Readings

The readings for this week focus on artificial intelligence:

• Too Smart for Our Own Good?

• Rise of the Machines

• Computer Wins on 'Jeopardy!': Trivial, It's Not

• Is AlphaGo Really Such a Big Deal?

• The truth about the Turing Test

And its application in automation:

• How Artificial Intelligence and Robots Will Radically Transform the Economy

• The epic mistake about manufacturing that’s cost Americans millions of jobs

• The Rise of Job-Killing Automation? Not So Fast

• Tech companies should stop pretending AI won’t destroy jobs

• The Paradox of Universal Basic Income

Optional: Intelligence

These articles discuss what artificial intelligence is:

• What is artificial intelligence?

• Debunking the biggest myths about artificial intelligence

• The Great A.I. Awakening

These articles discuss AlphaGo, Watson, Deep Blue, and AlphaZero:

• When Computers Started Beating Chess Champions

• How Google's AlphaGo Beat a Go World Champion

• Why AlphaGo Is Not AI

• Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match

These articles discuss the Turing Test and the Chinese Room thought experiment:

• Computing Machinery and Intelligence

• Searle: Minds, brains, and programs

• Do Feelings Compute? If Not, The Turing Test Doesn't Mean Much

• The Turing Test Is Not What You Think It Is

These articles further examine whether or not machines can think:

• Can We Quantify Machine Consciousness?

• Don't Be A Chauvinist About Thinking

• Machines That Think? NUTS

• Beyond "The Uncanny Valley"

These articles discuss the fears around artificial intelligence

• Beneficial Artificial Intelligence (context)

• Some scientists fear superintelligent machiens could pose a threat to humanity

• AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian

• Let’s Stop Freaking Out About Artificial Intelligence

These articles discuss OpenAI:

• Introducing OpenAI

• What Will It Take to Build a Virtuous AI?

• How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over

• Inside OpenAI, Elon Musk's Wild Plan to Set Artificial Intelligence Free

Automation

These articles discuss the economic impact of automation:

• A World without Work

• Automation and Jobs

• How Safe Is Your Job? A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

These articles discuss how artificial intelligence is displacing human workers:

• Drones could replace $127 billion worth of human labour

• Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'

• Amazon, robots and the near-future rise of the automated warehouse

• The Rise Of The Robots: What The Future Holds For The World’s Armies

• Fast-food CEO says 'it just makes sense' to consider replacing cashiers with machines as minimum wages rise

This is a series of podcasts from Planet Money regarding automation:

• Episode 621: When Luddites Attack

• Episode 622: Humans vs. Robots

• Episode 623: The Machine Comes To Town

• Episode 624: I, Waiter

These articles consider whether the Luddites were right regarding automation:

• Technology isn't working

• Were the Luddites right about technology and jobs?

• Will Robots Put Everyone Out of Work? Automation Is Good for Humans

These articles touch on the political implications of automation:

• The CEO of United Technologies just let slip an unintended consequence of the Trump-Carrier jobs deal

• Tariffs Unlikely to Bring Back Many U.S. Blue-Collar Jobs, Study Finds

• The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s Automation.

• Trump treasury secretary: R2-D2 won't take your job for 50 years

• The New Casualties of Automation

These articles discuss the idea of a universal basic income:

• As Our Jobs Are Automated, Some Say We'll Need A Guaranteed Basic Income

• It's time to start talking seriously about Basic Income

• Silicon Valley's Unchecked Arrogance

• Commentary: Universal Basic Income May Sound Attractive But, If It Occurred, Would Likelier Increase Poverty Than Reduce It

These articles discuss other ways to address the problems caused by automation:

• Andrew Ng Wants a New “New Deal” to Combat Job Automation

• Automation, education, and the looming skills deficit

• The robot that takes your job should pay taxes, says Bill Gates

• AI will create new jobs but skills must shift, say tech giants

Questions

Please write a response to one of the following questions:

1. From the readings, what is artificial intelligence and how is it similar or different from what you consider to be human intelligence?

   • Are AlphaGo, Deep Blue, Watson, and AlphaZero proof of the viability of artificial intelligence or are they just interesting tricks or gimmicks?

   • Is the Turing Test a valid measure of intelligence or is the Chinese Room a good counter argument?

   • Are the growing concerns over the power of artificial intelligence and its role in our lives warranted? Are you worried about the potential dangers imposed by artificial intelligence? Explain why or why not.

   • Finally, could a computing system ever be considered a mind? Have morality? Are humans just biological computers? What are the ethical implications of these ideas?

2. From the readings, how is automation impacting employment? What are the social, political, and economic implications of replacing human labor with automation on a massive scale?

   • Were the Luddites right about technology and jobs? Should we halt development of automation technology or at least temper it to ensure employment of human laborers, or does automation free humans for other endeavors?

   • Are you comfortable with artificial intelligence taking over work normally performed by humans? How about artificial intelligence performing typically "human" activities such as caregiving, creating artist works, or making life-or-death decisions?

   • Is a Universal Basic Income a viable means of addressing the concerns over loss of employment due to mass automation or is it unnecessary? How does society deal with a future with mass automation and lower employment (or is this not really a problem)? How do we prevent the rich from simply getting richer (or do we even care about preventing that)?

   • Is automation ultimately a good thing or a bad thing for humanity? What are the ethical implications for those who develop and utilize these automation technologies?