It’s not that simple
It’s not that simple is a podcast by Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation dedicated to major interviews with international personalities linked to politics, economy, and society. Conducted by renowned journalist Pedro Mendonça Pinto, the conversations with our special guests aim to demystify and simplify some of the most fascinating and relevant topics of our time. They will be objective, frontal, informal and informed dialogues to clarify why some issues «are not that simple».
The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation was founded in 2009 by Alexandre Soares dos Santos and his family to study the country’s major hindrances and bring them to the attention of the Portuguese people. The Foundation’s mission is to promote and expand the objective knowledge of Portugal today, thereby helping to develop society, strengthen the rights of citizens and improve public institutions and to cooperate in endeavors to identify, study and resolve society's problems. The Foundation is independent of political organizations and has no ideological affiliation with any political party. Its work is guided by the principles of human dignity and social solidarity and the values of democracy, freedom, equal opportunities, merit, and pluralism. www.ffms.pt
It’s not that simple
Artificial Intelligence, with NEIL LAWRENCE
AI: a dangerous threat or an indispensable tool for today and the future? «Artificial Intelligence is the most disruptive technology we've ever seen», claims Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge. However, he also believes that AI «is the continuation of a technological revolution» in how we share information via computers.
Speaking in Lisbon, the guest of this edition of «It's Not That Simple» highlighted a critical issue regarding AI usage: «It is not being used in the areas people are asking us to use it: health, social care, education or security.»
He advocates deploying AI to tackle persistent challenges and applying its benefits effectively, citing optimising time in essential professions as an example: «With this wave of technology, there is an opportunity to re-empower our nurses, our teachers, and others who make society better.»
While optimistic about the relationship between humanity and AI, Lawrence acknowledges the difficulties in regulating such a rapidly evolving field. He warns against leaving regulation to «inflexible and under-resourced» regulators to «decide the future for us all.»
Instead, he believes that regulators should work more closely with businesses, to understand their challenges more fully and be better placed to anticipate technological reactions before making decisions.
Lawrence collaborates with the OECD to elaborate guidelines for promoting responsible and democratic AI usage, privileging balanced regulation of the sector. «This is the most dangerous part of the reality we find ourselves in. We are at a stage where businesses are trying to preserve their market share», and restricting public access to AI in the process, he laments.
As an alternative, he argues, «we should encourage young people and those who want to do interesting and innovative things to use this technology.»
More on the topic:
Neil Lawrence: «The Atomic Human: What makes us unique in the age of AI» (Talks at Google)
Neil Lawrence: «The Atomic Human - Understanding ourselves in the age of AI» (Finnish Centre for Artificial Intelligence)
Neil Lawrence: ‘Is AI beyond our human understanding?’
Interview with the University of Cambridge