David Skrbina on “Artificial Idiocy,” Lovesick Chatbot Stalkers, and the Metaphysics of Technology

Yesterday’s New York Times reported that Bing’s new chatbot Sydney makes Kubrick’s Hal look like a well-balanced upstanding cyber-citizen. According to the Times article by Kevin Roose, Sydney quickly morphed into a psycho stalker, declaring undying love for Roose and trying to break up his marriage. Maybe it’s time to question “technological progress” ?

First hour: David Skrbina, author of The Metaphysics of Technology and Confronting Technology, is a co-founder of the Anti-Tech Collective. He emailed me last week in response to my article “Artificial Idiocy: The Moronic-Demonic Nature of AI and the Civilization That Produced It” saying “Good article.  We should do a podcast on the evils of tech.  No one else out there seems willing to discuss this.”

(The second hour, featuring counterarguments from Matt Ehret, will be archived here soon.)

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kevinbarrett.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kevinbarrett.substack.com