Will AI Replace Us? With Neil deGrasse Tyson & Matt Ginsberg

Is artificial intelligence taking over? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly discuss deepfakes, AI hallucinations, and whether AI really is intelligent with software engineer at X, the moonshot factory, Matt Ginsberg.

Have we been using AI in the right way? We explore deepfakes and the technology to verify an image’s legitimacy. Is artificial intelligence really intelligent? We break down what AI can and cannot understand. Does AI understand causality? Or even reality?

What is AI bad at? Could it help us discover objects and phenomena we never knew to look for? We discuss how it could help us explore space or call plays in a football game. Could we one day see AI calling plays instead of coaches? Do two machine coaches cancel eachother out?

Can AI predict the weather? We discuss the concept of chaos and how close we are to artificial general intelligence. Find out about AI’s relationship to the truth and how we can combat people using it to spread misinformation. Finally, could deepfakes become so good that it's the end of the internet?

Thanks to our Patrons Kathleen Kussman, Craig Hamilton, Denis de Oliveira, Jim, Ryan, and Krishna for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free.

FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE to StarTalk:

About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

#StarTalk #neildegrassetyson

00:00 - Introduction: Is AI good or Bad?
03:00 - X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory
09:16 - Detecting Deepfakes
13:03 - Are we using AI correctly?
16:32 - Will AI make the next deep space discovery?
22:30 - AI vs. Humans
23:40 - AI Calling Plays
34:12 - Can We Predict Natural Disasters?
39:30 - Artificial General Intelligence & Hallucinations
44:17 - Combating Misinformation
48:45 - Is it the End of the Internet?

[StarTalk]

What do you think we'll use AI for as it continues to develop?

[BenD_Bass]

At first, I came here to learn and listen to science space stuff. But after like 100 episodes, I'm excited for Chuck. I know Neil and the comment section always pick on him, but that dude is so smart. I don't base smartness on degrees and how much you know. I think not being afraid to ask questions and asking the right questions. He's like good at being curious

[eric-.]

Chuck came PREPARED for this conversation! contagious enthusiasm, as usual. 👍

[Random_user_]

The honesty, humor and great energy between these guys makes the whole video, everytime again!

[brian]

I've rarely if ever seen Chuck so serious on this show as he is in parts of this show.

[animeshsrivastava]

Clearly, One of the best episodes on this channel. Matt is so articulate in his thoughts and so precise when he speaks. I like his clarity about social concepts. Chuck and Garry too are having such insightful questions.
Just love to see some experts talk about things they are expert in.

[barryscully]

As a physicist and systems architect for statistical analysis on large scale data it has been interesting to see the progression over the last few years of Machine learning. The part that does concern me is if there is a point where computers actually "learn" on their own coming to decisions that were not programmed for them. This to me would be the major change between Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (although I'm sure there is a better definition out there). If that point comes then computers will be able to show us new things in data that we didn't think of which is exciting but it is also a bit of a scary tipping point.

[rafaelweaver]

My Goodness Neil, Chuck and Gary this episode relieved a terrible amount of anxiety for me bless you guys ❤❤❤

[ADA_BTC]

Sometimes i wish Startalk would hire a animator to animate in a simple way what some explanations looks like. I've seen it a few times but if all explainers contained animations then i think starttalk could gain so much more followers and views. Just a thought

[rangerCG]

This was great and Matt Ginsberg offered sharp and knowledgeable insight into AI and other topics. I'd like to ask if you could also have experts on who are knowledgeable about AI risk who are outside of the AI industry, people who look into potential problems with AI in of itself like Max Tegmark, Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or others. Thanks for the great episode!

[jhsounds]

Regarding the John Lennon AI story: McCartney has clarified that AI was merely used to isolate the vocal from an existing Lennon demo recording, in order to clean it up for a new song. Lennon's voice was not "synthesized".

[tanishasinagra]

Chuck is so incredibly smart ! I love him and his quick witted quips. Love this show so much !

[njorgard]

Neil & Co. need to do more episodes on this subject. They certainly have a cohort of scientists that could offer various different points of view on the subject.

[zlotchew]

This may be your best show that I’ve seen. Really important subject matter and serious but entertaining discussion.

[kenny.gabriel.]

I just want to say that I'm very thankful for this discourse and Star Talk. I wish this was available when I was growing up only 20 years ago. This is amazing.

[newmountfilms]

This was amazing, I could have listened for longer! Its good to hear different perspectives on this topic, especially after finishing a short film on the dangers of a.i ourselves. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a legend in this field!

[geekdomo]

Nazareth University in Rochester NY now has a full AI Bachelors of Science Degree. AI is here to stay might be best to learn about it and how to use responsibly.

[CarlosTeran-em]

As a huge Beatles fan and a music producer: as far as I know they did NOT “sample” or create an AI model of Lennon’s voice. What I have heard (read) Paul and Ringo say is that machine learning was used to separate noise, instruments (piano) and voice so that a whole production could be built around the usable elements. Huge difference. Plus, they did that (the separation of sounds) for the Let It Be movie and Revolver album re-mix. And what they did (finishing a song) is not that different from what was done in 1995 by the band. Super nerdy comment I just had to make 😂

[Spcrtum]

What a great Communication and education will set us all FREE!!!

[paulsterman]

The best scene from the movie War Games is when the main character asks the computer if the military mobilization for WWW3 was a game or if it was real, and the computer answered: "What is the difference?" That is a problem with AI that needs to be worked out.