On 12 September, actor, author and comedian Stephen Fry shared his concerns about artificial intelligence at the inaugural lecture for Digital Futures Institute’s new series “Living Well With Technology”.
“You’ll never guess who is inside — Stephen Fry! You have to go in and see him — he’s a national treasure!”, I overheard a member of staff say to someone outside of the Great Hall at King’s College London (KCL).
And it was true – some minutes before, the British author and comedian had captivated the audience in the Great Hall for over an hour. Mr Fry spoke on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of the focus points of the ‘Living Well with Technology’ lecture series at KCL. His lecture was followed by a discussion with Dr Marcus Weldon, the 13th President of Bell Labs, a US based research and development company.
Big Tech
Stephen Fry called out big tech companies such as Meta for their abuse of AI, calling Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg “the worst polluters in human history”. As the BBC reminds us, Stephen Fry had shown optimism in the past, being “an early adopter of technology”. Mr Fry himself said he thought of social media as the “brave and beautiful new world”, as it first emerged in the late 2000s.
But last week, Mr Fry argued that Artificial Intelligence is an idea whose level of disruption is close to that of money. He proposed that it should be regulated as strictly and as “multilaterally” as money. For Mr Fry, the difficulty comes when countries, corporations and criminals use AI to their advantage.
The Concept of AI
In his distinctive style, throughout the lecture, Stephen Fry weaved metaphors around the topic of AI. For example, he compared it to a “creeping tide”, rather than a tsunami. He said that AI is at its strongest in the areas where it does not imitate humans, even though we sometimes think the opposite.
In this light, Mr Fry discussed uniquely human notions like consciousness, empathy, imagination and truth as gifts that should be cherished.
Mr Fry also pointed to our advanced ability to understand how technology changes, but argued that as humans we are “decidedly hopeless” in predicting “how it changes us”.
Being Young in the Age of AI
When Roar asked, “What are young people to do when they have grown up and developed in such an environment?”, Mr Fry expressed some hope. He noted a move back towards the more analogue, smartphone-less pleasures of life like playing with friends outside.
He suggested that just like lifting weights and running at the gym have replaced working in the field for hours as our way to exercise our muscles, we may find ourselves employing innovative ways to exercise our brains too.
At the end of his lecture, Mr Fry quoted Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell in their manifesto on nuclear weapons: “We appeal as human beings to human beings, remember your humanity and forget the rest”.
We wish Mr Fry all the best and hope he will be back at King’s soon!
Find out more about the Digital Futures Institute here.
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