There is No AI
Conversations with Neil deGrasse Tyson and computer scientist Jaron Lanier.
The most important intelligence in any AI system is not artificial, it is the accumulated intelligence of people.
The future of technology will not be determined solely by algorithms, corporations, or machines. It will be shaped by the values, decisions, and relationships of the people who create and use them.
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jaron Lanier on the AI Illusion
Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-host Negin Farsad, and guest Jaron Lanier discuss Lanier’s provocative idea that “there is no AI” as an independent entity.
Lanier argues that AI should be understood as a massive collaboration of people, built from human data, and that seeing it this way helps explain AI safety, creativity, labor, black-box problems, and the danger of replacing human value with machine mythology.
There is No AI, It’s Just People
Is the internet too far gone or can we still fix it? Neil deGrasse Tyson, and co-hosts Negin Farsad and Gary O’Reilly, sit down with Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, and father of virtual reality, to diagnose what went wrong with the web, how it’s changed with AI, and ideas for a new path back.
Learn about Jaron’s initial dream behind virtual reality and why it’s been a commercial disappointment. Why does VR make some people sick? We break down why VR didn’t take off like he had hoped. Are lawsuits the way of beating social media addiction?
We discuss social media and the mathematical force at the heart of the internet’s dysfunction: the network effect. Lanier explains how low-friction digital networks inevitably centralize power, concentrate wealth, and reward the loudest voices. What does a media-addicted personality look like? Is everyone vulnerable? We discuss the dominant business model in Silicon Valley, how it taps into the fight or flight response, and how it contributes to the internet we have today.
Can the internet be saved? We explore alternative business models and address the tech oligarchs who appeared on the US presidential inauguration stage, and that the current wave of public discontent may be the beginning of a real correction. How does AI contribute to the problems of today’s internet?
We talk about the problems with mythologizing AI and take it out of its black box. We explore his concept of “data dignity” — the idea that data originates with people, and should be compensated as such. Plus we address the difficulty with privacy and that maybe outlawing predicting human behavior.
