AI and Us - what Artificial Intelligence means for our lives

AI between a promising future and a brave new world. Leading AI experts talk about their research field: What can AI already do? How does it learn? And will it outstrip us one day? Coming soon: everything you need to know about artificial intelligence in a 10-part podcast by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

If AI is to be better utilised in medicine, the machines would have to be fed individual datasets. But especially with regard to health data, many people are hesitant. So, AI forces us to think about our relationship with data protection and with individuals’ rights.  In Episode 10 of “AI and Us”, we also ask whether we can and should leave moral decisions to an AI – in the company of Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz, Milica Gašić, Tobias Matzner, Daniel Rückert and Aimée van Wynsberghe...

In medicine, artificial intelligence is an important aid. Amongst other things, it helps to identify tumours. AI quickly and reliably translates from foreign languages, but not from all of them. On the internet, algorithms determine our image of reality...

Voice assistants like Siri or Alexa know where the nearest Italian restaurant is. But are they really intelligent? In Episode 2, “AI and Us” looks at the history of artificial intelligence: Eliza, the world’s first chatbot, was a sensation in the 1960s and was even supposed to be used in psychotherapy. But even today, machines still have difficulty holding a meaningful conversation...

Banks get computer programmes to assess whether their clients are credit worthy. Computer software helps to select personnel. How and why the AI makes an assessment or recommendation is, however, often not transparent. When it comes to artificial neural networks, even experts can’t unscramble what’s going on inside the black box and how the AI comes to its conclusions...

Essentially, artificial neural networks are based on the human brain. Artificial neurons “fire” and respond to stimuli. But unlike us, AI has no understanding of the world. It can’t explain the meaning of its “perceptions”, i.e., the “input”. And it doesn’t have an emotional relationship with the world either...

Time and again, AI hits the headlines for making mistakes. In some cases, they are very minor, and the consequences are not usually serious. But when fatal accidents are caused by AI-controlled, autonomous vehicles, confidence in artificial intelligence dwindles. Can we rely on AI?  In Episode 6 of “AI and Us”, we explore the tests and examinations artificial intelligence has to undergo before being used in the health service, for example, or in a self-driving car...

An AI that is so like us that we can’t tell it apart from a human being is a scary thought. The idea is sinister, but a long way from reality. At least, at the moment. Because today’s AI still has problems holding a targeted conversation. Even when AI is embedded in an artificial body it lacks the emotions and knowledge of the world to be able to behave as we do...

No technology is inherently all good or all bad. It depends how we use it. AI helps some global players to increase their turnover. In the service of autocratic regimes, it could monitor entire societies. But it can also be used to control power and water supplies more efficiently. That’s why we should agree whom AI is supposed to benefit and how it can be regulated...