Emily M. Bender (ChatGPT expert) is a linguist, a scholar of the societal impact of language AI and a professor at the University of Washington where she’s director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory. She recently became internet-famous for her no-nonsense, almost comical, papers that criticise the hype around large language models (LLMs) and ChatGPT. Her message is: Don’t believe the tech bro’ hype; it’s spin!
In this chat we cover whether AI can take over the world; the real motives behind Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s excited calls for an “AI pause”; where longtermism, the singularity, effective altruism, pro-natalism and transhumanism (I’ve covered these in previous eps and on my Substack) all fit into the palaver; plus what we really should be terrified about. This is a thoroughly important and correcting conversation.
SHOW NOTES
I flag this explainer that I wrote on my Substack: Say it isn’t so: Human Eugenics
You can read Emily’s papers “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” and the “Octopus Paper”
Here’s the Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letter
Emily also wanted to point everyone to this paper on AI Safety vs. AI Ethics
And if you want to do more of a deep dive into all this, check out her podcast
If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
Let’s connect on Instagram
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Wild with Sarah Wilson, season 3 announcement
EMILY ATKIN: The best case ever for climate rage!
DAN BUETTNER: The Blue Zones guy shows us the trick to adding 10 years to our lives
ABBIE CHATFIELD: Millennial feminism, a mind blowing introduction.
FEARNE COTTON: A chat with the British ‘It’ girl’ about the struggle for happiness
THE LADY IN RED: special episode
DAVID WHYTE: The insta-calm of poetry and asking beautiful questions
SAUL GRIFFITH: Biden’s renegade climate advisor from Wollongong drops the best ever climate bomb!
OLIVER BURKEMAN: 4000 weeks…it’s all we got in this lifetime, folks!
Ask Me Anything...about climate change
CLARE DUBOIS: How victim consciousness is destroying the planet (fire up, people!)
TIMOTHY MORTON: My favourite hobby is making sure people don’t feel like dying
TARA JUNE WINCH: Being Aussie is a mental health crisis
DR JUD BREWER: On curiosity as the fix for anxiety
DR JILL BOLTE TAYLOR: The neuroscientist shows Sarah how to live blissfully in the right brain
Ask Me Anything - Part 2
Ask Me Anything - Part 1
TIM BROWN: Sarah’s meditation teacher joins the show
JAMES HOLLIS: The Jungian take on 2021
RUTGER BREGMAN: Author of Humankind on how to trust each other
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Hamish & Andy
The Howie Games
Motley Fool Money
Just the Gist
The Briefing