Disconnected in 2050: Recent Episodes
Europod
It’s 2050 and young Ezra is hyperconnected to Infinity, a metaverse that has transformed Brussels and facilitates most actions in everyone’s lives. Almost everyone. One day, Ezra discovers archives from the 2020s that put her on the trail of a retired journalist, a "disconnected." This starts Ezra’s journey to uncover the mysteries of an oppressive and corrupt system.
Listen to Disconnected in 2050 and gather the evidence with Ezra as she begins to realize that her world may not be as pleasant as it seems. Learn what she plans to do about it.
Pour écouter en français, retrouvez Déconnecté.e.s en 2050 partout où vous écoutez des podcasts.
AI systems can search through enormous volumes of personal data, including criminal histories and other characteristics deemed to be "risk factors”. Recently, organisations have voiced worries about the French government's intention to utilise AI monitoring in the run-up to the Olympics in Paris. The most dreaded development in the near future is the emergence of deadly weapons driven by AI that are autonomous.
Sources:
There’s software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it’s biased against blacks : Pro Publica
A new look at the intersection of predictive policing, poverty and stress in LA : Centre of Health Journalism
LAPD ended predictive policing programs amid public outcry. A new effort shares many of their flaws : The Guardian
Predictive policing: When AI predicts criminal activity: Digital World
London Underground Is Testing Real-Time AI Surveillance Tools to Spot Crime: WIRED
Paris 2024 Olympics: Concern over French plan for AI surveillance : BBC
Russia illegally used facial recognition to arrest protestor, human rights court rules : Politico
‘The Gospel’: how Israel uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza : The Guardian
Israel under pressure to justify its use of AI in Gaza: Politico
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Can technology participate in solving the climate crisis? When it comes to energy waste optimisation, AI can step in and help. It can also optimise energy grids and make renewable energy sources more efficient. However, AI can’t tackle all problems related to the climate crisis and it is more often a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
Sources:
How Can We Use AI To Address Global Challenges Like Climate Change?: Forbes
Electricity consumption worldwide in 2022, by leading country: Statista
Cal Fire now using artificial intelligence to fight wildfires : CBS News
Reducing Emissions from deforestation and degradation : Caisse des Depôts
Could AI help stop deforestation before it starts? : World Wildlife Magazine
IKI Project – An International Climate Initiative : Environmental Emergencies Centre
Mining for Data: The Extractive Economy Behind AI : Green European Journal
Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP : Emma Strubell Ananya Ganesh Andrew McCallum
Climate change : World Health Organization
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Have you already heard about AI-powered hiring practices?
Is this common practice reducing inequality, or reinforcing discrimination?
Some tech experts argue that AI can also be an opportunity to overcome all forms of bias, even those within humankind.
Sources:
Racist technology in action: White only soap dispensers: Racism and technology centre
Amazon ditched AI recruiting tool that favored men for technical jobs : The Guardian
Meet Tengai, the job interview robot who won't judge you : BBC
Solans, D., Beretta, A., Portela, M., Castillo, C. & Monreale, A. Human Response to an AI-Based Decision Support System: A User Study on the Effects of Accuracy and Bias.
What Really Happened When Google Ousted Temnit Gebru : Wired
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI : Rolling Stone
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AI has the potential to make certain diagnoses earlier and more accurately than human beings. However, some AI deployments in healthcare could harm us more than help us.
For what concerns mental health care, the use of AI has revealed that there are still “significant gaps” in our ability to apply these models for this purpose. Nonetheless, people are already turning to AI chatbots for mental health support.
Sources:
Life expectancy at birth, total (years) : The World Bank
MB-SupCon: Microbiome-based Predictive Models via Supervised Contrastive Learning : Journal of Molecular Biology
Is B.M.I. a Scam?: The New york Times
The Role of AI in Drug Discovery: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies: The National Library of Medicine
Using artificial intelligence to collect data on children’s eye diseases at the Central Eye Hospital : DIVE
AI Assisted Infant Eye Disease Screening: Early Detection is of Crucial Importance: Huawei
Lawsuits take aim at use of AI tool by health insurance companies to process claims: CBS News
Why AI is the new frontier in the battle to treat the male mental health crisis: The Telegraph
Technology and the Future of Mental Health Treatment : National Institute of Mental Health
A new frontier in mental health: Technology : US health News
Challenges for Artificial Intelligence in Recognizing Mental Disorders: National Library of Medicine
Racial Bias in Health Care Artificial Intelligence : NIHCM Foundation
Experts call for more diversity to combat bias in artificial intelligence : CNN News
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How AI can impact education? In some places like China, Artificial Intelligence already plays a role in teaching, grading and planning lessons for students. However, while navigating through AI, it is important to learn to discern what is trustworthy and what is not.
Sources
Education in the age of artificial intelligence: The UNESCO Courier
The Evolution of Education: How AI is Reshaping Grading : The Princeton Review
Real teacher salaries in Europe are down. Which countries pay the highest and lowest wages?: Euronews.next
DALL-E: the Creative Process and the Art of Prompting: USC Career Centre
Chatbots sometimes make things up. Is AI’s hallucination problem fixable? : AP News
The rise of AI fake news is creating a ‘misinformation superspreader’: The Washington Post
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With the development in technology and implementation of Artificial Intelligence all over different sectors, some of us are left with the fear that our jobs will be replaced by technology. Is that the case? Maybe. But certain skills like critical thinking, interpersonal skills and empathy, are out of AI’s reach.
Sources:
17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla’s Autopilot: The Washington Post
Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work: Staff Discussion Notes No. 2024/001 ; International Monetory Fund
OECD Employment Outlook: OECDiLibrary
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The technologies and algorithms developed through artificial intelligence are already being used in various ways in our digital social interactions (dating apps, fall detection apps, AI virtual assistants, etc.).
What impact is AI having on our social lives today? What impact could it have in the future?
Sources:
Increasing Nature Connection in Children: A Mini Review of Interventions. Frontiers in Psychology
Usage des écrans par les enfants : un groupe d’experts pour faire des propositions à Emmanuel Macron : Le Monde
China proposes to limit children’s smartphone time to a maximum of 2 hours a day: AP News
WHO declares loneliness a ‘global public health concern’: The Guardian
Fall detection with deep learning: Viso.ai
AI robot, ElliQ, helps seniors fight loneliness: Associated Press
Much more than a chatbot: China’s Xiaoice mixes AI with emotions and wins over millions of fans: Microsoft Stories Asia
Dating Statistics And Facts In 2024: Forbes Health
SciMatch
How Rizz Assistants and AI Matchmakers Are Transforming Dating: Time
Loneliness, insomnia linked to work with AI systems: Pok Man Tang, PhD, American Psychological Association.
AI chatbots cannot replace human interactions in the pursuit of more inclusive mental healthcare: Julia E.H. Brown, Jodi Halpern
The Method Behind Our Matching: Tinder Newsroom
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It was in the 1950s, that the term “Artificial Intelligence” was first coined at a research conference, and ever since then, till today, humans have been obsessed with one question - Will AI surpass humans? This episode takes you through the origin and development of AI from the early 1950s to the present.
The series is produced in the framework of the WePod project, co-funded by the European Commission. In partnership with AFP, Chora Media and Podium Podcasts.
Hosted by - Madeleina Kay.
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Ezra is definitely taking the plunge. Grounded hacks Infinity. The resistance begins.
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Ezra doesn't find Cy but meets up with Adrien and a group of disconnected people in a hidden bar for what looks like the beginnings of the resistance to Infinity.
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Ezra, who is becoming less and less comfortable with her situation, leaves her house for the first time without her Infinity devices. She then goes in search of Cy, before an unexpected announcement is made.
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Ezra tries going back to her normal life, but she can’t stop thinking about what she just learned. She knows too much and must hide her knowledge from Jyn and her friends that are connected to Infinity. What will Ezra do with all of this information?
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Adrien's story changes Ezra's worldview. Ezra enters her very distinctive rabbit hole.
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Ezra starts to see the thin web of lies that has been in front of her the whole time. As Adrien begins telling his story, everything that Ezra has ever seen and believed starts slowly falling apart.
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Ezra takes a step forward into the unknown. She leaves her house for only the second time in months, determined to find out who Adrien is and what happened to him. Is she prepared for what awaits her?
(Piano played by Alan Ozkan.)
Driving deeper into the rabbit hole, Ezra begins to understand who exactly is behind the mystery. While Ezra tries to find answers, she finds new information that disrupts everything she’s ever known.
(Bass played by Charles Dujardin and Piano played by Alan Ozkan.)
Ezra gets her new Infinity glasses and Jyn is ready to guide her through life as usual, but Ezra can’t shake the feeling that something is not quite right. Following her feelings of curiosity and uneasiness, she makes another important discovery. And although she doesn’t know it at the time, things will never be the same.
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Ezra's day starts off normal in the dystopian future of 2050. As usual, her artificially intelligent virtual assistant named Jyn guides Ezra through another day connected to the metaverse, Infinity. But when Ezra's Infinity glasses break, she finds something that will set her on a life altering journey.
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It’s 2050 and young Ezra is hyperconnected to Infinity, a metaverse that has transformed Brussels and facilitates most actions in everyone’s lives. Almost everyone. One day, Ezra discovers archives from the 2020s that put her on the trail of a retired journalist, a "disconnected." This starts Ezra’s journey to uncover the mysteries of an oppressive and corrupt system.
Listen to Disconnected in 2050 and gather the evidence with Ezra as she begins to realize that her world may not be as pleasant as it seems. Learn what she plans to do about it.