RIGSS Podcast | Episode 21
Part I | Responsible AI and AI Literacy
-Manail Anis Ahmed
Manail Anis Ahmed works on digital public infrastructure and is visiting lecturer at Princeton University, having designed and taught Princeton's first course on Responsible AI. She leads a global research group at the Center for AI & Digital Policy and is co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer and AI Governance Lead for an AI-powered home and family management startup - www.iJuno.io. As Public Voices Fellow for Equality Now, which advances the rights of women and girls globally, Manail is driven to reduce inequity and create trustworthy, responsible, and ethical technologies for a fairer and more equitable world.
On December 17th, 2023, marking a significant moment in the history of Bhutan, His Majesty the King officially announced the establishment of the Gelephu Mindfulness City. Highlighting GMC’s significant role in steering Bhutan’s future, His Majesty underscored that Bhutan is at an ‘inflection point.’ Today, the world is experiencing another inflection point, one brought about by the AI revolution. With the unprecedented rate at which AI is evolving, humanity finds itself at a pivotal juncture, trying to balance between the significant opportunities and the profound challenges that AI poses. To delve into these further, we present the RIGSS Podcast series on Artificial Intelligence. In this four-part series, we will unpack the complexities of AI by engaging with experts from various fields who bring with them their diverse perspectives and experiences with AI. Through these discussions, we hope to provide a comprehensive understanding of AI, its opportunities, and its implications, especially for Bhutan, a small nation that has set on the path of realising ambitious goals
In 2017, in one of his interviews, Stephen Hawking noted that “[AI] will either be the best thing that’s ever happened to us, or it will be the worst thing. If we’re not careful, it may very well be the last thing.” The advent of AI has brought about innumerable opportunities for humanity but not without its equally, if not more, daunting challenges. Leading AI experts like Alan Turing, Elon Musk and Sam Altman have expressed concerns about AI’s potential existential threats to humanity. Just last year, hundreds of AI experts and CEOs signed a statement calling for the need to include ‘mitigating the risk of extinction from AI’ to the global priority list, alongside pandemics and nuclear war. Conversely, there is a different school of thought that dismisses these concerns as mere scaremongering, akin to something out of a fictional movie plot. While the debate over AI’s catastrophic potential continues, one thing is certain: the rapid advancement of AI calls for the need to balance innovation and ethical responsibility while educating citizens on its responsible use.