The participants at Doha Debates Second Live Debate.
DOHA: Four of the world’s top experts on artificial intelligence (AI) debated the merits of AI and how best to go forward with it during the second live debate of the 2019 season of Doha Debates – a Qatar Foundation production – at Education City on Wednesday.
Hosted at Northwestern University in Qatar, a Qatar Foundation partner university, the debate examined the pros and cons of AI as it revolutionizes homes, workplaces, healthcare, transportation, and communications. The debate participants included AI advocates and critics from three continents and a conflict-resolution expert, as well as debate moderator Ghida Fakhry and digital host Nelufar Hedayat. Questions to the speakers came from students in the studio audience and livestream participants around the world.
The debate’s speakers were Joy Buolamwini, a Ghanaian American computer scientist and digital activist at MIT’s Media Lab; Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher, bestselling author and director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute; Muthoni Wanyoike, a Kenyan data scientist and organizer at Code for Africa and Nairobi Women in Machine Learning & Data Science; Dex Torricke-Barton, a former communications executive at Facebook, Google and SpaceX, and a British bestselling author; and Govinda Clayton, the debate’s bridge-building “connector,” a conflict-resolution expert and researcher at Swiss science and technology university ETH Zurich.
Buolamwini highlighted that “While builders of AI systems aim to overcome human limitations, research studies and headlines continue to remind us that these systems come with risks of bias and abuse.”
Nick Bostrom added, “Think about what it means to mechanize intelligence to full human level performance, and then shortly after to superhuman levels of intelligence.”
Muthoni Wanyoike said “We, as humans, have the ability to ruin the universe...or to ensure our continued existence.”
Dex Torricke-Barton emphasized accountability, saying “I think we need to do better as a society in demanding that our politicians actually understand the technology they are talking about. A revolutionary idea.”
Amjad Atallah, Managing Director of Doha Debates, said, “We’re all impacted by AI, one of the biggest opportunities and challenges of our time. The speakers provided practical suggestions and potential solutions — constructive dialogue that is the hallmark of Doha Debates.”
