Recently the topic of AI and sentience has come up again, after someone claimed that Google's LaMBDA seems to think for itself... It's remarkable that a piece of software can have conversations that seem so realistic, but a good simulation and the real thing are still distinguishable. I was interviewed about the story for NBD China. The article appeared here. You can see Google's translation here.

A while ago I was interviewed by Tevy Kuch for his article on AI influencers. I gave my usual honest opinions about things..! It's now been published by New Scientist here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25433900-800-the-rise-of-computer-generated-artificially-intelligent-influencers/

You may be aware that I'm a regular science writer for BBC Science Focus Magazine, frequently contributing to the Q&A section and writing longer pieces. You can find my writer's profile online here: https://www.sciencefocus.com/author/peterbentley/

Recently I wrote a longer piece on Augmented Intelligence, making the case that automation is not always better than augmentation. While I do not believe that AI is about to replace us, there are those with the misguided opinions that we should try. I argue that one of the main benefits of AI is that it can make us better people... but only if used correctly.

I was interviewed and talked (rambled) at some length about my views on AI in a podcast. I guess with more thought I'm probably also impressed by some of the pretrained transformers such as GPT-3... but somehow a lot of the output still feels like recycling our own junk back at us. It's not exactly intelligent... But anyway, the advances keep coming so long as billions are being spent in the area!

On 21 February I was honored to be invited as a guest judge for TiE London's International Startup Competition.