Michael Timothy Bennett: why AI will be like a series of black swan events

Of Interest

2023 has become the year of AI. Hype and doomsaying about AI, or artificial intelligence, is hard to avoid.

A key catalyst was OpenAI's release of AI chatbox ChatGPT late last year. So should we be excited or fearful about the rise of AI, or both?

I discussed this with Michael Timothy Bennett, an AI researcher at the Australian National University, in the latest episode of our Of Interest podcast. Bennett is recently returned from a major Artificial General Intelligence conference in Stockholm where he both presented and won an award.

He described the mood at the conference as "feverish and exuberant," noting "suddenly there's a whole lot of money and power at stake" in the AI industry.

So what are we to make of all the hype around AI, and what might it mean for our lives?

"It's sort of the next step in the industrial revolution more than a lot of what we'd see in, say Terminator," Bennett says.

"AI is like a collection of black swan events that are going to play out over the next several decades as we see different sorts of jobs and industries hit with a lot of automation. Things will get much easier for some people and a lot harder for others."

In the podcast he talks about just what AI is, its origins, ways we've been using it for years, predictions of AI-derived productivity gains and job losses, and whether the New Zealand government should be looking to regulate AI technology.

He also offers suggestions on how young people heading into the workforce or considering career options should think about AI, how middle aged workers should think about it, what it means for business owners, and how investors should be considering AI.

Bennett also weighs in on the debate over whether AI is an existential threat or could be humanity's salvation.