As the UK’s general elections approach, we take a closer look at some of the novel characters emerging in the race to leadership.

This month Smera and Jonah are joined by Michael Katell, an Ethics Fellow in the Turing’s Public Policy Programme, to discuss AI Steve – the chatbot standing in this year’s election.

Smera gives the lowdown on Scarlett Johansson’s legal battle with OpenAI, in a story of life imitating art, imitating life, and Jonah gets all Dr Doolittle at the thought of talking to the animals with the help of AI.

Find out about the Turing’s Public Policy Programme - Public Policy | The Alan Turing Institute

Sources

AI Steve AI Steve in Guardian Independent article S.A.M Wired try AI Steve

The World's Top Fighter Pilots Fear This Woman's Voice

The use of male or female voices in warnings systems: a question of acoustics - PubMed

Dazed on AI Steve

The voice of Her

Scarlett Johansson sues Open AI

ScarJo v Open AI - Wired

Scientists enlist AI to interpret meaning of barks - BBC Elephant names study - Guardian Aza Raskin talk

Whales talk Nature article

Nature paper New AI Can Help Decode Types of Dog Barks Deepsqeak Parrots name their young

Positive

Could AI put an end to animal testing?

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Too Long, Didn't Read

00:35 AI Steve: The UK's First AI Candidate for Parliament

03:45 Exploring AI's Role in Politics with Dr. Mike Cattell

23:20 Mike Katell's Vision for a Better Society

25:15 AI and the Music Industry

26:00 Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI

27:42 Legal Implications of AI

31:42 Gender and AI Voices

36:54 Animal Communication Breakthroughs

48:32 Conclusion and Thanks

We’re back for a brand new series of too long didn’t read!

This month Smera and Jonah are joined by Megan Hughes of the Turing’s Centre for Emerging Technology and Security to inform us about misinformation during election periods, and assures us to not always believe the hype. Smera and Jonah also discuss some of the latest breakthroughs with robotics and what that could mean for our workforces, and they explore the tricky topic of how generative AI is being used to create pornographic material, much of which is harmful.

Find out about the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security - cetas.turing.ac.uk/

Discover the Turing - turing.ac.uk

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Introduction [00:00:00]
• New Format for Season 2 [00:01:00]
• Misinformation During Elections [00:02:00]
• Examples of AI Misinformation [00:07:00]
• Impact of Misinformation on Elections [00:10:00]
• Authenticating Real Information [00:14:00]
• CETAS Report on AI Election Threats [00:19:00]
• Robotics and Figure01 [00:22:00]
• Impact of Robots on Jobs [00:27:00]
• Generative AI and Pornography [00:29:00]
• Responsible Use of Generative AI [00:34:00]
• Positive AI News: AlphaFold3 [00:35:00]

Resources mentioned in this episode:

[00:02:00] Misinformation during elections

• www.newscientist.com/article/2427842-deepfake-politicians-may-have-a-big-influence-on-indias-elections/
• www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240503-us-election-disinformation-targets-non-citizen-voting
• apnews.com/article/india-election-misinformation-meta-youtube-703a56c73f9341393f05400ea218b87d

[00:27:00] Impact of Robots on Jobs

• www.reuters.com/technology/meet-ashley-worlds-first-ai-powered-political-campaign-caller-2023-12-12/

[00:29:00] Generative AI and Pornography

• www.wired.com/article/2024/02/01/politics/election-deepfake-threats-invs/index.html

[00:35:00] Positive AI News

• www.newscientist.com/article/2429520-deepmind-ai-can-predict-how-drugs-interact-with-proteins/

In this special episode ahead of series two, Smera and Jonah give us a whistle-stop tour of the UK’s national showcase of data science and AI - AI UK.

The event’s producer, Lillian Hughes talks us through some of the programme highlights and Smera and Jonah chat to participants including Michael Wooldridge (University of Oxford), Doug Gurr (The Alan Turing Insitute), Rebecca Cosgriff (NHS England), Stephen Meers (DSIT) and Jake Elwes (ZiZi Project).

https://ai-uk.turing.ac.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/@AI_UK