Robots Should Not Have British Accents ft. James Vincent

This week, we're joined by James Vincent (@jjvincent), a senior reporter at The Verge who writes on AI, Machine Learning and the development of robots. We talk about the ongoing meme of fake Boston Dynamics videos, and why watching videos of humanoid robots - real and fake- constantly seems to freak people out, and how much Boston Dynamics is aware of these viral videos. We then talk about digital 'Geofoam' - a mixture of inanimate digital objects, rigid automated robots, and machine learning tools designed to 'mimic' human activity - and how this is shaping the development of the internet, and our own relationship to it. While those autocomplete functions on Gmail might be great for sending half-assed emails to your line manager, how long will it take before these machines end up being able to produce and reproduce digital content? Is their presence setting even more limits on creative expression? Crucially, we reach one conclusion: If the robots are going to force themselves into our lives, they absolutely should NOT have British accents. 

You can read James' article here: https://t.co/yBOvgfAvJ8
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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posted. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth). For weekly bonus episodes, subscribe on Patreon at: www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast.