Can we control AI?

In the second episode of the NISTH ThinkOut Podcast series, our host, Assoc Prof Sulfikar Amir, Director, NISTH speaks with Dame Wendy Hall, the UK’s first AI Skills Champion and Regius Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK. From the discovery of the world wide web to the onset of AI, they discuss the conveniences and disruptions faced. They ask and answer the most daunting question of current times, 'Can we control AI?'.
We have grown overly dependent on the internet, especially with the pandemic, digital communication has become the norm. Also, when the whole world piled onto the Internet in order to do anything during the lockdowns, it stayed up and running which is a huge testament to the foresight of the Internet pioneers in terms of its design and in-built resilience and scalability. But the Internet has never been under such threat and its whole future as a globally interconnected system is in much doubt for many different reasons. This podcast delves into the history of the discovery of the world wide web to the onslaught of AI. The 'new kid on the block', has been given full freedom to explore all spaces, with no governance in place. Since AI systems are designed and developed by humans, they can be programmed and trained with specific rules, algorithms, and data sets to perform certain tasks or behaviors. So can we control where it ventures into before it is too late? Find out...