Author: The Conversation

Being able to instantly and accurately predict the trajectory of a person’s health in the years to come has long been seen as the pinnacle of medicine. This kind of information would have a profound effect on healthcare systems as a whole – shifting care from treatment to prevention. According to the findings of a recently published paper, researchers are promising just that. Using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the researchers built Delphi-2M. This tool is seeking to predict a person’s next health event and when it’s likely to happen in the next 20 years. The model does this for a…

From the earliest year of school, children begin learning how to express ideas in different ways. Lines across a page, a wobbly letter, or a simple drawing form the foundation for how we share meaning beyond spoken language. Over time, those first marks evolve into complex ideas. Children learn to combine words with visuals, express abstract concepts, and recognise how images, symbols and design carry meaning in different situations. But generative artificial intelligence (AI), software that creates content based on user prompts, is reshaping these fundamental skills. AI is changing how people create, edit and present both text and images. In other words,…

People’s lives are more enmeshed with digital systems than ever before, increasing users’ vulnerability and insecurity. From data leaks like the 2017 Equifax data breach to the more recent cyberattack on British retailer Marks & Spencer, business operations and data on the internet continue to be vulnerable. There are good reasons to believe that little will be done about these risks until a massive society-wide crisis emerges. My research suggests that there are significant failures in our current approaches to risk and innovation. Digital technologies remake social life through new technologies, communication platforms and forms of artificial intelligence. All of which, while very powerful, are…

For 24 hours a day, seven days a week since November 2000, NASA and its international partners have sustained a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit, including at least one American – a streak that will soon reach 25 years. When viewed in the history of spaceflight, the International Space Station is perhaps one of humanity’s most amazing accomplishments, a shining example of cooperation in space among the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia. But all good things must come to an end. In 2030, the International Space Station will be deorbited: driven into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. I’m an aerospace…

News that several New Zealand universities have given up using detection software to expose student use of artificial intelligence (AI) underlines the challenge higher education is facing. With AI tools such as ChatGPT now able to produce essays, reports and case studies in seconds, the old assessment model is breaking down. For decades, that model was valued for testing not just knowledge, but also analysis, argumentation and communication. Now, however, its reliability is under pressure. If a machine can generate a plausible essay on demand, how can we be sure we are assessing a student’s own understanding and reasoning? We have been…

In the rush to cash in on the generative artificial intelligence gold rush, one possible outcome of AI’s future rarely gets discussed: what if the technology never works well enough to replace your co-workers, companies fail to use AI well or most AI startups simply fail? Current estimates suggest big AI firms face a US$800 billion dollar revenue shortfall. So far, genAI’s productivity gains are minimal and mostly for programmers and copywriters. GenAI does some neat, helpful things, but it’s not yet the engine of a new economy. It’s not a bad future, but it’s different from the one currently driving news headlines. And it’s a future that doesn’t fit…

The press has always used metaphors and examples to simplify complex issues and make them easier to understand. With the rise of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the tendency to humanise technology has intensified, whether through comparisons to medicine, well-known similes, or dystopian scenarios. Although what lies behind AI is nothing more than code and circuits, the media often portrays algorithms as having human qualities. So what do we lose, and what do we gain, when AI ceases to be a mere device and becomes, linguistically speaking, a human alter ego, an entity that “thinks”, “feels” and even “cares”? The…

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a relationship challenge. Every time you give a task to AI, whether it’s approving a loan or driving a car, you’re shaping the relationship between humans and AI. These relationships aren’t always static. AI that begins as a simple tool can morph into something far more complicated: a challenger, a companion, a leader, a teammate or some combination thereof. Movies have long been a testing ground for imagining how these relationships might evolve. From 1980s sci-fi films to today’s blockbusters, filmmakers have wrestled with questions about what happens when humans rely on intelligent machines. These movies…

If it’s steered correctly, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to accelerate development. It can drive breakthroughs in agriculture. It can expand access to healthcare and education. It can boost financial inclusion and strengthen democratic participation. But without deliberate action, the AI “revolution” risks deepening inequality more than it will expand opportunity. As a scholar of the history and future of AI, I’ve written about the dangers of AI widening global inequality. There’s an urgent need to develop governance mechanisms that will try to redistribute the benefits of this technology. The scale of the AI gap is stark. Africa holds less than 1%…

Talking monkeys vlogging from sacred sites, three-legged sharks wearing Nike sneakers, babies trapped in space… if you spend any time on social media these days you’re likely to come across such examples of what’s been dubbed “AI slop”. These short videos are simultaneously flashy, generic and bizarre, characterised by uncanny visuals, robotic voiceovers and nonsensical narratives. The rapid emergence of the generative AI video tools capable of conjuring such cinematic images from simple text prompts has been met with a mixture of awe, derision and concern. Their outputs, often dazzling at first glance but riddled with odd features, occupy a…