AI and Us - what Artificial Intelligence means for our lives

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.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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.  A “human AI” that expands human intelligence for the good of our societies and the planet has the potential to make the world a better place. At present, however, certain groups in society are bearing the negative consequences of AI. Alexander von Humboldt Professor Aimée van Wynsberghe regards the way we handle AI as a social experiment. In Episode 9 of “AI and Us”, she is joined by AI experts Martin Butz and Tobias Matzner to consider the ethical, ecological and social issues that have to be borne in mind when dealing with AI.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

Recently, an AI completed Ludwig van Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony. Experts and listeners were enthusiastic. Will AI soon outstrip us, at least in some fields? It is certainly indisputable that AI can process far, far more data than a human.  In Episode 8 of “AI and Us”, Humboldtians Martin Butz, Tobias Matzner and Daniel Rückert discuss whether it is conceivable that an AGI, an artificial general intelligence, will be developed in the foreseeable future. That would be an AI whose abilities and behaviour were not restricted to a certain segment of the world. Unthinkable, says Alexander von Humboldt Professor Aimée van Wynsberghe. She calls for a debate on the ethical issues and social consequences that are already generated by existing forms of AI.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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. Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz and Milica Gašić explain exactly what will always probably make artificial intelligence different from us.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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. As a general principle, AI must always first prove what it can do explain Christian Becker-Asano, Milica Gašić and Daniel Rückert, citing examples from their research.   The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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.  In Episode 5 of “AI and Us”, AI experts Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz, Milica Gašić and Tobias Matzner explain what differentiates artificial intelligence from humans and how AI could become “more human” and respond to us with empathy.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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. Another problem is that because the algorithms are trained with data deriving from reality, they are in danger of replicating a world that we actually want to change, reproducing discriminatory behaviour, for example.  The opportunities inherent in this knowledge are explained in Episode 4 of “AI and Us” by Humboldtians Christian Becker-Asano, Tobias Matzner, Daniel Rückert and Aimée van Wynsberghe. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

In 2016, the South Korean Go player Lee Sedol lost four out of five matches against the computer programme AlphaGo. The 37th move of the second meeting is regarded as a milestone in machine learning – because the AI applied its knowledge creatively and amazed the community with an unprecedented move. But how exactly do machines learn?  In Episode 3 of “AI and Us”, we investigate the difference between classic AI and self-learning machines. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages according to Humboldtians Christian Becker-Asano, Milica Gašić, Tobias Matzner and Daniel Rückert who cite examples from their own research areas.  The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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. Humboldt experts Christian Becker-Asano, Martin Butz and Milica Gašić explain why AI is reliant on the intelligence of programmers and what technology is currently used to train conversation machines. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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. Is that what we want? In the first episode of the podcast “AI and Us”, AI experts Milica Gašić, Tobias Matzner, Daniel Rückert and Aimée van Wynsberghe give us an overview of the opportunities but also the risks inherent in artificial intelligence. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide – including 57 Nobel Laureates. As part of the German government’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation can appoint a total of 30 Alexander von Humboldt Professors for Artificial Intelligence in the years up to 2024. These chairs are contributing to work being done to comprehensively investigate the opportunities AI offers for our future and to make use of them. They will also help strengthen Germany’s standing as an internationally attractive and influential location in this important field.

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.