A conversation with Noel Sharkey of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics
It’s always a great pleasure to talk with one of the founding fathers of cybernetics and computation. One of the benefits of AI and robotics being relatively young fields is that many of the people who created them are not only still alive, but are still very active participants. It’s as if we can discuss democracy with Thomas Jefferson or physics with Albert Einstein, and we should never miss the opportunity.
These originators often have very different perspectives on the technology they helped create than that of the modern mainstream. They usually take a broader view of how tech will impact society instead of looking at technological progress only for the sake of progress. The venture capitalists, Silicon Valley billionaires, and start-up founders have their own interests, corporate and personal, that the elder sages have transcended. It doesn’t mean they are always right, of course, but it does mean we should listen to their voices whenever we can.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few of these luminaries, from inventor Ray Kurzweil to computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock to UNIX co-creator Ken Thompson, who are directly or indirectly responsible for much of the technology you’re using to read this article right now. In 2016, while we were both speaking at an AI conference in Oxford, I was happy to add another big fish to my “league of legends,” garry kasparaov avast
