YouSaid · the spoken record

David Runciman

lines on the record: 63
first: 2024-01-08
most recent: 2024-01-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Are decision making machines, so their primary role in our lives is to take decisions for us, we franchise out decision-making, we pool resources, in the case of the corporation, that is primarily financial resources, but in the case of the state, it's more than that. We pool our bodies in the sense that States can take command of our bodies too. Some corporations can as well.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Part of the point of this book is to draw parallels but also differences. I mean, there's always a temptation, I think, when talking about AI particularly just to fall for the parallels. Tend to get spooked and freaked out when they do stuff that remind us of us. And we forget all the ways in which they're different. Same is true of states and corporations, and there are parallels between them, as I just suggested. There is a related model, and in Hobbes' account, he's clear that states and corporations basically function on the same model.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Largely to introduce the aspect of artificial intelligence halfway through this book. But maybe either from a hobbyian perspective or for your own sort of interpretation of what the state is there to do or what it serves. Could move us through sort of the state and the corporation as kind of essential models for the artificial agent.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wonder if you could dig in a little bit to each of these distinct agents because I think you set them up in a really meaningful way.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is to take a far longer perspective on some of the critical questions around sort of artificiality and the Mechanization of politics, however, we might Might see it”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Next stage, the next generation of artificial thinking machines, but also what does the sequence tell us? Because my book is also concerned with history and sequence. How much does it matter that those other ones came first”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Machines or learning machines, and it's cognitive, the question of their relationship to us with the state and with the corporation, which is in many ways modeled on this version of the state, it's not their cognitive skills, it's their other abilities, including their durability, their power, their ability to... On the consequences of their decisions, their coercive authority, and all the rest. So it's about another kind of breed of robots that we've been living with for hundreds of years. These robots do rule our world. We've almost naturalized them. We're so used to them. We don't often think of them as robots. Does that story tell us about”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can do things that human beings can't do, and they can rule our world. In fact, they do rule our world, but they don't do it through superior intelligence. In fact, Hobbes was quite clear that states can be pretty stupid as human beings can be pretty stupid. In fact, states are as stupid as the human beings who run them. So then the question is, what are those superpowers and how do they compare to the... Superpowers of the AIs because they are different. They are, and I know there's a huge argument which we may get into about whether intelligence is the right way to frame it. Are they super intelligent entities? But certainly.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First line of that very famous book, which has many more famous lines in it, the most famous being that life is nasty, brutish and short without the state. The very first line describes the state as an automaton or as a robot. Puzzle in a way was first of all is this true? It's a sort of odd thing for someone to think in the middle of the 17th century. What would it mean to think of the state as an artificial agent in this way? And secondly, what is the difference between this kind of artificial agent and the ones that we're worried about now? The big difference just in the terms of Hobbs and his argument about the state is that his robots are not intelligent. I mean, in that their intelligence comes from human beings. They are as intelligent as we are. They have other kinds of superpowers. So they are superhuman entities.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And let me start with Of the Beginning. Can you tell us a little bit about the origin story of this book and maybe with reference to the patron saint? Thomas Hop Ways Something I've been thinking about for a long time, I study the history of political thought, and if you do Aware that human beings have thought about building artificial versions of themselves for hundreds of years, in fact longer. I mean, there are great books about the ancient world and the various robots that the ancients Me, the penny drop moment was a book that I know well, Thomas Hobbes' Love Earth, and published in 1651. So this is. And a half plus centuries ago.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Handover is particularly concerned with the way that artificial actors influence human agency and our ability to make decisions. And in this sense, David's book stands as a warning. Once we hand over decision-making power to the machines we create, they tend to exert persistent and maybe irreversible influence in the world. It's only reasonable to ask then whether we as human actors on their stage are better or worse for it. In that vein, I hope we might sort of structure our conversation today as a play in three acts, for lack of a better term. Act one will sort of serve as a setup. To an outline of the problems and concerns that you raise in the book. And then Act three may be exploring some of the enduring puzzles and what might come next. David,”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Handover, how we gave control of our lives to corporations, states, and AIs. So in brief and without too many spoilers, I hope, the handover explores how our species, over hundreds of years, has persistently created artificial agents to deliver particular kinds of goods, notably security with the creation of the modern state, and prosperity with the creation of the corporation. Seen in this light preparing for a world potentially on the brink of the age of artificial intelligence, means understanding how these latest artificial agents will interact with the others and influence us.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like to start by thanking David for joining us here at Intelligence Square today and for sharing his time. I know this is a busy time of year. For those that don't know, David Runsaman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the author of a number of books, including The Politics of Good Intentions, Political Hypocrisy, and the Confidence Trap. Writes regularly about politics and curt affairs for a wide range of publications, including the London Review of Books, and hosts the weekly podcast, Past, Present, Future. So as we bring 2023 to a close, a year devoured by developments and discussions of a most unique kind of artificial agent, I'm so pleased to be able to discuss David's new book.”
2024-01-08 · Intelligence Squared · Power Grab: David Runciman on the Reach of Corporations, States and AI · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT