Machine Ethics Podcast
Ben Byford and friends
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Discourse on AI Ethics.
News, explanation and Interviews with academics, authors, business leaders, creatives and engineers on the subject of autonomous algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, technology ethics and more.
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6 days ago
77. Doing Ethics with Marc Steen
This episode Marc Steen and I chat about: AI as tools, the ethics of business models, writing Ethics for People Who Work in Tech, the process of ethics - “doing ethics” and his three step process, misconceptions of ethics as compliance or a road block, evaluating ethical theories, universal rights, types of knowledges, what is the world we’re creating with AI?
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Apr 17, 2023
76. The professionalisation of data science with Dr Marie Oldfield
This episode we're talking with Dr Marie Oldfield on definitions of AI, the education and communication gaps with AI, explainable models, ethics in education, problems with audits and legislation, AI accreditation, importance of interdisciplinary teams, when to use AI or not, and harms from algorithms.
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Mar 28, 2023
75. The moral status of non-humans with Josh Gellers
This episode we talk with Josh Gellers about nature rights, rights for robots, non-human and human rights, justification for the attribution of rights, the sphere of moral importance, perspectives on legal and moral concepts, shaping better policy, the Lamda/Lemoine controversy, predicates of legal personhood, the heated discourse on robot rights, science fiction as a moral playground and more...
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Mar 11, 2023
74. AI, ethics and the future - DFA talk special edition
In this special edition episode with Data Science Festival we're hosting a panel discussing: what is ethics? Designing for Responsible AI, ethics as innovation and competitive advantage, ghost work, fairer AI, language as a human computer interface, cleaning up the web, technologies that shouldn’t be deployed and much more...
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Feb 1, 2023
73. 2022 in review with Olivia Gamblin
For this end of year episode I'm joined by Olivia Gamblinn to discuss: ethics boards, generative images models and copywrite, concept art, model bias and representation in the generative models, paying artists to appear in training sets, plagerism, chatGPT and when it breaks down, factual “truth” in text models, expectations for AI and digital technologies generally, limitations of AGI, inner life and the Chinese room, consciousness, robot rights, animal rights and getting into AI Ethics...
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Dec 16, 2022
72. Algorithms with Social Impact with Mitchel Ondili
This episode we talk with Mitchel Ondili on algorithm awareness, technology colonisation in the global south, OASI the registry for Algorithms with Social Impact, AI auditing, private vs public rights to consent, submitting your algorithms to OASI, hiring, and social services algorithms, the over datafication of life, or becoming an algorithmic subject, Intentionality of services and much more.
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Nov 22, 2022
71. The Politics of AI with Mark Coeckelbergh
This episode we talk with Mark Coeckelbergh about AI as a story about machines and where are we heading in creating human level intelligence, moral standing and robot-animal interfaces, technology determinism, environmental impacts of robots and AI, energy budgets, politics and AI, self-regulation and global governance for global issues.
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Aug 24, 2022
70. Rights, trust and ethical choice with Ricardo Baeza-Yates
This episode we talk with Ricardo Baeza-Yates about: Responsible AI, the importance of AI governance, questioning people's intent to create AGI, robot rights and brain / neural rights, the evolution of intelligence, ethical risk assessment, machine ethics, making ethical choices on behalf of your users, binary notions of trust, stupid uses of AI and more...
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Jul 12, 2022
69. AI ethics strategy with Reid Blackman
In this episode we talk with Reid Blackman about: what is learning? What it means to be worthy of trust, bullsh**t AI principles, company values, purpose and use in decision making, his AI ethics risk strategy book, machine ethics as a fools errand, weighing metrics for measuring bias, ethics committees, police and the IRB. And much more...
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Feb 25, 2022
68. Ethics of digital worlds with Richard Bartle
Richard Bartle joins us again after his appearance on ep.65 to chat about the metaverse, different ways to design AI controlled NPC, the lack of progress of AI in games, ethical considerations of games designers, ethics of AI life, virutalism, 'smart' AI will happened, robot rights and more...
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Feb 24, 2022
67. AI Audits with Ryan Carrier
This episode we're chatting with Ryan Carrier about the positivity of the ForHumanity community, being compelled to do something about AI technologies negative impact, AI audits and topics including: trust, oversight, governance, privacy, cyber security, bias; creating an infrastructure of trust, disclosing found risks and the ethical decisions, the new industry of AI audits, human wellbeing as the whole point of business and more...
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Jan 3, 2022
66. 2021 in review with Merve Hickok
This episode Ben and Merve are chatting about 2021–EU AI legislation & harmonising AI product markets through policy, the UNESCO principles, systemic dogma, AI ethics in defence, Reith lectures and Lethal autonomous weapons, demonstrating values / principles and much more...
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Dec 10, 2021
65. DeepDive: AI and Games
This first Deepdive episode we talk to Amandine Flachs, Tommy Thompson and Richard Bartle about AI in games, it's history, it's uses and where its going. We discover NPCs, games as a test bed for AI research, different game AI techniques, back office uses of AI, job displacement, bad actors and possible futures...
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Nov 15, 2021
64. Emotion detection with Andrew McStay
This episode we're chatting with Andrew McStay about emotional human machine interface, emotion face and voice detection, emotion detection and hiring–and the possiblity of gaming these systems, interactive AI kids toys, the space between an ethical subject and an object in AI systems, raising children in an AI world, cultural differences in emotional profiling, emotional AI regulation.
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Oct 10, 2021
63. AI readiness with Tim El-Sheikh
This episode we're talking with Tim El-Sheikh of Nebuli.com. We chat about definitions of intelligence and augmented intelligence, ethical AI as the smarter AI, importance of a businesses AI strategy and getting data ready, AGI and what is conciousness? Human intuition, privacy as a human right and more...
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Sep 3, 2021
62. What excites you about AI?
In this bonus compilation episode we look back at our interviewees answers to the question: What excites you about our AI mediated future? We chat about rethinking our responsibility towards our world, algorithms that work for everyone not just the a few, social justice, solving coordination problems and humanitarian problems, growing as a humanity, building with the next generation in mind, and more...
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Aug 26, 2021
61. Welcome to the Machine Ethics podcast
Short introduction to the podcast: what it is about, when it started, and how to get involved.
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Aug 25, 2021
60. Responsible AI Research with Madhulika Srikumar
This time we're talking AI research with Madhulika Srikumar of Partnership on AI. We chat about managing the risks of AI research, how should the AI community think about the consequences of their research, documenting best practises for AI, OpenAI's GTP2 research disclosure example, considering unintended consequences & negative downstream outcomes, considering what your research may actually contribute, promoting scientific openness, proportional ethical reflection, research social impact assessments and more...
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Aug 10, 2021
59. What scares you about AI?
In this bonus compilation episode we look back at our interviewees answers to the question: What scares you about our AI mediated future? We chat gender imbalance and lack of diversity, digital personhood, climate change, ubiquitous surveillance, deep-fakes, people misusing AI, human hubris, capitalism getting in the way and more...
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Jul 19, 2021
58. AI regulation with Lofred Madzou
We chat with Lofred Madzou about AI as a journey to understand ourselves through smart machines, scepticism about wholesale job lose, understanding that “you are not your data”, dissecting the European proposal for AI regulation, examples of types of AI activities under regulation, the spirit of the regulation - human rights centric, risk based approaches, infringement exposition and compliance...
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Jul 1, 2021
57. Value Sensitive Design with Steven Umbrello
We're talking with Steven Umbrello about transhumanism, his passion for philosophy and it's practical applications, Value sensitive design a modular design practise, technologies co-constructing society, integrating VSD using agile workflows, issues of principles, moral imagination and more...
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Jun 16, 2021
56. What is AI? 2
This episode is our second bonus compilation of answers from previous years of interviews asking the question: What is AI? We hear from past interviewees Jess Smith, Rishal Hurbans, Jacob Turner, Cennydd Bowles, Joanna J Bryson, Damien Williams, Olivia Gamelin, David Gunkel, Bertram Malle, David Yakobovitch, Luciano Floridi, Lydia Nicholas.
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Jun 1, 2021
55. Speculative design with Phil Balagtas
We're chatting with Phil Balagtas about speculative & critical design, speculative design as a strategy tool, using design as a what if tool, or a story to strive for, The Design Futures Initiative, doing meanful work, and getting to real trust in mission critical AI...
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Mar 27, 2021
54. The business of AI ethics with Josie Young
This episode we're chatting with the amazing Josie Young on making businesses more efficient, how the AI ethics landscape changed over the last 5 years, ethics roles and collaborations, feminist AI and chatbots, responsible AI at Microsoft, ethics push back from teams and selling in AI ethics, disinformation’s risk to democracy and more...
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Mar 22, 2021
53. Comedy and AI with Anthony Jeannot
A laid back episode of the podcast where Anthony and I chat about Netflix and recommender systems, finding comedy in AI, AI written movies and theatre, human content moderation, bringing an AI Ben back from the dead, constructing jokes recursively and much more...
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Mar 1, 2021
52. Algorithmic discrimination with Damien Williams
This episode we chat with Damien Williams about types of human and algorithmic discrimination, human-technology expectations and norms, algorithms and benefit services, the contextual nature of sample data, is face recognition even a good idea? Should we be scared that GTP-3 will take our jobs and the cultural value of jobs, encoding values into autonomous beings, culture and mothering AI, AI and dogma, and more...
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Jan 13, 2021
51. AGI Safety and Alignment with Robert Miles
This episode we're chatting with Robert Miles about why we even want artificial general intelligence, general AI as narrow AI where its input is the world, when predictions of AI sound like science fiction, covering terms like: AI safety, the control problem, Ai alignment, specification problem; the lack of people working in AI alignment, AGI doesn’t need to be conscious, and more
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Dec 31, 2020
50. Privacy and the end of the data economy with Carissa Veliz
This episode we're chatting with Carissa Véliz on the transforming of power, how personal data is toxic, end of the data economy, dangers of privacy violations, differential privacy, what you can do to help, ethics committees and more...
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Dec 30, 2020
49. 2020 rambling chat with Ben Gilburt and Ben Byford
This episode Ben and Ben are chatting about 2020 - Timnit Gebru leaving google, the promise of AI and COVID-19, Kaggle's COVID competition, GTP3, test and trace apps and privacy, AI Ethics bookclub, AI ethics courses, when transparency is good or bad, alpha fold, and more...
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Nov 25, 2020
48. Jessie Smith co-designing AI
This episode we're chatting with Jess Smith about the Radical AI podcast and defining the word radical, what is AI - non-living ability to learn… maybe, AI consciousness, the responsibility of technologists, robot rights, what makes us human, creativity and more...
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Oct 20, 2020
47. Robot Rights with David Gunkel
This episode we're chatting with David Gunkel on AI ideologies, why write the Robots Rights book, what are rights and categories of rights, computer ethics and hitch bot, anthropomorphising as a human feature, supporting environmental rights through this endeavour of robot rights, relational ethics, and acknowledging the western ethical view point.
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Oct 4, 2020
46. Belief Systems and AI with Dylan Doyle-Burke
This month we're chatting with Dylan Doyle-Burke of the Radical AI podcast about starting the podcast, new religions and how systems of belief relate to AI, faith and digital participation, digital death and memorial, what does it mean to be human, and much more...
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Aug 31, 2020
45. Responsible AI with Maria Axente
This month we're chatting with Maria Luciana Axente about responsible AI, defining AI ethic terms and collaboration, where does the interest in AI ethics come from within organisations, how is it ethics for AI is related to good business outcomes, the connection of ethics and risk and much more...
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Aug 4, 2020
44. Moral Machines with Rebecca Raper
This month we go back to our roots with an episode about Machine Ethics with Rebecca Raper. We chat about Moral machines and why make them, morals as constraints, moral capacity and approaches to machine ethics, machine moral ontologies, legislation vs innovation and more...
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Jun 30, 2020
43. Reskilling with David Yakobovitch
This month we're zooming with David Yakobovitch, chatting about data science education, where is the industry going, the importance of data protection and ethics, transhumanism and discrimination, reimagining the world after covid and much more.
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May 4, 2020
42. Probability & moral responsibility with Olivia Gambelin
This month we're speaking to Olivia Gambelin about: what should and shouldnt be automated, the importance of human connection, call for ethics, what are ethics, where is value created in data, probability intuition of automated cars and the the moral gap, and more.
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Apr 20, 2020
41. Art & AI with Eva Jäger & Mercedes Bunz
This month we're speaking to both Eva Jäger & Mercedes Bunz on the topic of AI in Art. We discuss AI design interfaces, artificial stupidity, AI and the art market, the curation of AI art, the creative AI lab at the Serpentine Gallery a space for learning collaboration, work in progress and tools...
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Mar 11, 2020
40. AI alignment with Rohin Shah
This month we're talking to Rohin Shah about alignment problems in AI, constraining AI behaviour, current AI vs future AI, recommendation algorithms and extremism, appropriate uses of AI, the fuzziness of fairness, and Rohin’s love of coordination problems.
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Feb 7, 2020
39. Our AI intentions with Rishal Hurbans
This month I'm talking to the lovely Rishal Hurbans about the AI scene in South Africa, ethics as an important part of the intro to the book Grokking AI Algorithms, what Black Mirror can teach us about AI, going past ethical principles, why expert systems were omitted from the book and much more.
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Jan 14, 2020
38. Automation and Utopia with John Danaher
This month I'm talking to the prolific John Danaher about cyborg and digital utopias, why you should hate your job, the idea of robot tax, behaviourism, and theories of moral standing.
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Nov 26, 2019
37. Social robots with Bertram Malle
This month we're talking to the gracious Bertram Malle about social robots, whether people react differently to robots in different context, how can we build trust and destroy it, explainable AI, what is a moral robot, possible futures, and much more...
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Nov 15, 2019
36. Metrics for wellbeing with John C. Havens
This month we're talking to John C. Havens about his work on IEEE's ethically aligned design, human rights & access to and data agency, signalling a persons values in respect to their personal data, GDP being an insignificant metric for our future, making sure no one is left out of the room when designing technology, and more...
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Sep 24, 2019
35. Moral reasoning with Marija Slavkovik
This month we're talking to the amazing Marija Slavkovik about a new language for talking about machine intelligence, expert systems and AI history, unchecked bot networks on the internet, how our technology doesn’t work for us, collective reasoning & judgment aggregation.
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Jul 30, 2019
34. AI for Humans with Rob McCargow
This month I have a lovely chat with Rob McCargow Director of AI at PWC. We chat AI modelling unintended consequences, AI ethics audits, working with companies with dubious intentions, what we should be teaching our children, a recipe for an AI future mitigating job displacement and much more.
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Jul 16, 2019
33. ORGcon special edition episode
This month I'm releasing two episodes, the first of which is a bonus episode recorded at ORGcon2019. I talk to the audience and speakers of ORGcon about human rights, privacy, face recognition, ethical relativism, whistleblowing, AI auditing and GDPR and much more.
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Jul 2, 2019
32. Sex Robots with Kate Devlin
I met Kate in person in Bristol. We discussed chatbots in sex-tech, the complexity of human intimacy and technology, taboos in sex-tech, how sex tech can be a positive enabling industry, deepfakes and more.
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May 27, 2019
31. AI standards and regulation with Jacob Turner
This month I had a great time chatting with Jacob Turner about recent AI news like openAI GTP-2, some robo-ethics and law, overarching prinicples of AI, professionalising standards and licensing for data scientists, creating institutions capable of democratic principle creation, and doing regulation well to actually encourage innovation and growth.
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May 7, 2019
30. Emotional and loving AI with Julia Mossbridge
Lovely chat with Julia Mossbridge this month, talking about the role of parenting in AI, considering that some kids are "jerks" should we have a new turing test for AI responsibility, the importance of inner emotional states, behaviourism poisoning science, and the acknowagement that we may have to use our intuition to know when an AI is concious.
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Apr 2, 2019
29. Human focused AI with Pete Trainor
Great speaking with Pete this month about human focused AI and his book Hippo: The Human Focused Digital Book, helping businesses get prepared and take advantage of AI, the importance and power of asking: why? And much more.
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Feb 5, 2019
28. Future Ethics with Cennydd Bowles
This month I'm joined by Cennydd Bowles who I've been meaning to get on the podcast for over a year. We talk about his book Future Ethics, collective action in the tech industry, ethical design sprints and crits, design fictions to bring ethical thinking to the general public (think Black mirror), the law of double affect, and the tech industry and climate change.
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Jan 23, 2019
27. Governments and Post-humans with Dan Faggella
This month I'm joined by Dan Faggella of Emerj to chat about AI events, our post-human trajectory, AI ethicists and their possible higher position, conversations with governments and advising companies on the best uses of AI.
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Jan 12, 2019
26. What is AI?
This episode is a bonus compilation of answers from 3 years of interviews asking the question: What is AI? We hear from past interviewees Cosima Gretton, Matthew Channon, Rob Wortham, Michael Ludden, Greg Edwards, Luciano Floridi, Christopher Noessel, Andy Budd, Damien Williams and Miranda Mowbray
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Nov 13, 2018
25. Respecting data with Miranda Mowbray
This month I'm talking with Miranda Mowbray on: cyber security and machine learning, big data ethical code of conduct, sitting down as a team to discuss ethical issues in data projects, respecting the people who’s data you might be using, not collecting data you don't need and deleting things, and much more.
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Sep 27, 2018
24. #AIRetreat
This is a very special episode of interviews with various participants of this year's A.I. retreat at Juvet, Norway. 21 of us spent 4 days in remote Norway workshopping, chatting, hiking and arguing on subjects of AI, ethics, data science, consciousness and more.
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Aug 20, 2018
23. How to design a moral algorithm with Derek Leben
This month I'm talking with Derek Leben about his new book Ethics for Robots: How to Design a Moral Algorithm. We also dive into a general framework for machine ethics, contractarianism, Rawls’ original position thought experiment (which is one of my favourite ethical thought experiments), maximin function approach to machine ethics, and whether robots should respect the consent of a person in life threatening circumstances...
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Aug 20, 2018
22. AI in Science Fiction with Christopher Noessel
This month is (sort of) part 2 of our two part look at AI in Culture. Chris and I take an extended look at how science fiction portray technology from the realistic to law of nature breaking mythos. Our chat meanders from film to TV and includes: Psycho pass, Person of interest, Rick and Morty episode: The Ricks Must Be Crazy, Buck Rogers, Rossum's Universal Robots, 2001: a space odyssey, Moon, iRobot (film and book), The Animatrix, Her, Futurama, Robot and Frank, Big hero 6, Colossus: The Forbin Project
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Jul 27, 2018
21. Evolution and AI with Tim Taylor
This month is part one of a loose series on the history of AI in Culture. In Part 1 I talk to Tim Taylor about his upcoming book on evolving machines before the 1950s, at length about genetic algorithms and their environments, as well as Descartes notion of animals as machines, machine and human co-evolution and much more. I also started a new AI consultancy for companies looking to implement responsible AI - www.ethicalby.design
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Jun 22, 2018
20. The meaning of life with Luciano Floridi
It is my honour to speak with Professor Luciano Floridi this month on subjects like information philosophy: “philosophy or our time, for our time”; understanding that mistakes happen in technology whether they’re design issues, bugs or oversights at big companies; what is the meaning of life in the digital world? And much much more.
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Apr 18, 2018
19. Digital rights with Ruth Coustick-Deal
This month, with the lead up to the new GDPR European personal data legislation coming in, we talk to digital rights campaigner Ruth Coustick-Deal on everything personal data.
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Mar 19, 2018
18. AI 101 with Greg Edwards
This month I interview Greg Edwards to get to grips with the basics of machine learning. We look at the history of AI, what machine learning consists, try to describe how neuronets work, and discover the new and interesting ideas in AI research.
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Jan 21, 2018
17. Narratives in tech ethics with Charles Radclyffe
This month I speak to Charles Radclyffe in Bristol's Engine Shed about dubious business models exploiting technology, differing narratives of tech ethics, using the court for automated car law preemptively and much more.
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Nov 10, 2017
16. AI and the built environment with Josh Artus and Ben Byford
This episode I share the interviewer responsibilities with Conscious Cities' podcaster Josh Artus. I get to ask Josh some questions and Josh has some for me (Ben Byford). We chatted about: AI data misrepresentation, bias and misuse; mindful technology implementation; using AI for things other than tricking people into looking at adverts; EEG misrepresentation; Bristol is Open and technology used in the public section in our cities; and much more.
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Oct 10, 2017
15. Machine Ethics with Susan and Michael Anderson
Discussing almost coining Machine Ethics, Big Data and social sciences not having the answer to AI ethics, prima facie duties and robots, everything is going to have to have some ethic, and AI as the continuation of humanity into space.
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Aug 13, 2017
14. AI in AR and VR with Michael Ludden
This month I'm talking to Michael Ludden about his work at IBM, what the hell Watson is, AI in culture and creating a positive cultural AI view, as well as using AI in AR and VR projects.
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Jul 12, 2017
13. Robotics and autonomy with Alan Winfield
I talk to Alan about how humans should innovate ethically, different standards and the role of standards for designing and building robots, how autonomous systems should be transparent, and how studying robotics enables us to peer into our own behaviours and intelligence.
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Jun 25, 2017
12. CogX 2017 special edition episode
This month I travel to CogX 2017 in London to do a special report from the conference floor. This episode is a collection of bits of talks and sessions, vox-pops from the CogX attendees and our thoughts on the show.
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Apr 20, 2017
11. Robot transparency with Rob Wortham
I chat to Rob about what mind models people have of robots if any? Principles of robotics for creators, intelligence: doing the right thing at the right time, embodied or distributed robots, robot transparency and much more.
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Mar 30, 2017
10. Retrospective cast 1
Clips from 2016 interviews with Nick Reed, Calum Chace, Cosima Gretton, Lydia Nicholas, Lucy McCormick, Matthew Channon, Sam Hill, and Sam Kinsley.
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Mar 2, 2017
9. AI as slaves with Joanna J Bryson
Interview with Dr Joanna J Bryson talking about her work at Bath University, the new principles of robotics, qualifying definitions of AI, the ethical paradox of living forever, AI as slaves, while trying not to mention Donald Trump.
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Dec 19, 2016
8. Technologies narratives in culture with Sam Kinsley
Interview with Sam Kinsley on AI in Geography, ways of talking about and exploring possibilities of technologies within space, how we talk about technologies in culture, and about the apparent technology optimism in Silicon Valley.
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Oct 16, 2016
7. Machine suffering with Sam Hill
Interview with Sam Hill on Machine suffering, Social / emotional machines, What is AI? Smart machines with dumb jobs, games and simulation, this week's AI news and creating a computer narrative immersive theatre production.
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Sep 17, 2016
6. Insurance and automated cars with Matthew Channon
Interview with Matthew Channon talking about EU and UK car legislation for automated cars, insurance industry and automated cars, central governmental insurance fund, car loop systems, cross border insurance, strict liability and much more.
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Jul 24, 2016
5. Law and autonomous cars with Lucy McCormick
Interview with Lucy McCormick talking about her book on the law of driverless cars, the Google and Tesla car crashes, autonomous car insurance legislation, the Queen's modern transport bill, and much more.
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Jun 15, 2016
4. Adaptive systems with Lydia Nicholas
Podcast 4. Talking with Lydia Nicholas on adaptive systems, story telling, machine learning regulation, and managing data bias.
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May 9, 2016
3. Technology and health with Cosima Gretton
Chatting with Dr Cosima Gretton on AI, Health care and it's current cost structure and technologies, Ethics in education and more...
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Mar 28, 2016
2. AI future scenarios with Calum Chace
We discuss differring types of AI and future scenarios, the end of Moore's Law, the possibilities of 'friendly' AI, China's Sesame project and Calum's Books.
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Mar 7, 2016
1. Testing automated cars Nick Reed
Chat with Nick Reed of TRL - we ask hard questions about how the UK are testing automated cars today, discuss recent AI news, blue sky thinking, and chat neural networks and genetic algorithms.
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