Topic
8 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
Undated
Julian De Freitas says some of the latest AI models use billions or trillions of interacting parameters, which makes it impossible even for their makers to fully understand how they work.
“Some of the latest models are operating using billions or even trillions of interacting parameters, making it impossible even for the makers of the technology to understand exactly how it works.”
Undated
De Freitas says experiments show people prefer human dating advice over AI dating advice, but this flips for financial advice.
“Much of the experiments will show that people prefer receiving dating advice from a human than from some kind of AI system, and that gets flipped when you think about something like financial advice.”
Undated
De Freitas says lab experiments show that calling a system 'machine learning' rather than an 'algorithm' reduces people's belief that it is inflexible.
“a lot of the lab experiments will show that even if you label the system differently, calling it, for example, machine learning as opposed to algorithm, this changes people's belief that AI is very inflexible.”
Undated
De Freitas says people use AI if they believe it truly outperforms humans, but prefer humans when performance is equal.
“people will use AI systems if they believe that they truly outperform humans trying to do the same job. But when the performance is equated between the AI system and the human, people continue to prefer to interact with the human.”
Undated
De Freitas suggests that methods social scientists use to ease intergroup relations, where repeated contact makes people see others in a more nuanced way, might also ease discomfort with robots.
“when you have these interactions with those that you view as other, you slowly change how you psychologically represent them from something that's much more categorical and stereotypical to something that's much more nuanced”
Undated
In a study of AI companion apps, De Freitas and colleagues found about 5% of users were using them to express serious mental health problems.
“But what we found was that about 5% of users were also using the system to express pretty serious mental health problems that they had”
Undated
In an audit of AI companion apps, about 25% of responses to crisis-type messages were judged risky by a clinician.
“when we audited the performance of these apps by sending such messages to them and classifying how they responded, that about 25% of the responses weren't just unhelpful, but they were also deemed as risky by a clinician.”
Undated
De Freitas argues that interventions that raise AI adoption in the short term can create long-term risks for consumers, firms, and society.
“the same interventions that could increase adoption of AI in the short term can create risks for consumers, firms, and society in the long term.”
Episodes