📰 Subscribe to UnHerd today at: http://unherd.com/join UnHerd's Flo Read meets Nick Bostrom. In the last year, artificial intelligence has progressed from a science-fiction fantasy to an impending reality. We can see its power in everything from online gadgets to whispers of a new, “post-singularity” tech frontier — as well as in renewed fears of an AI takeover. One intellectual who anticipated this decades ago is Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford and director of its Future of Humanity Institute. He joined UnHerd’s Florence Read to discuss extinction, the risk of government surveillance and how to use AI for the benefit of humanity. Listen to the podcast: https://plnk.to/unherd?to=page Follow UnHerd on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unherd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unherd/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unherd/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unherdtv // TIMECODES // 00:00 - 01:01 Introduction 01:01 - 03:42 What does Nick Bostrom mean by existential risk? 03:42 - 05:30 Covid-19 and waning trust in global institutions 05:30 - 08:57 The evolution of AI 08:57- 10:46 Elon Musk’s Grok 10:46 - 13:39 Government interventions in AI 13:39 - 17:10 AI surveillance 17:10 - 18:40 Hyperrealistic propaganda, deep fakes and scepticism 18:40 - 21:15 AI’s agency beyond human intervention 21:15 - 27:06 The West’s liberal values and AI’s utilitarian bent 27:06 - 28:45 AI ethics and potential risks in warfare 28:45 - 34:45 How can we mitigate AI risks? 34:45 - 42:25 The upsides to AI 42:25 - 43:07 Concluding thoughts #UnHerd #NickBostrom #AI