The Alternative Ideas Podcast

AI vs Cancer, Talking with Tolkien, & What We've Learned | S1E9

In this final episode of the season, David and Jonathan turn to some more positive uses of AI: increasing the effectiveness of cancer screenings, and using custom AI to build out a chatbot that lets you "have a conversation" with authors such as Tolkien or Lewis. They also conclude by discussing their biggest takeaways from producing this season. Cancer screenings: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/02/ai-use-breast-cancer-screening-study-preliminary-results Tolkien chatbot: https://wng.org/podcasts/talking-with-tolkien-1691452850 Alternative Ideas, a podcast by Unbound: https://beunbound.us/ Hosts: Jonathan Brush, David Rethemeyer Producer: Michael Caprera

Celebrities Selling AI Deepfakes, AI Content Identification, & Preventing AI Job Replacement | S1E8

How do you know what's real? That's one of the primary issues that David and Jonathan discuss for this episode, as they look at the push to have all AI generated content labeled, the struggle to identify AI generated text, celebrities selling their identities to be used as deepfakes, and the challenging concern of AI replacing human jobs. EU AI Content Labeling: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/05/google-and-facebook-urged-by-eu-to-label-ai-generated-content OpenAI Text Identifier: https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-cant-identify-ai-generated-text-bad-for-internet-models-2023-7 Celebrity AIs: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-deepfakes-celebrity-marketing-brands-81381aa6?mod=djemalertNEWS&ref=futuretools.io Alternative Ideas, a podcast by Unbound: https://beunbound.us/ Hosts: Jonathan Brush, David Rethemeyer Producer: Michael Caprera

Elon Musk's xAI, WormGPT, & the Importance of Human Reality | S1E7

Things get a little scary in this episode, as David and Jonathan discuss the implications of WormGPT (ChatGPT with no ethical boundaries), Elon Musk's "universe-understanding" AI, and why staying grounded in the reality of being human amidst all of these advances is so vitally important. WormGPT: https://www.pcmag.com/news/wormgpt-is-a-chatgpt-alternative-with-no-ethical-boundaries-or-limitations Elon's xAI: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/13/elon-musk-launches-xai-startup-pro-humanity-terminator-future xAI Website: https://x.ai/ Alternative Ideas, a podcast by Unbound: https://beunbound.us/ Hosts: Jonathan Brush, David Rethemeyer Producer: Michael Caprera

The UN's Bizzare AI Event, Google Bard's Web Scraping, & The Case for AI Legislation | S1E6

For this episode, David and Jonathan take a critical look at some AI developments that are somewhat unsettling: the UN's "AI for Good" summit featuring some very creepy animatronics, Google's latest privacy policy update that confirms Bard is gathering data without explicit consent from users, and whether legislators should be involved with regulating AI and its capabilities. Google Bard Web Scraping: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/5/23784257/google-ai-bard-privacy-policy-train-web-scraping UN AI Summit: https://apnews.com/article/humanoid-robots-better-leaders-ai-geneva-486bb2bad260454a28aaa51ea31580a6 AI Summit (PC Gamer): https://www.pcgamer.com/bizarroland-un-press-stunt-sees-ai-robots-lined-up-to-promise-they-wont-kill-humans-before-one-says-lets-get-wild-and-make-this-world-our-playground/ AI Summit Video: https://youtu.be/m9IN14e-PLk?t=1079 Alternative Ideas, a podcast by Unbound: https://beunbound.us/ Hosts: Jonathan Brush, David Rethemeyer Producer: Michael Caprera

Harvard Using AI to Teach, Generational Use of AI, Terminology, and ChatGPT vs Jocko Willink | S1E5

For this episode, David and Jonathan's discussions go in a variety of different directions: Harvard using AI to help teachers with computer science classes, an interesting study from the Verge on AI usage, attempting to clarify some of the confusion around AI terminology, and the fascinating case of ChatGPT vs Jocko Willink. Put on your thinking caps for this one! Harvard AI: https://www.zdnet.com/article/harvard-is-using-chatgpt-to-teach-computer-science/ Verge survey: https://www.theverge.com/c/23753704/ai-chatgpt-data-survey-research MKBHD Apple video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvN5_GXlg2Y Jocko ChatGPT podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5S3WjWg78dtdhyfi915oO5?si=62e5fd00b710463a MKBHD Self-Driving video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nF0K2nJ7N8 Alternative Ideas, a podcast by Unbound: https://beunbound.us/ Hosts: Jonathan Brush, David Rethemeyer Producer: Michael Caprera