AI Unfiltered

Ian and Michael discuss Web3, social media, and a decentralised Internet - is it necessarily a good thing?

Ian and Michael discuss a couple of examples where AI is used for the common good (as opposed to the profit motive) in wildlife and biodiversity conservation, minimising energy consumption and food and water safety. And while AI can be used for the betterment of us all, it is not a substitute for collective, human action.

Ian and Michael discuss recent strides in AI-generated video, the use of people's likenesses in video and images, the "Deepfake defense" in the court of law, the concept of "AI Veganism" and the recent news of AI-generated artwork winning an art competition. 

Recommender systems are all around us in the digital realm. We're constantly bombarded with automatic recommendations for what to watch, what to listen to, what to read, what to buy, what to eat, or where to travel to. Chances are that's how you found this very podcast! Ian and Michael discuss recommenders and their flaws, and the difficulties both for consumers to find good online content and for...

Ian and Michael discuss machine translation, recent advancements in automatic speech-to-speech translation and the role of translation in the future.

Ian and Michael discuss how human communication has changed in the digital age, from the use of emojis to communicate whole sentences to the ability to send a message to a person on the other side of the planet nearly instantaneously.

Ian and Michael discuss the concept of doomscrolling and how being constantly online and connected affects our mental health.

Ian and Michael give up on humanity and discuss the prospects of just letting the machines run the show. In previous episodes, we have discussed the role of AI in automating your life, and how AI is used by various actors (with varying degrees of malevolence) to manipulate you. But what if you could deliberately and consciously use AI to control your behaviour? And what if we automated the politic...

Ian and Michael revisit the Metaverse and discuss the idea of creating virtual replicas of deceased loved ones and famous historical figures, virtual bands, spending money on virtual real estate, and even the possibility of hosting a podcast in the Metaverse.

Self-driving cars have been hyped to the extreme for several years, but is it technically feasible to get them working reliably enough, and even if would be possible, is it a good idea in the first place? Ian and Michael discuss self-driving cars and other forms of autonomous vehicles.

Ian and Michael discuss ethical use of AI and the ethics of innovation - if AI and digitalisation will destroy more jobs than it creates, is that a path we should continue walking? And is digitalisation the great equalizer, or will it exacerbate inquality and the darker sides of humanity? In the episode, Ian and Michael discuss the Vatican's AI ethicist, human rights in the era of AI, anti-cheatin...

Ian and Michael discuss the use of AI in the food making process. How far away are we from completely automated kitchens and restaurants, let alone a robot restaurant with a Michelin star?

Is the metaverse more than a buzzword? And considering how much time we spend in the digital realm through smartphones and computers, do we really want to double down on a semi-digital reality? Ian and Michael discuss and deconstruct the metaverse concept - with a healthy dose of skepticism.

In the past few months, AI-powered image generators like DALL-E and DreamStudio have been churning out images of truly impressive quality in a variety of styles. Have we reached the point where anyone can be an artist at the click of a button? Ian and Michael discuss AI-generated artwork and imagery and what it might mean for the future of art and design.

AI Unfiltered is back from its summer hiatus! Ian and Michael discuss a few AI and technology related news items that caught their eye over the summer, including emotional recognition, deepfakes in the war in Ukraine, a purported "party loyalty checker" AI, and intelligent speed assistance. They also discuss the outcome of the machine translation experiments in episode 23, The Translated Episode .

In the last episode before the summer hiatus, Ian and Michael discuss translation and speech in the context of language learning, virtual voice-overs, and virtual movie actors. As an experiment, we've also included excerpts from episode 16 (No code and low code) that have been automatically translated to Spanish and French using speech-to-text (to create the transcript from the original English),...

With summer in full swing, Ian and Michael discuss the idea of a completely automated, AI-powered holiday resort. The discussion then turns to using AI to create completely individualised and personalised books, and using AI to document peoples' life stories.

Ian and Michael discuss their shared interest in electric scooters.

Ian and Michael discuss whether AI can have a positive impact on the environment, and whether that will be enough to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

In an increasingly automated world where even potentially life-and-death decisions may be outsourced to AI, who frequently operate as black boxes, understanding how and why the decisions were made becomes ever more critical. Ian and Michael discuss the concept of explainable AI.

Ian and Michael discuss the potential of using AI in writing screenplays and novels, audio dubbing and music production.

What if you could automate all of the boring stuff and minutiae of daily life, and you could focus on the important things? Ian and Michael discuss the use of AI and the prospects of virtual personal assistants.

Will we need coders in the future, or will even coding be automated? Ian and Michael discuss recent strides in no code and low code technologies.

Ian and Michael discuss the use of AI in sports.

Will your next co-worker (or boss!) be an AI? Ian and Michael discuss the implications of recent developments in AI and virtual workers, and the impact of automation on working life.