The Dharma of Artificial Intelligence | Jasmine Wang & Iain S. Thomas

Our guests today trained an AI on the world’s most beloved texts, from the Bible to the Koran to the words of Marcus Aurelius, Maya Angelou, and Leonard Cohen. Then they asked the AI life’s hardest questions. The AI’s answers ranged from strange to surprising to transcendent.

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Jasmine Wang, a technologist, and Iain S. Thomas, a poet, join us to talk about not only the answers they received from the robot, but also why they are deeply concerned about where AI might be headed.

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In this episode we talk about:

• The origins of the book
• The definitions of some basic AI terminology
• The biggest takeaways of their conversation with AI—some of the answers they got back were fascinating and beautiful
• The perils and promise of AI (we spend a lot of time here)
• The ways in which AI may force us to rethink fundamental aspects of our own nature  
• And what we all can do to increase the odds that our AI future is more positive than not

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For tickets to TPH's live event in Boston on September 7:

thewilbur.com/armory/artist/dan-harris/

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Where to find Jasmine Wang and Iain S. Thomas online: 

Websites: 

• Jasmine: https://jasminew.me/
• Iain: https://iainsthomas.com/

Social Media:

• Iain’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealIainSThomas
• Iain’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealIainSThomas/
• Iain’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realiainsthomas/

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Trellis: https://www.readtrellis.com/
• Verses.xyz: https://verses.xyz/
• Kernel Mag: https://www.kernelmag.io/people/2

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Book:

• What Makes Us Human? https://www.soundstrue.com/products/what-makes-us-human-1

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