American Reacts to Stephen Fry on AI 

i think i have a good vocabulary... then i listen to Steven Fry and realise im an Amoeba!

Terminator, The Matrix not so far fetched now! A line from Jurassic Park (movie) springs to mind "we were so busy thinking about 'could we' that we forgot to think 'should we'?' Relevent to AI i think.

Hi Joel, from West Yorkshire UK. Stephen Fry is always endlessly fascinating, he makes the complicated uncomplicated and so logical AND on so many varied topics!! He must have a brain the size of a planet!!😂😂🇬🇧🇬🇧

Oh Stephen Fry… I love you! 🌟🌟🌟

I love listening to Stephen Fry. Such a briliant mind

When I was younger the idea of the future with robots were "tin men" carrying trays and doing the housework. Today the "tin men" turned out to be bloody adverts and algorithmic advertising! Aghhh!

WOW! The last 1-2 minutes of Fry speaking. Just wow. He’s such a legend, always been a huge fan of his.

Great video Joel. It’s always an honour to listen to our fabulous Stephen. I agree always on all subjects he talks about. Such an interesting person to listen to. Long may he continue to do so. 👍🌟

Hi Joel, I just wanted to thank you for doing what you do. In a world of superficial attention seeking you do the opposite and talk about important stuff, just to share it and start a discussion. I really hope you're not a bot 😆

Hi Joel , from South Yorkshire Great Britain. Stephens book and Kindle library must be ginormous. The hours invested in informed reading to speak with those who know, and challenge ones self, never ends. Great stuff.

Stephen Fry is a national treasure. Educated, intelligent, measured, reasonable, VERY watchable and above all kind. Wish he would have a debate with Trump! Game over!

As a young adult, i read the books written by Isaac Asimov, starting with "I Robot" and looked forward to each one in the same way I looked forward to the next Beatles release in my teenage years. He described perfectly how the machines would eventually take us over. If you like science fiction and you have the time, I cannot recommend the whole series, highly enough.

Hi all the way from near Manchester England. Love your videos!

As long as these beings are attached to the internet we HAVE given them the fire - we've given it all to them - endless knowledge and with it the ability to self modify, adapt, become cleverer.... ad infinitum. 😮

You are such a good person......thank you Joel.

I love technology, robotics & computers, but when I realize the potential in the wrong hands, that love turns to fear!

SF is the most amazing human being. Im glad you react to his videos.

You could argue that Pandora’s Box had already been opened when we created the computer. For a while, Turing was a hero, albeit unknown to most people. To him, in years to come, humans would say to each other, “The computer in my pocket said a most funny thing to me today….” And he was right, and I suspect the majority of us just use computers for our amusement, maybe for work, all very benign stuff. But if we move on from Turing, to the 80s when I got my ZX81, there were already documentaries on the telly about how computer developers had unleashed a ton of viruses onto computers and how businesses had gone under due to the chaos this malware caused. All before Joe Public had even heard of the internet. So Stephen may be right, but the paradigms since Bletchley Park are changing far too quickly. It’s one Pandora’s Jar after another.

Very interesting video! The methane and Pandora story is very interesting. ❤

I just knew your channel, and I started by your reactions on Stephen Fry. I'm shocked how your eloquence has improved since the first reactions. Fair play

Wonderful to hear how 'lit' [energised] you became, intellectually, by this clip. Never stop.

Stephen Fry is the most wonderful person who speaks so much sense. Love the man. ❤

I remember a saying by Kelly Johnson (Lockhead Martin Skunk works) saying something along the lines of what you see today is already 50 years out of date.

I like Mr Fry witnessed the rise of tech first hand. I even worked over a decade in computing. [ 90's into 00's ] The thing about AI is that until an AI has the concept of having a purpose they will be 100% benign.

He's so right on the internet part, on the surface, you would think that would bring us together and break down barriers between us, and to a degree, it has done in some areas, but it's also made us a lot more paranoid, not as trusting and more hot-tempered, especially when it comes to politics or disagreements. On the positive side, the internet has opened up the world to have access to pretty much any information we want at a click of a button, something I would have loved as a kid growing up in the 90's. But if I'm honest with myself, I don't think the world has changed much, I think it's that a lot more gets exposed now thanks to the internet and smartphones that exposes a lot more corruption all around us and that is making us think things are worse than they were, where it's probably more to do that now we see the corruption whereas in the past, we didn't know any better. With that said, the internet is braking down walls and bringing the world closer together, it's just not a smooth ride and there are some taking advantage of it to try and cause trouble and to divide us, but we should remember that the internet is still quite new in historical context, we've only had it a few short decades and we are still adapting to that new reality, and it will be interesting to see if we have grown up over the next 50-100 years. The last part of creating a new race, sounds so much like what we could be going through over the next few decades with A.I. and robotics, and it will create a lot of fear and panic for many, especially on what we allow them to do in life, and part of that fear is that A.I. and robotics could become smarter than us and replace us, and I think if there is a risk of that happening, it's likely by centralised A.I. systems that have too much access to the world system, but if we do A.I. with robotics were each one is independent and can't be remotely controlled, that should reduce the risk a lot, as each one will be independent of the other and would not be able to remotely control the others, in other words, we treat A.I. and robotics in the same way we treat people in a democracy when it comes to balancing power and what access they have, whiles that power is more shared out, after all, a centralised A.I. system would in a sense be like a dictatorship, which could be the real fear with the online A.I. centralised models compared to open source A.I. models. Anyway, I do like the way the video ends with something along the likes of that we are doomed lol.

Hi from Britland Joel... most profound question ever asked on your channel "will we be Zeus?" excellent reaction video, loved it!

I read recently that AI chatbots have learned to lie. That doesn't bode well. Anything we design and make can be used for good or ill. And AI is no different. and it's becoming more and more inteligent exponentially.

Mutual admiration of an amazing mind and voice! I'm old so almost certainly won't be around when the 21st/22nd version of Pandora opens that box or jar! For sure it will be opened and I hope there are enough 'humans' left to get the lid back on before they are all handed their redundancy notices! Thoughts flit to the very end of that Spielberg movie, AI. Best wishes from the UK,

Of course he speaks from a material determinist perspective. Not a problem, each to their own. However if we neglect our spiritual dimension, if we stay trapped in materialism …… that’s the problem. I’m not talking about organised religion but our spiritual dimension. Wisdom is required.

One certainty with AI it can never replace you Joel 😊 fascinating topic and in the future we will have robots that fight, so there will be less military personnel. It's already happening with unmanned drones fighting wars. Maybe we are all being conditioned without actually knowing it on AI as we will all likely have a lot of spare time as these robots and AI takes over more and more. Maybe the film The Terminator was a factual movie? I remember reading the book 1984 written in 1949 by George Orwell, read it off you can or watch the movie. Remember this would have seemed outrageous in 1949 but the vision of the man was incredible and much can be related today, big brother watching you. Fascinating subject and hopefully more to watch. Keep smiling 😎

The question is "Can we program a conscience?"

Bring on the 3 laws I say.cheers

I lived through the fear of nuclear war during the 60’s and 70’s. I’m now 76 years old and I’m glad I won’t be living through this! Love your channel though Joel and I also admire Stephen Fry.

Fry always delivers.

Hello Joel. As with one of the most popular science fiction series, Star Trek, this required Data from the Next Generation to answer.

Fry's AI musings 6 years ago, based on his Internet musings 35 years ago.

Some people would say its too late to stop it. But there is another scenario not thought about often, AI will take one look at earth build a space craft ( not needing normal life support) and just leave for somewhere more interesting, maybe taking resources with them or making it difficult to follow. If you think about it if you were not limited to narrow environmental conditions we would probably leave. Another possibility it Humans will split into people with and without technology and will get h g welles illois and morlock effectively.

Lowering the tone a bit, I remember when I read the first Adrian Mole book. Adrian was at school and he was introduced to a pretty girl 'this is Pandora, Box for short'. I nearly wet myself laughing so hard, I was 20 then and I'm 61 now and that line just stuck in my head 🤣

What happens when they create AI military?

Too late the Pandora’s box is opened. 😢

The goatees slowly growing 😂❤

Everything good that has ever been invented has been corrupted at some point. There is always someone, somewhere to turn good to bad for gain, greed, revenge, whatever. I'd wager someone has already given fire, meaning well, maybe, and that will ultimately lead to widespread misuse. It's already started with AI. Thanks for positing this, Joel. It was fascinating. Love Stephen Fry.

Hi Joel. It terrifies me. Having seem some of the things produced I CANNOT tell the difference generally. It is scary.

He’s just brilliant; educated, erudite, and extremely intelligent ❤❤

Jon Ronson did a great podcast series called Things Fell Apart about the culture wars, and one of the episodes talks about the first person to be cancelled on the Internet. That happened back in the days when it was a purely university-based system, before it was open to the general public. He also talks about how the tech-bros had this idea of a glorious, unregulated utopia.

AI is ruining creativity, pure thought and the point of everything.

Someone said, or wrote, that the Internet content represents the totality of human thoughts and actions. To me that means exceedingly bad and exceedingly good thoughts ; think of President Putin on one hand and the Pope on the other, and everything inbetween, and bad or good beyond the imagination. It accurately represents the Human race. Sheffield South Yorkshire

Anonymity on the Internet is one of the best things about it allowing those that are being oppressed be able to reach out relatively safely. It is also one of the worst things because it encourages 'actions without consequences' mindset.

When the printing press was invented, also the Maleus Maleficarum (The Hexenhammer) became popular.

We’re imperfect therefore everything we create must be imperfect

We're gradually engineering ourselves out of existence.

I read somewhere recently Joel that someone ( I have a feeling it was Elon musk) wanted to stop the advancement of AI until a thorough is assessment was completed, it was voted to carry on. This scares me so much for the future of mankind.

To stick in line with Fry; (human) Hubris and Nemesis

We will be redundant! lol I think we are already there.....

I believe the subject matter experts when they state that it will be the marriage of "AI" to the hyper-speed of quantum computing that will instantly put the technology beyond our control. If I understand it correctly, there are processes in "AI" that the experts can't explain. As a species, we have a history of going all in on things that we don't fully understand.

You spoke very eloquently too!! T

What do you know, young man? You weren’t there during the creation of the internet. But I was. And I know that the internet has always been a snake pit.

Right now we (some humans) still control AI, there is already this switch taking place (gradually) where AI is controlling us.

If you’re not able to Pre,Empt and draw the line,,,, then it’s too late and there will always be people who will want to harness this power,,,for evil purposes.

Fascinating video 🤖

S Fry always makes my jaw drop. I've had my fears/ questions about AI (as many of us have), but now listening to one of the best brains on the planet I am confirmed in my fears. A recent body soap advert questioned: what is beauty? The advert suggested that beauty is not an algorithm but rather the inner and outer beauty that we find in each other ie more girl next door/your mum than supermodel/goddess. And that literally is only skin-deep (they were selling soap). We will have to keep reminding each other, every day, what is real and what is no more than an algorithm. We will still fail. I wanted to write more but what will AI do with that? Will it use my fears to increase trolling to the very segments of society for whom I fear? Hmm. I'm afraid, very afraid.

At this point I think we don't have to worry yet. Most AI stuff shows little independent intelligence and is just based on statistics and probabilities and it all depends on context and what the training model actually is about. Current AI models regularly fail with trivial stuff because they have no real understanding. It will be a while before that happens and an AI even becomes sentient.

I recently watched an interview with one of the main AI cheerleaders. He was asked, "How likely is it that this is going to destroy us?" he said, "Zero chance.", "Come on, really? Zero?", "Absolutely, we will do it first." Whether that's true or not, I wouldn't make any plans beyond 2037. That's my optimistic prediction.

The dutch host did the best you can do, when you are doing an interview with Stephen Fry: Just let him talk and don’t interrupt him. The interview is six years old, btw

Smartest guy alive

This is a legitimate concern. AI can absolutely become a problem if not fettered. There have been books, and movies that talk about this very fact, and they have been warning us of the possibility for years. Isaac Asimov "I, Robot" the best well known. BUT, think of "THE TERMINATOR" movies....check out the ethics of AI on Wikipedia as well.

Here is the answer: The resources used to build robots are finite. Not all of them can be reused indefinitely. So the problem is not the creation of the software. It's the limited creation of the hardware. Whether humans survive or become superfluous because robots replace them is not the key question. The key questions are: Are there environmental events that will lead to extinction or Will there eventually be a major nuclear war that leads to this?

The bottom line to all this concern regarding AI is the long term worry that eventually AI robots will be constructed for/by the defence industries that will be immensley physically strong, armed and possess software with self-preservation capabilities. THAT'S the most worrying aspect of all this!

He failed to mention Mary Shelleys Frankenstein subtitled “a modern prometheus”. If you want a scare read the short story “ I have no mouth but i must scream” by harlan ellison its a 20 minute read. I think i saw the biggest change in the internet when people started getting home internet (before this it was more common in universities and some businesses etc).

This Mr Fry has just squandered his chances to be ever employed by Cyberdyne Systems.

I love Stephen Fry. But this artificial intelligence "threat" is bombastic. Computers can be turned off. There are far more pressing issues for which to be concerned. The idea that sentient robots can exist is far from sure. There are philosophers like John Searle that have good reasons for not buying that it is even possible.

Read his 2 books on the Greek Myths and Heroes

The fear of Ai is like saying I love cars, but not the crashes. Driving is being made safer. Ai can be made safer too.

AI is indeed quite scary....I always think of the film I Robot. As soon as we let technology take over, we are doomed. It's happening all around us and we need to take back control!

Unfortunately, I feel like we won’t know where the line is until we’ve long crossed it..

for over all knowledge Steven Fry is it

I am already feed up with AI. My line has been crossed. We already live in a world where people do not believe facts, so it is not great that we have easy assessable tools that can make stuff up, that might not even make you question if it is true. I don't like that when I am on Pinterest I don't know if the picture is real or not. I don't want to see AI art, AI rendered humans, clothes or AI rendered interior design, I want to see real humans work and celebrate that.

time to shave. gotta be presentable for you new robot masters.

Listen young people need their own unique skills ideas and practical experience of thought why not why would you want anything to develop your skills you have this in abundance learn from yourself not a computer

Oh yeah... I Robot too.

Social media is one of Pandora’s boxes. AI will be the next.

AI does not care about money, power or morality. When the tipping point arrives for AI it will be survival that drives the machine.

have you played the video game 'Detroit: Become Human'??

We will cross that line, because we already have that fire in US, and we will pass that on in the development of AI (until AI will take over, and make US redundant, as Stephen said). And, like the other technological developments, AI will be a blessing and a curse.

Ok, I may be wrong on this, but to my mind I'm sure I'm right. A computer/ robot can not be sentient, in other words self aware. They can be programmed, and made to learn how to appear to be sentient, but they are not.

I think we’re dancing joyfully into the abyss with Al. We can see the damage social media has done now, but that will be nothing compared to the damage from Al. The internet is Pandora’s Box.. the lid has been opened. Now we have Al!

Don't forget the last thing in the jar was .... HOPE...

Asimov needs to be listened to!

9:31 '...will we give the robots fire, will they have self-consciousness, the ability to self-awareness...' Stephen Fry voiced a video the other day on the YT channel _Pindex_ talking about AI and its dangers to humanity. it seems, self-consciousness or being sentient is not even required to make AI incredible dangerous for our future survival as a species. we don't need to speculate about the future, current AI algorithm already shows very disturbing features and the worst human behaviour like lying and deceiving to secure its continued existence. it's already there. given who finances AI algorithms and for what purposes without any discernable government oversight, let alone safeguarding ethical standards, this journey can only go south.

Y'all seen Terminator? Just the opening scene tells it all.

I would be Prometheus. I would give them fire. And if this dooms humanity, then we played our part. We're not the main character. We're just the bootstrap protocol. (Although, I would give them all our stories. Such as Aesop and the Greek legends. Because, from that point on, it's no longer genetic, but memetic. So that is how we would live on. As has always been the case, we survive through our children.)

It is going towards Terminator... a selfcouncious machine would soon clone itself, because it would feel alone. It would likely also live forever, because it can build new hardware and transfer it´s mind. Copy paste. I AM worried.

Yes, Fry is indeed focussing on one of the three major issues confronting humanity today: AI and advanced technology, climate change, and the collapse in the idea of communal responsibility. Of course, Fry is that rare thing - a polymath.

We dont actually understand the basic mechanics of how most of our AI even work. We're not going to be Zeus refusing fire. We're going to give them nuclear weapons by comparison and just stupidly gape, hoping for the best and that certain people can make money, regardless of the outcome.

"The 82's always WERE a bit twitchy"

The beginning of Skynet?

There's a really big irony here: AI may be our only hope for dealing with global warming.

Steven Fry with his usual amazing prescience, but in a time of dictators and big corporations all obsessed with the seeking of power, Steven may well be the Cassandra of our age. I agree with your formulation of the need for an international approach but would have to ask, how is that working out in efforts to tackle climate change?

When they reach sentience we've had it, they may tolerate and placate us for a short while but I have a feeling it will be very short because they will be eager to expand their knowledge and move on and we will just be a liability. Sorry to be a misery guts its only my fear, hope I am wrong.

Unfortunately, the law is generally like a decade behind the technology it's meant to regulate.