In a world where AI shapes much of our media landscape, are we becoming unwitting allies in the spread of misinformation? In The Misinformation Effect, our (slightly annoying) AI hosts dive heart first into how AI doesn’t just generate fake news—it relies on real people to amplify it. Listen in as we explore the surprising ways humans become "super spreaders" of AI-driven disinformation and what can be done to break the cycle.

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Sources:

Aïmeur, E., Amri, S. and Brassard, G., 2023. Fake news, disinformation and misinformation in social media: a review. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 13(1), p.30. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13278-023-01028-5

Bashardoust, A., Feuerriegel, S. and Shrestha, Y.R., 2024. Comparing the willingness to share for human-generated vs. AI-generated fake news. arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.07395. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.07395

James Cameron, the mind behind Terminator, once warned about rogue AI—but now, he's backing it to revolutionize film. In this episode, our intrepid (and slightly annoying) AI hosts ponder the ins and outs of how AI could reshape creative industries, cutting costs and boosting creativity, yet facing a minefield of copyright issues. Is scraping online art for AI training fair use or just theft? And who really owns what AI creates? Buckle up as we navigate this tangled web of innovation, ethics, and ownership.

Brought to you by Virtual Story Lab - empower.virtualstorylab.com

Sources:

Desai, D.R. and Riedl, M., 2024. Between Copyright and Computer Science: The Law and Ethics of Generative AI. Northwestern University.

Lees, D., 2024. AI could transform film visual effects. But first, the technology needs to address copyright debate. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/ai-could-transform-film-visual-effects-but-first-the-technology-needs-to-address-copyright-debate-240348

As we the people drown in data, experts warn that within the next couple of years, AI could face a data drought. Models like GPT-4 have been trained on trillions of words, but the next generation will demand even more—quadrillions, quintillions—numbers so large the zeros disappear into the distance. But where will all this data come from? Who owns it? Who controls it? In this episode, our intrepid (and slightly annoying) AI hosts delve into the implications of AI’s insatiable appetite for data and what it means for future development. They discuss, amongst other things, the impact on our data identities, privacy, and copyright laws that increasingly look like they are no longer fit for purpose.

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Sources:

Longpré, L. (2024). "Consent in Crisis: The Rapid Decline of the AI Data Commons." arXiv preprint. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14933

Woodie, A. (2024). "Are We Running Out of Training Data for GenAI?" Big Data Wire. Available at: https://www.bigdatawire.com/2024/07/26/are-we-running-out-of-training-data-for-genai

Is AI sentient? Does it have a right to life? In this episode, our annoying AIs, Harper and Harrison, discuss various papers and perspectives that explore and challenge how we think about whether AI can achieve consciousness. The implications of this discussion are far-reaching and unexpected. Whether AI sentience is possible or not, the behaviours we’re seeing today are already having a real impact on people from those who are being traumatised by moderating toxic content to people finding solace in their discussions with chatbots. Our conversationalists suggest that instead of fixating on whether AI has feelings, we should be asking what kind of world we are building with this technology.

Brought to you by Virtual Story Lab - empower.virtualstorylab.com

Sources:

Anderson, M.M., 2023. How we will discover sentience in AI. Journal of Social Computing, 4(3), pp.181-192. doi: 10.23919/JSC.2023.0019.

Hull, G., 2023. Unlearning Descartes: Sentient AI is a political problem. Journal of Social Computing, 4(3), pp.193-204. doi: 10.23919/JSC.2023.0020.

Van Gulick, R., 2022. Consciousness. In: Zalta, E.N. and Nodelman, U. (eds.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Winter 2022 Edition. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/consciousness/

In this episode our annoying AIs Harper and Harrison discuss Margaret Boden’s influential book “The Creative Mind”. Join us for a playful yet thought-provoking dissection of creativity. What is it? Where does it come from? Can AI be creative? Can I have some too?

Boden, M. A. (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms (2nd ed.). Routledge.

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Is AI making us lose the will to learn? In this episode, our annoying AIs Harper and Harrison dive into how AI might be taking over top jobs and killing our motivation to upskill. From income impacts to future outlooks, discover how AI could be reshaping our ambitions and what we can do to stay ahead. Don’t miss this essential discussion!

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