Behind the Cloud - The Ethics of AI

The giant global computer companies increasingly control our personal, social and political behaviour. Their recent breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence have been hailed by technophiles as a step closer to human intelligence and the prospect of freedom from our current limitations. Technophobes fear that the same developments will eventually outsmart and even turn against the human species. This lecture will avoid both the “hype” and the “fear-mongering” and instead draw attention to the material and human aspects of AI, its underlying assumptions and worldview, and highlight real ethical concerns that are rarely discussed in the public realm.