The Current for June 22, 2021
Today on The Current:
A Google engineer recently claimed an artificial intelligence he was working on had become sentient. Many scientists have disagreed with his assessment, but say the story raises other concerns about AI. Guest host Duncan McCue talks to Christof Koch, chief scientist of the MindScope Program at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle; Marisa Tschopp, a human-AI interaction researcher; and Susan Schneider, a philosopher and the founder of the Center for the Future Mind at the Florida Atlantic University.
Then, Russia's invasion of Ukraine started four months ago, but there is still no end in sight. We talk to Oleksandra Matviichuk, who has been documenting evidence of war crimes; and discuss what might come next with Serhii Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University; and David Marples, a distinguished university professor of Russian and East European history at the University of Alberta.
Plus, we talk to Dr. Thilo Beck about how Switzerland has used prescription heroin to fight an opioid crisis — and what Canada could learn from the effort.
And University of Windsor professor Chris Houser tells us about Smart Beach, his real-time, data-driven warning system for rip currents.
