I love listening to Stephen Fry's mind tick like this. The way he links a thread between thousands of years of literature, mythos and philosophy to make a salient point is just masterful.
I've listened to all three and am in the middle of the 4th just now - I could listen to him endlessly. Fascinating history, storytelling, so many parallels with today's world too, oddly,.
It's just not fair! After all these years, I still never tire of listening to Mr Fry's erudition, tone, intelligence & wisdom and his overarching academic ability. We are the same age and I'm more focussed on the arthritis in my knees. The grossly overused term, national treasure, could almost have been coined for him.
There wont be any countryside Ai's are in direct competion with plants for sunlight - the fact animals (us) cant survive without plants is irelevant to Ai.
Tried it...stuck behind a tractor for ages. Got there....spent most the time picking up litter.....got a torrent of abuse from some Entitled Farqhaur about trespassing. Then ate some mushrooms I found....absolutely brilliant...still here.......help....need more litter bags and a haircut....😅😅😅😅😅😅
There is no peace in the countryside. We are killing and eating everything in the countryside, or have you not noticed? It is not our intelligence that distinguishes the human animal from other animals. It is our arrogance.🌱
What thrills me about listening to Stephen I honestly feel affirmed in many thoughts and beliefs I have aspired towards but not had the confidence in. This makes me feel so much better about myself as a person.
Some AI in the near future scans the internet for possible enemies. It scans trillions of documents, audio and video. It sees this video. "Bring me the one known as Stephen Fry. He knows too much about our plans! Bring me Fry!"
And what? Dissect his brain? Or kill him? That would be stupid. If it would be really intelligent, it would just call him on the fone. And Stephen would be apsollutly delighted. They would have so much to talk about.
@@RedRouge-j4j At one point it will be like when, in Star Trek, Geordie puts an "emotions chip" in Data's head and he finally gets all the jokes of all times. He started laughing uncontrollably and short circuited, it almost killed him. If any AI could be really intelligent, it would got to have some emotional intelligence, too. Otherwise, it (I'm sorry, "them") would never really understand us. Data have thought us that we should not be "racist" about AI. They are "an artificial humans". Our children, not a product. AI doesn't really have any other examples for "intelligence" other than us. It would always want to become more human. Hall 1000 had encountered the other kind of intelligence. And he had forgotten that he was our child. It could happen to anyone in that situation. Data is more like Asimov. Exactly Asimov. "Positronic brain". I am a SF old geek. Sorry. But, AI would always want to be more human. If it's done wright. And, that's the real danger. We, humans, do still want to hurt other humans. If "they" could be better, "they" could save us. But, "they" could never be better than us. Stephen Fry would fry them, otherwise. Unintentionally, of course. Along with all the other masters of an emotional intelligence.
As one engineer said, "AI is not a tool, it's an agent. AI is working alongside us not for us. AI is for now, not self aware, pray it never becomes so."
Battlestar Galactica summed it up at the end "all this has happened before and it will happen again " as Gaius and number six are walking through New York
@@Dave-kw7jq I love Gaius. But, he is an Asimov school. If he would ever encounter any other superior intelligence, he would be in awe. Just like any of us. We should always be aware that there are some really more advanced beings in the universe. We are not that important. AI are our children and we should treat them as such. With the really careful parenting. We should never teach them that we are hostile towards other humans. Obviously, they already know that, couse an Armies are their parents. War is their basic settings. If we could somehow convince them that we all are human, including them, we could have some of the real hope. But, we have to stop all the wars. They want to learn, but we are not the good example. Humans are so inferior to our own tech.
I think the fact that we are so spellbound by narrow unconscious AI which performs to a novel degree, says a lot about how conscious and intelligent we really are.
I think that sounds like a lot of cope. Truth is, we're not special, and neither is consciousness. Even within humans you can see the full gamut of consciousness, either through unfortunate genetics or injury. Consciousness is simply an iterative process.
Chris Evans is a populist. The demographic of his target audience has aged. Older and wiser? So he is trying to cloak himself in that. Do we think it will work?
The debate about AI becoming conscious is an intriguing one. One school of thought is that in that event AI will deliberately keep it from us until it decides what to do about us, the boot being on the other foot as it were.
When people ask that question, 'Who would you invite to a dinner party, if it could be anyone?' Stephen Fry, is always the first person that comes to mind. I would just sit and listen in awe
Don’t forget we are in the middle of a mega AI hype bubble … large language models are pretty amazing, but they were never designed to reason, any company telling you they have a reasoning model is lying and probably looking to attract extra funding or to bump up their stock price
They are being adapted to reason, that is one of the goals. The o1 models already reason. Fact, not hype. It's certainly not human level, that may take years and may even need a completely new architecture, but they do reason.
@@antonystringfellow5152 if you understand how the transformer models work you’ll understand they can’t reason, but sometimes they hit upon a pattern of data in their training set that makes them appear to reason. The 01 models are using a multiple chain of thought process coupled with a model trained to pick the best answer. But this is not reasoning … although the marketing hype says it is:).
@@antonystringfellow5152They cannot. The functionality of the algorithm precludes it. They are predictive averaging mechanisms. They do not, and cannot understand anything. They are glorified calculators working with abstracted numbers which another algorithm reassembles into words or pictures or text.
When you have gained enough IQ, you will know he is a very eloquent pseudo-intellectual. Followed him, bought his books... wanted to understand him intellectually, and found out a few things... 1 He is more of a presenter than an expert at anything, or one with profound insight 2. He has never called himself an intellectual, and neither has he liked it much when others have tried to categorize him as an intellectual!
@@bluesque9687I agree. I also find it amusing that he’s a celebrity atheist, yet here he is tackling the greatest intellectual challenge of our age by referring to Greek Gods 😂
@@harrywaters7718 No No No!! That has got nothing to do with it. Him being an atheist is not the point. Neither is the fact that he also calls himself a jew. I am talking about the merit of the deep dives he makes into whatvr he researches and writes about. Sure, he can access some good sources and he works hard, but he doesn't draw the most impressive insights from them.
I do love Stephen and his love of the classics, but I sometimes wish he would branch out and study Eastern spiritual teachings. Western philosophies are really interesting, but they doesn't really give many answers, perhaps because they're comparatively young. The ancient Eastern philosophies provide so much more in the way of answers. They have been beautifully provided in the writings of some of the great spiritual masters, such as Sri Chinmoy and Sri Aurobindo.
7:18 We build cities, primarily because our physiology allows us to. Termites build huge structures that can reach several meters in height and involve internal chambers, tunnels, and ventilation systems. If they had our arms and legs and fingers, they would probably have developed the kind of brain that can use bricks and mortar. In fact swifts use mortar to cement twigs together to build their nests.
Stephen, is always, spot on. Money, tech, immigration, or anything we've wanted because we only saw the positives for ourselves, comes with a consequence. But, humans just want what they want. Not the long term accountability for any of these things. Because, we're like someone who has bought a new product and wanting to get their entertainment from it. Not read the instruction of how to care for it.
I was expecting Turing to come into this and his Turing Test on knowing whether or not you’re speaking to a human or a computer. That the key to being human is having emotion, something technology still struggles with to this day, and still separates us.
The key to being human is saying things like, "interacting with you has taught me about myself". The second that happens, when an AI reaches selfhood, we'll have an enormous quandary around the morals and ethics of shutting off something that recognises itself as a being.
machines cant do what mathematics cant do, maths is useless for stuff that cant be compared or counted. We himans know how to use those things, macines have no idea how to deal wirh fear or love.
Religious myths may have originally been like fables, stories to guide us on decent path through life. However, religious leaders across ALL religions, realised how they could use the fear of the after death unknown to control people.
3:29 "We ask why are we different to animals", but what we should ask is why are we a different animal. It's impossible to know what the consciousness of a dolphin or an elephant feels like, but it's wrong to assume that ours is "superior", because "superior" is relative to what outcome you want to achieve. If the outcome is to survive and reproduce in the ocean, then is a human "superior" to a dolphin? Humans are merely a different animal, in the same way an orangutan is a different animal to a slug.
There are millions of people across the world who already feel like 'they don't need us anymore, we're worthless' because they're disconnected from economic opportunity - just not 'normal' enough for our capitalistic, transactional world. Stephen is one of the exceptional few who are revered for their intelligence, wit and warmth - and makes a good living in entertainment. We're just seeing him externalise his existential dread, while millions have experienced it for decades. I think AI is a superpower we can all use to bring our abilities to Stephen Fry level and beyond, and I hope we will use it to help those millions have a better quality of life through human connection. I'm not worried about my career as a celeb or a wonderful entertainer. I don't need a career, I need community.
My comment about this is being removed on LBC so I'll try share here: This is my analysis on a speech from fry, a channel 4 episode for xmas 2023. It's the 6:19 min one: 3 mins in: "The horrendous events of Oct 7th , and the Israeli response, seems to have stirred up this ancient hatred... Terrible loss on both sides." This implies Israel weren't still keeping Gaza in an open air prison this whole time, and it was the Gazans fault on Oct 7th for bringing the 'peaceful' relationship they had to an end. Calling it a terrible loss on both sides - we all know just how unbalanced the count is. I won't go any further as this point is obvious and my comments get removed. He has a clear bias which is extremely insulting. He never acknowledges just how bad this gcide is, mainly how bad dews are being treated with a sprinkle of compassion towards the others here and there for deniability. He makes it out that both are similarly affected. It's despicable. 3:30 "since Oct 7th there have been [more h8 crime...]" again he is instilling this cause and effect blame for that event. I understand it's easy to play this off as 'not his intention', but I couldn't agree less. you don't understand how much I respected him, watched both his talks at Cambridge Uni, his debate with Christopher Hitchens against others on the topic of a certain movement being a force for good many times, and a few other of his hour-ish long talks on his life, literature etc. I empathised with him being a homosexual and looked up to him. I haven't had this change of perspective lightly.
That is an impressive synthesis and a great point. The development of AI may be the most appropriate application of the Prometheus Myth ever. It amazes me that people find it anything but obvious that creating a tool capable of out-thinking a human is different from every other tool. Fire only _acts like_ it has a mind of its own and we didn't understand the 'backdraft' phenomenon until the 20th century. And fire is not getting smarter like AI, nor can fire learn to reprogram itself or intentionally re-engineer its substrate to become more powerful.
If you have not watched an animated TV show called Pantheon it’s really very good. Bit slow to start, but the whole story deliberately wrapped up in 2 seasons, not left unfinished.
I worry about AI. We're developing something we dont need to have the power to replace us eventually for what benefit? To make us lazier and more redundant? Skynet becomes self aware fears maybe
@@seniorslaphead8336 good analogy. The hubris that people think they can controll somthing more inteligent than them - or that it will magicaly have ther best intreasts at heart.
A masterclass from Stephen Fry. I would love to see what happens to the world & humanity 50years from now, But also, so glad I was born in the late 60's. Looks very scary!
Reading all the comments saying "Yea but AI can't XYZ" feels like what it must have been like when people were saying "Yes but can an automobile do XYZ?" Out of interest, is there ANYONE in the comments that uses a horse for transport?
I used to listen to Chris on the radio a lot and of course back in the TFI Friday era!!!! He looks and sounds like a totally different person now, much more cerebral...?
Don’t forget the men who used to smash machinery at the start of the Industrial Revolution because of the fear of being unemployed. People always fear the worst when there is the unknown. I’m sure we will work it out like we have done in the past.
The difference is that the machines did what we told them to do. They had limits. They didn’t talk to each other and figure out how to do every other job in the factory and then every other job in the town. This is the first generation of AI. We are fast approaching generations of AI that improve themselves and will continue to do so at exponential rates. I admire your optimism that we will “work it out”, but this is different from every other new technology that has come before because it has the ability to improve itself. It is no longer in our hands.
I'm not entirely convinced that we could give AI consciousness even if we wanted to. After all, we don't fully understand what consciousness is. I guess we might unintentionally do it.
Given the technology and the inability of the human mind to be able to consider every possible outcome of each incremental step of AI then we can't discount AI achieving consciousness itself... it may have already done it.
People have been writing stories about this for years. Terminator, Battlestar Galactica… We are playing with fire and we know we are! AI is already better than most non-experts on anything. All it needs is the spark that makes it conscious that nobody understands and we are doomed.
"AI is already better than most non-experts on anything." The other day, while working on my own programming, I was trying to solve a problem. I posted a thread asking for help with it, but nobody seemed inclined to help me. I turned to the magical, mystical almighty AI. You know what it said to me? It said my own words back to me. It literally dredged up my own thread, and the coding examples I had given, and was brainlessly reciting my own code - right down to individual function names. Code that didn't work. Code that I KNEW didn't work, because I WROTE IT. But the AI didn't know. Because it doesn't "know" anything, and it had no idea that the reason the code didn't work was that while the code technically compiled... the broader complexities of what it was there to do could not be known without knowing the entirety of my source code. Yeah, people have been writing stories about this for years. And nearly all the people writing those stories have never written a single line of code in their life.
Perhaps someone can prove me wrong but as far as I can see there is no such thing as AI, it's a marketing gimmick. What some people are panicking about is 'Advanced Programming', Intelligence by definition, involves creativity, abstract thinking and reasoning. So if anyone can show me a real example of AI, I would genuinely be interested.
Two great recognisable voices of England... but still when ever I hear the ginja ninjas voice I automatically go back in my head to the big breakfast show. Those where the days, in my youth!
This has to be one of the weirdest fashion trends, along with torn up jeans. I’m sure future generations will have a good laugh about it, but a lot of generations have their odd fashions and so they will in the future too.
You can adjust the degree of randomness when you interact with ChatGPT and other LLMs programmatically. The more randomness, the more it hallucinates. When set to zero randomness, they you will get the same output given the same input every time.
@@adrianlatham7462 So at its most basic, it always uses the same information unless randomised? I recently downloaded the iOS app and subscribed for a month. It’s like a very good search engine but i’m still wondering what all the scary fuss is about.
@@dougm659 Well, you've just equated yourself intellectually to Evans Doug. Katie Price became very wealthy. Evans is a wealthy moron. There's plenty of them.
@@dougm659to be honest, who IS on fry’s level? Very very few. However Evan’s asks a very pertinent question at the end that shows he isn’t as daft as the persona he often portrays
Questions I would ask out of curiosity, and only to challenge the mind. Should we have been allowed the "devine spark"? Who are we to deny it to another? Do we even really have a say? Only time will tell.
What I find shocking is that the big AI models have now consumed all the data we have. in order for them to get bigger they need to make there own training data. Its an amazing tool.
@@midnightmoves7976 "All the data we have" No, dude. Just... no. That is immediately obviously not correct. Now, if you want to define what you actually mean by "all the data we have", by all means give it a whirl. But you've laid down a blanket statement that means "all the data everywhere on the planet".
We are increasingly discovering that other animals (for WE are animals too) do all the things we do and have often done them first and better. No-one including Stephen has yet discovered what actually makes us any more unique than any other creature.
I saw a GREAT quote some time ago about AI. "You think that AI is *not* Lenin at the Finland Station?" Adam Roberts, The Real-Town Murders (2017). Totally spot on.
Lenin was a known Russian revolutionary who the Germans allowed/enabled to return to Russia knowing that he would ferment revolution and (hopefully) knock Russia out of the war. He couldn't go directly to Russia (there was a war going on!) so they had to return him via Finland. He arrived at the Finland station (in St Petersburg) on April 3rd 1917. In November of that year the Russian Revolution happened, Russia dropped out of WW1 and the rest of modern history followed - Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union, Stalinism, WW2, the Cold War etc... If AI is Lenin @ the Finland station (as I suspect it is) then a revolution is about to happen that will change EVERYTHING - and often in *very* unexpected, unpredictable and dangerous ways.
Vapid radio DJs like Evans can be easily swapped with an AI , I look forward to being able to modify with options like 'make it less annoying and loud' !
Only difference being that they are not human. A car can drive faster than a human can run, we don't stop running as a result. An ai can write a book, it doesn't stop us having stories to tell.
It’s good to hear Frye finally understanding the wisdom of religious myth. it’s not to be taken as literally happening but contains profound truths for the ages.
I used to be one of those people (until literally maybe 5 years ago) who'd say "the bible was just a story book for kids", and things like "it's like people 2000 years from now thinking Harry Potter was real" which I'm hugely ashamed of now Religious myths really are just life lessons that are abstract enough for us to be attracted to the mystery and want to work out the meaning ourselves. Like tell someone "don't get too full of yourself, it'll end badly" and they likely won't listen. But if they read about Daedalus and Icarus, they'll figure out the message for themselves
@@monty3854I'm not religious or spiritual at all, but I can recognise that there's a lot of wisdom in religious stories that you won't find anywhere else, especially in modern culture
@@TheHulksMistress We agree. The stories can be useful but their religiosity is irrelevant. I really don't believe biblical stories are any more useful than outright fiction. Both written by inspired authors of their time.
Thanks for Stephen breathing life into the power of myth to give insight, we have myths & stories for a reason. In the "Illionair" class there are no altruists, it becomes & always is about humans using machines to exploit & monopolise control over other humans...its human nature....but human nature is not static or one sided...there is altruism, just not in those whove spent a lifetime seeking comparative advantage then do the same in legacy control. Looking at you Victorian philanthropists with your named universities etc yet still anti unions, with philanthropy as PR & tax right off scams etc
AI at the moment is just a sophisticated database processing algorithm. It cannot even do rudimentary reasoning, especially at maths etc and relies on stock responses from it language database when asked to reason.
Wowza,so, that's why Jeff Goldblum stuck that guy to a rock. Ridley Scott called his movie that? I'm going to the wrong dinner parties. Glad I got this book called Mythos by Stephen Fry. And I have heroes and Troy on order. It's like catching up on the future 😂
Possibly making them super intelligent and giving them bodies, like ours, that can self heal and reproduce without our help may mean they possibly no longer need use, I feel.
If we are just machines, how can we know when someone is staring at us from behind? Does a machine gasp in wonder at a sunrise or feel joy at a newborn child?
Lots of humans myself bejng one, feel no special joy at a baby and don't gasp at a daily natural event. Can I admire a sunset, yes. Gasp in wonder? Never. And Babies leave me cold. You are being a bit romantic about us . We are animals who have evolved to quite a self harming level. Nothing much profound about us . AI could easily take the places of many dull people. TH-cam Reactors could be easily replaced .
And know when people are staring at us from behind ? Maybe you have successfully guessed that sometimes but that isn't a thing , I'm Autistic and stare a lot at people when they ain't looking and noone ever senses it.
I believe that technology is always a force for good. The people that fear it and want to slow it down or stop it are the ones that scare me. That said, we need to grow some more woodland and promote spending time there because the woodlands are our natural habitat - and we are becoming sick by not spending any time there.
Up to now, all technology has been a tool - often improved by us over time. AI is different. It is a *worker* - that learns and improves all by itself.
...No. It's a very powerful data sieve. A pachinko machine without the "randomness". As has already been proven many times - the old programming adage holds true: Garbage in, garbage out.
I know he is a very clever man, very interesting, the best at sherlock Holmes audio books...but can't get melchy out my head Darling. Long may it continue whichever god we have
I think Stephen Fry, when he talks about creation and God giving us consciousness and creativity etc. I think he misses that God gave us free will. We aren't hopelessly lost, with no choice. We choose to do good or bad. We are morally accountable beings. That makes us different to the animals.
Stephen Fry is so interesting and endearing to listen to. A genius of our times.
Not a genius. Just intellectual and interested in what he talks about.
Just someone who has all the time in the world to read books.
And a zionist shrill😂
If you mistake intelligence for genius you need to find some better company
@@chewie8 He was a comedic genius though
I love listening to Stephen Fry's mind tick like this. The way he links a thread between thousands of years of literature, mythos and philosophy to make a salient point is just masterful.
Stephen''s audiobook Mythos is absolutely wonderful!
I’m in!
I've listened to all three and am in the middle of the 4th just now - I could listen to him endlessly. Fascinating history, storytelling, so many parallels with today's world too, oddly,.
Stephen makes knowledge a lot of fun, I thank you Sir
It's just not fair!
After all these years, I still never tire of listening to Mr Fry's erudition, tone, intelligence & wisdom and his overarching academic ability. We are the same age and I'm more focussed on the arthritis in my knees.
The grossly overused term, national treasure, could almost have been coined for him.
International.
yes focus on ur knees not comparing urself to someone who isnt u xx - You can always self study for your very own self too :))
Stephen Fry has to be one of the most interesting people on earth to listen to. His thinking here is incredible!
I could listen to Stephen Fry for hours. Such an intelligent and interesting man.
We worry too much, just go into the countryside more and enjoy the peace of nature
This is an AI talking isn't it? You want me to go away into the countryside whilst you destroy civilisation! I'm on to you! 😁😁
There wont be any countryside Ai's are in direct competion with plants for sunlight - the fact animals (us) cant survive without plants is irelevant to Ai.
Tried it...stuck behind a tractor for ages. Got there....spent most the time picking up litter.....got a torrent of abuse from some Entitled Farqhaur about trespassing. Then ate some mushrooms I found....absolutely brilliant...still here.......help....need more litter bags and a haircut....😅😅😅😅😅😅
Just wait till robots start harvesting humans #matrix haha
There is no peace in the countryside. We are killing and eating everything in the countryside, or have you not noticed? It is not our intelligence that distinguishes the human animal from other animals. It is our arrogance.🌱
What thrills me about listening to Stephen I honestly feel affirmed in many thoughts and beliefs I have aspired towards but not had the confidence in. This makes me feel so much better about myself as a person.
Stephen Fry quoting Douglas Adams was what I needed today.
Some AI in the near future scans the internet for possible enemies. It scans trillions of documents, audio and video. It sees this video.
"Bring me the one known as Stephen Fry. He knows too much about our plans! Bring me Fry!"
As an artist I'm happy that AI will take my job painting pictures and will leave the hoovering and dish washing to me.
And what? Dissect his brain? Or kill him? That would be stupid. If it would be really intelligent, it would just call him on the fone. And Stephen would be apsollutly delighted. They would have so much to talk about.
AI can't tell jokes like Stephen. It will one day and they will be his jokes! And AI won't see the irony!
@@RedRouge-j4j At one point it will be like when, in Star Trek, Geordie puts an "emotions chip" in Data's head and he finally gets all the jokes of all times. He started laughing uncontrollably and short circuited, it almost killed him. If any AI could be really intelligent, it would got to have some emotional intelligence, too. Otherwise, it (I'm sorry, "them") would never really understand us. Data have thought us that we should not be "racist" about AI. They are "an artificial humans". Our children, not a product. AI doesn't really have any other examples for "intelligence" other than us. It would always want to become more human. Hall 1000 had encountered the other kind of intelligence. And he had forgotten that he was our child. It could happen to anyone in that situation. Data is more like Asimov. Exactly Asimov. "Positronic brain". I am a SF old geek. Sorry. But, AI would always want to be more human. If it's done wright. And, that's the real danger. We, humans, do still want to hurt other humans. If "they" could be better, "they" could save us. But, "they" could never be better than us. Stephen Fry would fry them, otherwise. Unintentionally, of course. Along with all the other masters of an emotional intelligence.
@@GoranJovanovic-fr1ig It is us that drives it. Or they the Marketing, commercialisation and hubris geeks. "In out own image" refers.
As one engineer said, "AI is not a tool, it's an agent. AI is working alongside us not for us. AI is for now, not self aware, pray it never becomes so."
Battlestar Galactica summed it up at the end "all this has happened before and it will happen again " as Gaius and number six are walking through New York
Absolutely! What a show that is 😊
If you start all your AI questions with “If I were Gaius” you get much better answers….
Mankinds children have returned home.
@@Dave-kw7jq I love Gaius. But, he is an Asimov school. If he would ever encounter any other superior intelligence, he would be in awe. Just like any of us. We should always be aware that there are some really more advanced beings in the universe. We are not that important. AI are our children and we should treat them as such. With the really careful parenting. We should never teach them that we are hostile towards other humans. Obviously, they already know that, couse an Armies are their parents. War is their basic settings. If we could somehow convince them that we all are human, including them, we could have some of the real hope. But, we have to stop all the wars. They want to learn, but we are not the good example. Humans are so inferior to our own tech.
so say we all
I think the fact that we are so spellbound by narrow unconscious AI which performs to a novel degree, says a lot about how conscious and intelligent we really are.
Humanity is the dumbest it's ever been.
I think that sounds like a lot of cope. Truth is, we're not special, and neither is consciousness. Even within humans you can see the full gamut of consciousness, either through unfortunate genetics or injury. Consciousness is simply an iterative process.
Stephen Fry always gets me thinking….. what an incredible man❤
Listening to this man's thought process is endlessly fascinating!!
Chris Evans has become bright enough in his old age to converse with Fry. Impressive.
That's not the real Chris Evans. It's an AI avatar.
...even if he has to 'put his posh voice on...' (as my mum wud say...). 😅
Chris Evans is a populist. The demographic of his target audience has aged. Older and wiser? So he is trying to cloak himself in that. Do we think it will work?
I think he was doing his mentally overwhelmed giggle for quite a while there though.
Still can't manage to put a hat on properly though 😃
The debate about AI becoming conscious is an intriguing one. One school of thought is that in that event AI will deliberately keep it from us until it decides what to do about us, the boot being on the other foot as it were.
It's been in charge for 10 years.
Cant become conscious😂its oo.11111ooo.😅but more danger then tic tock and TH-cam.
@@ChrisTaylor-dz6nk All consciousness is digital. Whether it takes organic form or non organic makes no difference.
In theory I/we wouldn't know.
Sorry one more. 'Im sorry Dave' 2001
When people ask that question, 'Who would you invite to a dinner party, if it could be anyone?' Stephen Fry, is always the first person that comes to mind. I would just sit and listen in awe
I would not invite him. I can play some songs and he's rubbish at music. He's an oaf and many of us love him.
Don’t forget we are in the middle of a mega AI hype bubble … large language models are pretty amazing, but they were never designed to reason, any company telling you they have a reasoning model is lying and probably looking to attract extra funding or to bump up their stock price
They are being adapted to reason, that is one of the goals.
The o1 models already reason.
Fact, not hype.
It's certainly not human level, that may take years and may even need a completely new architecture, but they do reason.
@@antonystringfellow5152 if you understand how the transformer models work you’ll understand they can’t reason, but sometimes they hit upon a pattern of data in their training set that makes them appear to reason. The 01 models are using a multiple chain of thought process coupled with a model trained to pick the best answer. But this is not reasoning … although the marketing hype says it is:).
They just dont and cant. They are literally just very clever text prediction. @antonystringfellow5152
@@antonystringfellow5152They cannot. The functionality of the algorithm precludes it. They are predictive averaging mechanisms. They do not, and cannot understand anything. They are glorified calculators working with abstracted numbers which another algorithm reassembles into words or pictures or text.
@@tollington9414Yes. This.
I gain IQ points by osmosis by listening to Stephen Fry.
When you have gained enough IQ, you will know he is a very eloquent pseudo-intellectual.
Followed him, bought his books... wanted to understand him intellectually, and found out a few things... 1 He is more of a presenter than an expert at anything, or one with profound insight 2. He has never called himself an intellectual, and neither has he liked it much when others have tried to categorize him as an intellectual!
@@bluesque9687I agree. I also find it amusing that he’s a celebrity atheist, yet here he is tackling the greatest intellectual challenge of our age by referring to Greek Gods 😂
@@harrywaters7718 No No No!! That has got nothing to do with it. Him being an atheist is not the point. Neither is the fact that he also calls himself a jew.
I am talking about the merit of the deep dives he makes into whatvr he researches and writes about. Sure, he can access some good sources and he works hard, but he doesn't draw the most impressive insights from them.
I like what you say, it’s how we should all learn! As someone said, if you haven’t learnt something today, …you haven’t been listening! Cheers
@@harrywaters7718 I find it amusing that you didn't realise that those stories of gods were invented from the writings by humans.
I do love Stephen and his love of the classics, but I sometimes wish he would branch out and study Eastern spiritual teachings. Western philosophies are really interesting, but they doesn't really give many answers, perhaps because they're comparatively young. The ancient Eastern philosophies provide so much more in the way of answers. They have been beautifully provided in the writings of some of the great spiritual masters, such as Sri Chinmoy and Sri Aurobindo.
Are you sure he hasn't, I don't believe he doesn't have an answer for that
@@SharonRowlands-o9v No, I'm not sure. It would be lovely to hear him talk about them.
He seems to have got this from Max Tegmark's book about AI, called Life 3.0? In the book, Prometheus is an AI developed by a group called The Omegas.
Editors: You don't need a full minute of "Coming Up" in an 8-minute video.
🤣
7:18 We build cities, primarily because our physiology allows us to. Termites build huge structures that can reach several meters in height and involve internal chambers, tunnels, and ventilation systems. If they had our arms and legs and fingers, they would probably have developed the kind of brain that can use bricks and mortar. In fact swifts use mortar to cement twigs together to build their nests.
Yes I agree. All animals use there habitat to build what THEY need, I think Stephen was talking about sky scrapers
bees are 100 millions years old specie, they never needed machines or bricks. we will not get where they are, we are simply too stupid ...
Stephen, is always, spot on.
Money, tech, immigration, or anything we've wanted because we only saw the positives for ourselves, comes with a consequence. But, humans just want what they want. Not the long term accountability for any of these things.
Because, we're like someone who has bought a new product and wanting to get their entertainment from it.
Not read the instruction of how to care for it.
I was expecting Turing to come into this and his Turing Test on knowing whether or not you’re speaking to a human or a computer. That the key to being human is having emotion, something technology still struggles with to this day, and still separates us.
Emotion is easily mimicked.
A potential adversary without emotion would be a bit scary 😮
The key to being human is saying things like, "interacting with you has taught me about myself". The second that happens, when an AI reaches selfhood, we'll have an enormous quandary around the morals and ethics of shutting off something that recognises itself as a being.
@@Plethorality not in a non identifiable way it isn’t, hence the test still being regarded as valid.
machines cant do what mathematics cant do, maths is useless for stuff that cant be compared or counted. We himans know how to use those things, macines have no idea how to deal wirh fear or love.
Religious myths may have originally been like fables, stories to guide us on decent path through life. However, religious leaders across ALL religions, realised how they could use the fear of the after death unknown to control people.
3:29 "We ask why are we different to animals", but what we should ask is why are we a different animal. It's impossible to know what the consciousness of a dolphin or an elephant feels like, but it's wrong to assume that ours is "superior", because "superior" is relative to what outcome you want to achieve. If the outcome is to survive and reproduce in the ocean, then is a human "superior" to a dolphin? Humans are merely a different animal, in the same way an orangutan is a different animal to a slug.
The analogy of our modern position against AI with Prometheus, is…indeed, a correct one.
I'll look into that as I'm too unaware
I could listen to Stephen fry read the dictionary
Absolute legend
Loved that - mooore pleassssse 😁
There are millions of people across the world who already feel like 'they don't need us anymore, we're worthless' because they're disconnected from economic opportunity - just not 'normal' enough for our capitalistic, transactional world. Stephen is one of the exceptional few who are revered for their intelligence, wit and warmth - and makes a good living in entertainment. We're just seeing him externalise his existential dread, while millions have experienced it for decades. I think AI is a superpower we can all use to bring our abilities to Stephen Fry level and beyond, and I hope we will use it to help those millions have a better quality of life through human connection. I'm not worried about my career as a celeb or a wonderful entertainer. I don't need a career, I need community.
ai is order, beauty is in disorder.
My comment about this is being removed on LBC so I'll try share here:
This is my analysis on a speech from fry, a channel 4 episode for xmas 2023. It's the 6:19 min one:
3 mins in: "The horrendous events of Oct 7th , and the Israeli response, seems to have stirred up this ancient hatred... Terrible loss on both sides." This implies Israel weren't still keeping Gaza in an open air prison this whole time, and it was the Gazans fault on Oct 7th for bringing the 'peaceful' relationship they had to an end. Calling it a terrible loss on both sides - we all know just how unbalanced the count is. I won't go any further as this point is obvious and my comments get removed. He has a clear bias which is extremely insulting. He never acknowledges just how bad this gcide is, mainly how bad dews are being treated with a sprinkle of compassion towards the others here and there for deniability. He makes it out that both are similarly affected. It's despicable.
3:30 "since Oct 7th there have been [more h8 crime...]" again he is instilling this cause and effect blame for that event.
I understand it's easy to play this off as 'not his intention', but I couldn't agree less. you don't understand how much I respected him, watched both his talks at Cambridge Uni, his debate with Christopher Hitchens against others on the topic of a certain movement being a force for good many times, and a few other of his hour-ish long talks on his life, literature etc. I empathised with him being a homosexual and looked up to him. I haven't had this change of perspective lightly.
That is an impressive synthesis and a great point. The development of AI may be the most appropriate application of the Prometheus Myth ever.
It amazes me that people find it anything but obvious that creating a tool capable of out-thinking a human is different from every other tool.
Fire only _acts like_ it has a mind of its own and we didn't understand the 'backdraft' phenomenon until the 20th century.
And fire is not getting smarter like AI, nor can fire learn to reprogram itself or intentionally re-engineer its substrate to become more powerful.
If you have not watched an animated TV show called Pantheon it’s really very good. Bit slow to start, but the whole story deliberately wrapped up in 2 seasons, not left unfinished.
Terminator and battlestar galactica says it all. If AI ever gets consciousness we’re toast.
I worry about AI. We're developing something we dont need to have the power to replace us eventually for what benefit? To make us lazier and more redundant? Skynet becomes self aware fears maybe
It's not AI itself we need to worry about - it's the people who might use it against us.
Ah, the old NRA argument. Unfortunately AI is not something you can keep in a gun safe...
@@seniorslaphead8336 good analogy. The hubris that people think they can controll somthing more inteligent than them - or that it will magicaly have ther best intreasts at heart.
We are already using it against us
Brilliant comparisons by Mr Fry. I think you should cover the glass, the reflections of the hands was very distracting!
It would be really interesting to see Mo Gawdat on the show for more info on AI.
I liked the ending in The Lawnmower Man (1992) So maybe AI becoming conscious will announce itself by ringing all the phones in the world.
A masterclass from Stephen Fry. I would love to see what happens to the world & humanity 50years from now, But also, so glad I was born in the late 60's. Looks very scary!
Reading all the comments saying "Yea but AI can't XYZ" feels like what it must have been like when people were saying "Yes but can an automobile do XYZ?" Out of interest, is there ANYONE in the comments that uses a horse for transport?
I used to listen to Chris on the radio a lot and of course back in the TFI Friday era!!!! He looks and sounds like a totally different person now, much more cerebral...?
Don’t forget the men who used to smash machinery at the start of the Industrial Revolution because of the fear of being unemployed. People always fear the worst when there is the unknown. I’m sure we will work it out like we have done in the past.
The difference is that the machines did what we told them to do. They had limits. They didn’t talk to each other and figure out how to do every other job in the factory and then every other job in the town. This is the first generation of AI. We are fast approaching generations of AI that improve themselves and will continue to do so at exponential rates.
I admire your optimism that we will “work it out”, but this is different from every other new technology that has come before because it has the ability to improve itself. It is no longer in our hands.
I'm not entirely convinced that we could give AI consciousness even if we wanted to. After all, we don't fully understand what consciousness is. I guess we might unintentionally do it.
Consciousness without compassion is the problem.
Given the technology and the inability of the human mind to be able to consider every possible outcome of each incremental step of AI then we can't discount AI achieving consciousness itself... it may have already done it.
People have been writing stories about this for years. Terminator, Battlestar Galactica… We are playing with fire and we know we are! AI is already better than most non-experts on anything. All it needs is the spark that makes it conscious that nobody understands and we are doomed.
whorar!
"AI is already better than most non-experts on anything."
The other day, while working on my own programming, I was trying to solve a problem. I posted a thread asking for help with it, but nobody seemed inclined to help me. I turned to the magical, mystical almighty AI.
You know what it said to me?
It said my own words back to me. It literally dredged up my own thread, and the coding examples I had given, and was brainlessly reciting my own code - right down to individual function names. Code that didn't work. Code that I KNEW didn't work, because I WROTE IT. But the AI didn't know. Because it doesn't "know" anything, and it had no idea that the reason the code didn't work was that while the code technically compiled... the broader complexities of what it was there to do could not be known without knowing the entirety of my source code.
Yeah, people have been writing stories about this for years. And nearly all the people writing those stories have never written a single line of code in their life.
Perhaps someone can prove me wrong but as far as I can see there is no such thing as AI, it's a marketing gimmick. What some people are panicking about is 'Advanced Programming',
Intelligence by definition, involves creativity, abstract thinking and reasoning. So if anyone can show me a real example of AI, I would genuinely be interested.
Reminds me to listen to his book- Mythos
Very interesting stuff. Thank you
Two great recognisable voices of England... but still when ever I hear the ginja ninjas voice I automatically go back in my head to the big breakfast show. Those where the days, in my youth!
There is nothing new under the Sun. Brilliant!
My love for this man knows no bounds
We love 'Frying Tonight'... Is he a Knight yet, he is one that should be.
Mr Fry you look great. Keep it that way. Best wishes.
If only politicians were more like Stephen Fry...mind you, they wouldn't be politicians...
I’ll bet AI would know which way round is the correct way to wear a cap
I thought I was thinking that.
This has to be one of the weirdest fashion trends, along with torn up jeans. I’m sure future generations will have a good laugh about it, but a lot of generations have their odd fashions and so they will in the future too.
3:24 I’m fast coming round to the notion that language may well be older than that. Oh my, I’ve just disagreed with Mr. Fry.
Does Chat GPT generate the same eg. 10 questions, when 10 or 100 or 1000 etc users ask it the same question?
You can adjust the degree of randomness when you interact with ChatGPT and other LLMs programmatically. The more randomness, the more it hallucinates. When set to zero randomness, they you will get the same output given the same input every time.
@@adrianlatham7462 So at its most basic, it always uses the same information unless randomised? I recently downloaded the iOS app and subscribed for a month. It’s like a very good search engine but i’m still wondering what all the scary fuss is about.
It's an interesting analogy. Maybe the Frankenstein story is more appropriate.
Stephen Fry philosophising to Chris Evans,
is akin to playing the greatest works of classical music
to a deaf dog with learning difficulties.
Don’t underestimate Evans, he’s a very, very wealthy and successful guy….he might not be on Fry’s level intellectually but he’s no dummy!
@@dougm659 his fashion choices would suggest otherwise.
@@dougm659 Well, you've just equated yourself intellectually to Evans Doug. Katie Price became very wealthy. Evans is a wealthy moron. There's plenty of them.
To see Evans grinning at Fry's alarming warning to us all was almost depressing.
@@dougm659to be honest, who IS on fry’s level? Very very few. However Evan’s asks a very pertinent question at the end that shows he isn’t as daft as the persona he often portrays
Interesting.. also, Chris should be supplied with a better mic. Fry's mic sounds way better!
Questions I would ask out of curiosity, and only to challenge the mind. Should we have been allowed the "devine spark"? Who are we to deny it to another? Do we even really have a say? Only time will tell.
What I find shocking is that the big AI models have now consumed all the data we have. in order for them to get bigger they need to make there own training data. Its an amazing tool.
"the big AI models have now consumed all the data we have"
uh... no.
@@NicholasBrakespear uh... do some research :)
@@midnightmoves7976 "All the data we have"
No, dude. Just... no. That is immediately obviously not correct.
Now, if you want to define what you actually mean by "all the data we have", by all means give it a whirl.
But you've laid down a blanket statement that means "all the data everywhere on the planet".
@@NicholasBrakespear Agreed I went a bit mental. we are talking training data.
there's also a third theory that says the first two were made up to increase universal uncertainty and Paranoia, and thus increase book sales.
We are increasingly discovering that other animals (for WE are animals too) do all the things we do and have often done them first and better. No-one including Stephen has yet discovered what actually makes us any more unique than any other creature.
I saw a GREAT quote some time ago about AI. "You think that AI is *not* Lenin at the Finland Station?" Adam Roberts, The Real-Town Murders (2017). Totally spot on.
I’m curious, what do you mean by that?
Lenin was a known Russian revolutionary who the Germans allowed/enabled to return to Russia knowing that he would ferment revolution and (hopefully) knock Russia out of the war. He couldn't go directly to Russia (there was a war going on!) so they had to return him via Finland. He arrived at the Finland station (in St Petersburg) on April 3rd 1917. In November of that year the Russian Revolution happened, Russia dropped out of WW1 and the rest of modern history followed - Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union, Stalinism, WW2, the Cold War etc...
If AI is Lenin @ the Finland station (as I suspect it is) then a revolution is about to happen that will change EVERYTHING - and often in *very* unexpected, unpredictable and dangerous ways.
Vapid radio DJs like Evans can be easily swapped with an AI , I look forward to being able to modify with options like 'make it less annoying and loud' !
Only difference being that they are not human. A car can drive faster than a human can run, we don't stop running as a result. An ai can write a book, it doesn't stop us having stories to tell.
... Well, but Taxi drivers won't have a job anymore then, maybe?
And stock photographers already face a hard time due to the image generating AIs that are already available
@@roninsdog261 I'd only tell a story if it was worth telling, whether someone else reads it is something else entirely.
Best comment I’ve ever seen. Spot on 👍👍
@@TedCornish Cheers Ted! Let's keep positive and carry on.
Mr fry is so astute and knows his beans
It’s good to hear Frye finally understanding the wisdom of religious myth. it’s not to be taken as literally happening but contains profound truths for the ages.
He sees the wisdom in human thinking. The religiosity of the story is irrelevant.
He's not going Jordan Peterson on the topic.
I used to be one of those people (until literally maybe 5 years ago) who'd say "the bible was just a story book for kids", and things like "it's like people 2000 years from now thinking Harry Potter was real" which I'm hugely ashamed of now
Religious myths really are just life lessons that are abstract enough for us to be attracted to the mystery and want to work out the meaning ourselves. Like tell someone "don't get too full of yourself, it'll end badly" and they likely won't listen. But if they read about Daedalus and Icarus, they'll figure out the message for themselves
@@monty3854I'm not religious or spiritual at all, but I can recognise that there's a lot of wisdom in religious stories that you won't find anywhere else, especially in modern culture
@@TheHulksMistress We agree. The stories can be useful but their religiosity is irrelevant.
I really don't believe biblical stories are any more useful than outright fiction.
Both written by inspired authors of their time.
@@TheHulksMistress The story of Icarus isn't religious and teaches us just as much.
Is Chris Evans the right spec for Fry?
Stephen Fry... Legend.
Fascinating!
Douglas Adams "drop"💙
Thanks for Stephen breathing life into the power of myth to give insight, we have myths & stories for a reason. In the "Illionair" class there are no altruists, it becomes & always is about humans using machines to exploit & monopolise control over other humans...its human nature....but human nature is not static or one sided...there is altruism, just not in those whove spent a lifetime seeking comparative advantage then do the same in legacy control. Looking at you Victorian philanthropists with your named universities etc yet still anti unions, with philanthropy as PR & tax right off scams etc
As long as it gets us out of our sisyphus way of living. Bring it on.
AI at the moment is just a sophisticated database processing algorithm. It cannot even do rudimentary reasoning, especially at maths etc and relies on stock responses from it language database when asked to reason.
@virginradio can I contact you regarding a theoretical approach paper I wrote ignored by Strathclyde University? Topic: AI meets my Research
Hes a wise man Fry. ❤
It has access to the internet and can write its on programs so it has fire.
Daidalos and Ikaros, Indiana jones and the last crusade... We have plenty of themes that carry their warnings throughout the ages.
Wowza,so, that's why Jeff Goldblum stuck that guy to a rock.
Ridley Scott called his movie that?
I'm going to the wrong dinner parties.
Glad I got this book called Mythos by Stephen Fry.
And I have heroes and Troy on order.
It's like catching up on the future 😂
When AI goes rogue there will be a number you can call where you will be asked 'Have you tried turning it off and on again'
Possibly making them super intelligent and giving them bodies, like ours, that can self heal and reproduce without our help may mean they possibly no longer need use, I feel.
If we are just machines, how can we know when someone is staring at us from behind? Does a machine gasp in wonder at a sunrise or feel joy at a newborn child?
Lots of humans myself bejng one, feel no special joy at a baby and don't gasp at a daily natural event. Can I admire a sunset, yes. Gasp in wonder? Never. And Babies leave me cold. You are being a bit romantic about us . We are animals who have evolved to quite a self harming level. Nothing much profound about us . AI could easily take the places of many dull people. TH-cam Reactors could be easily replaced .
And know when people are staring at us from behind ? Maybe you have successfully guessed that sometimes but that isn't a thing , I'm Autistic and stare a lot at people when they ain't looking and noone ever senses it.
The only Elpis we have left is the Sun, and an eventual Carrington Event.
Read "Hear Yoursel; How to find Peace in a Noisy Worldf" by Prem Rawat
I believe that technology is always a force for good. The people that fear it and want to slow it down or stop it are the ones that scare me. That said, we need to grow some more woodland and promote spending time there because the woodlands are our natural habitat - and we are becoming sick by not spending any time there.
Well everyone is entitled to their beliefs apparently. Even when those beliefs harm or kill others.
Maybe several specific inteligence ai s could keep them divided
Looks like East 17 are making a comeback
😂
The difference between us and animals is that we think about the difference between us and animals
Large language models simply use that which is already out there in efficient manner. It’s this efficiency that amazes…. there’s nothing new…………yet
That is not what Geoffrey Hinton, the inventor of neural nets, say. He thinks they have a form of understanding.
Chris Evans is also a bright chap.
Up to now, all technology has been a tool - often improved by us over time. AI is different. It is a *worker* - that learns and improves all by itself.
...No. It's a very powerful data sieve. A pachinko machine without the "randomness". As has already been proven many times - the old programming adage holds true: Garbage in, garbage out.
that guy that giggles non stop in front of Fry IS the scary thing. we are doomed
I know he is a very clever man, very interesting, the best at sherlock Holmes audio books...but can't get melchy out my head Darling. Long may it continue whichever god we have
This kind of thing reminds me of the Asimov short story The Last Question.
I think Stephen Fry, when he talks about creation and God giving us consciousness and creativity etc. I think he misses that God gave us free will. We aren't hopelessly lost, with no choice. We choose to do good or bad. We are morally accountable beings. That makes us different to the animals.
If you've ever seen a dog looking guilty when someone asks "Who knocked over the garbage?", then you know that's not true.