Voices in AI

Published by Gigaom, the Voices in AI podcast is hosted by Byron and serves listeners interested in the implication of AI beyond those of the daily news, who want to understand the metaphysical implications of AI as well as the practical ones.

Presented as an hour-long, one-on-one conversation about artificial intelligence with the leading thinkers in the field, 50 episodes have been recorded to date and will be released steadily over the next three months. These include interviews with James Barratt, Manoj Saxena, Soumith Chintala, Pedro Domingos, Esther Dyson, Martin Ford, Stephen Wolfram, Hugo Larochelle, Tim O'Reilly, Nova Spivack and more.

Opening with the same question, Byron asks guests “What is artificial intelligence?” Why? Because he says, “no two people ever give the same answer. There simply isn’t an agreed-upon definition. This is actually quite telling, and the launching point of a great conversation.”

The podcast addresses all the big questions posed in his book "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity":

• Will AI take all the jobs, or create enough new ones?
• Will machines become conscious, and if so, how would we know?
• Is artificial general intelligence something we should fear, or welcome?

Featured Episodes Include:

• Yoshua Bengio - A Canadian computer scientist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks and deep learning. Bengio has been a faculty member at the Université de Montréal since 1993, heads the MILA (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms) and is co-director of the Learning in Machines & Brains project of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
• Oren Etzioni - Oren Etzioni is a professor of Computer Science and CEO of the Allen Institue for Artificial Intelligence. He is also a venture partner at the Madrona Venture Group.
• Mark Rolston - Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer of argodesign, Mark is an early pioneer of software user experience and helped forge the disciplines around user interface design and mobile platforms. A veteran design leader, innovator and patent holder, he is one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People, and he was nominated as Fast Company’s World’s Greatest Designer of 2014.
• Jeff Dean - An American computer scientist and software engineer, Jeff is currently a Google Senior Fellow in the Systems and Infrastructure Group.
• Daphne Koller -  A professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Her general research area is artificial intelligence and its applications in the biomedical sciences.
• Nick Bostrom - Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford. He is most noted for his work on existential risk, human enhancement ethics, superintelligent risk and more. Bostrom is also the author of "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies," a New York Times bestseller.

“Voices in AI is my favorite project right now. The idea that I get to talk to the giants of AI for an hour about one of my favorite subjects just blows my mind. There are no bigger questions in technology than the ones we address on the show. I just love that.” - Byron Reese