuss the likely impact of the law on innovation and governance within the EU and abroad, as well as criticisms that the act fails to address concerns regarding human rights and civil liberties. Links: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/03/13/lawmakers-appro...

Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein share with Chris what they will be keeping an eye out for in the AI regulatory space in 2024. They also discuss their latest work on the politics and governance of big data and artificial intelligence and their newly published Handbook on the Governance Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In this discussion Andrej and Oskar explore the...

Medlir sits down with Dr. Raluca Csernatoni and Dr.  Marijn Hoijtink to discuss the escalating ‘innovation race’ among corporate giants. They discuss AI’s contribution to the rise in power of the private tech sector vs. the state, as well as the ‘existential threat’ and ‘superintelligence’ narratives around foundational AI models and how these shape specific socio-technical imaginaries of the futu...

Medlir is joined by Baptiste Alloui-Cros, founder of the Strand Simulations Group and a wargame designer, to discuss how AI is likely to impact how we think, strategize, and prepare for war. Links: https://strandsimulationsgroup.com/ https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/does-artificial-intelligence-change-the-nature-of-war/ https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/what-is-the-u...

This week Medlir and our guest Rebekah Dowd, an academic, scholar, and author of The Birth of Digital Human Rights: Digitized Data Governance as a Human Rights Issue in the EU , explore how and why the EU became a leader in the realm of digital human rights. Links: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-82969-8 https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/ https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headline...

In this episode Chris talks to Arnaud Kurze of Montclair State University, currently a Digital Studies Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Arnaud has carried out groundbreaking research in digital humanities, memory studies, and transitional justice and offers his insights into AI and virtual memory spaces, accountability,  Links: Kluge Fellowship: https://www.loc.gov/pr...

Medlir and Chris speak with Dr. Joachim Koops of the Global Governance Institute and Leiden University to discuss the launch of the AI Global Governance program.  They further discuss the challenges associated with the question of governance more broadly. Links: https://www.globalgovernance.eu/about-us https://www.globalgovernance.eu/education/aigg

Young Diogenes (YD), Medlir and Chris discuss trends and developments in AI for 2023 (Democratization, Personalization, Twinning, GenAI, Multi-modal AI, AI ethics).  We also discuss advances in behavioral AI for communications security, weather forecasting, material science, and discussion of the recent chaos at OpenAI (based on reporting by Karen Hao, the final link below provides some really int...

Medlir sits down with Emma Morrison and Justin Lynch to discuss ways AI can help analysts in understanding significant events, attributing actions, and presenting usable information to decision-makers, while reflecting on how AI may adversely affect a country's ability to signal credibly, or understand its adversaries intentions accurately. Links:  https://sais.jhu.edu/kissinger/programs-and-...

Medlir discusses the impact of AI on development with Katya Klinova, Head of AI, Labor, and the Economy division of the Partnership on AI.  There she oversees (among other things) the AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative, asking how to make AI progress in the workforce more inclusive, as well as the potential impact of AI on the economic growth prospects of low- and middle-income countries. Links:...

Medlir is joined for a wide-ranging conversation on the shifting landscape of AI governance by Dr. Justin Bullock, a Senior Researcher at Convergence Analysis, in the UK. Dr. Bullock brings a wealth of expertise in public administration, artificial intelligence (AI), organizational theory, and management.  He is the lead editor of Oxford University Press’ Handbook of AI Governance.  Links:  https:...

YD, Chris, and Medlir discuss some recent uses of AI, to quickly and easily generate political influence campaigns.   Many of us are already aware of the rapidity and volume at which AI can generate content. But in this episode, we discuss some of the ways in which AI quality is improving, as well as some different mechanisms being tested to maximize the intensity and appeal to our emotions and bi...

Medlir is joined by Dr. Joseph Vukov, Associate Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago, whose research explores questions at the intersection of ethics, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, and at the intersection of science and religion.  Links: https://www.scienceforhumans.com/the-team https://mailchi.mp/scu/itec-handbook https://www.foco...

Medlir Mema is joined by Dr. Branka Marijan, a Senior Researcher at Project Ploughshares, where she leads the research on the military and security implications of emerging technologies. Her research interests include trends in warfare, civilian protection, use of drones, and civil-military relations.  Links: https://www.g20interfaith.org/branka-marijan/  https://www.ploughshares.ca/author/branka-...

How do states use digital tools to deceive, disseminate disinformation, and deepen authoritarianism? In this episode Chris talks with Marc Owen Jones about digital authoritarianism in the Middle East, who sheds light on this question and much more in a far-reaching discussion. Show Notes https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/digital-authoritarianism-in-the-middle-east/ 

Medlir discusses the likely impact of AI and Emerging Tech with Dr. Chris Moran and Dr. Joe Burton, authors of a recent study which argues that talk of an AI-fueled intelligence revolution is premature. Links:  The US Intelligence Community, Global Security, and AI: From Secret Intelligence to Smart Spying   The Future of Analysis   A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn   China Is...

Chris, Medlir, and Young Diogenes get back to a sequel from season 4.  We continue exploring the future of AI integration into research, provenance, and predictions about the future of AI, as well as some light-hearted jabs at each other. Adept Raises $350 Million To Build AI That Learns How To Use Software For You (forbes.com) Adobe Firefly (Beta) Four Reasons Data Provenance Is Vital For Analyti...

Medlir sits down with CrossPlag's Dr. Alejtin Berisha to discuss the challenges of Higher Education in the age of AI and the promise of AI originality detection tools like CrossPlag for educators hoping to incorporate tools like ChatGPT in their curriculum. Links: CrossPlag Website CrossPlag Review 'Everybody is cheating': Why this teacher has adopted an open ChatGPT policy Professo...

In this episode Kutoma Wakunuma, Damien Okaibedi Eke, and Simisola Akintoye join Chris to discuss their latest edited volume, Responsible AI in Africa. In this conversation we explore Africa’s exclusion from conversations on AI ethics, epistemic injustice, the concept of Ubuntu, and innovations from Africa’s silicon savannas.  Link(s): Responsible AI in Africa

Medlir sits down with Dr. Jeannie Johnson, co-founder and Director of the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence (CAI), to discuss CAI’s mission, what it means to create the nation’s first MA program in Anticipatory intelligence, and the importance of combining expertise in national security and geopolitics with cutting-edge instruction in cyber threats, data analytics, and emergent technology. Link...

Medlir talks with Evrim Tan, the co-author (with Joep Crompvoets) of The new digital era governance : How new digital technologies are shaping public governance, a fantastic recent publication that seeks to draw important distinctions between the 'old' digital era governance and the 'new' AI-based one. Links: The new digital era governance OECD Working Papers on Public Governan...

Our lighthearted yearly conversation about Television and Film containing Artificial Intelligence -- featuring  the ever delightful Chris, Medlir, and of course the incredibly handsome Young Diogenes.  What will these goofballs pick and argue about this year? (Ed. note: probably almost nothing related to the content, eh? *zing* In seriousness, they cover all of their picks, sling around a few digs...

In this episode Chris talks with Maureen Webb about her latest book, Coding Democracy: How Hackers Are Disrupting Power, Surveillance and Authoritarianism (MIT Press, 2000). Webb explores the hacker ethic, Julian Assange & the cypherpunk movement, and the future of democracy. Links Coding Democracy: How Hackers Are Disrupting Power