What is A.I. or artificial intelligence but the 'space of possible minds', argues Murray Shanahan, scientific advisor on the movie Ex Machina and Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London. In this special episode of the a16z Podcast brought to you on the ground from London, Shanahan -- along with journalist-turned-entrepreneur Azeem Azhar (who also curates The Exponential View newsletter on AI and more) and The Economist Deputy Editor Tom Standage (the author of several tech history books) -- we discuss the past, present, and future of A.I. ... as well as how it fits (or doesn't fit) with machine learning and deep learning. But where are we now in the A.I. evolution? What players do we think will lead, if not win, the current race? And how should we think about issues such as ethics and automation of jobs without descending into obvious extremes? All this and more, including a surprise easter egg in Ex Machina shared by Shanahan, whose work influenced the movie.
Murray Shanahan was one of the scientific advisors on Ex Machina - https://twitter.com/mpshanahan He's also a Research Scientist at DeepMind and professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London. His book Embodiment and the Inner Life served as inspiration for Alex Garland while he was writing the screenplay for Ex Machina - https://www.amazon.com/Embodiment-inner-life-Cognition-Consciousness/dp/0199226555 YC's podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - http://twitter.com/craigcannon