Insight: April 21

This week on SBS, Insight asks where robotic advances will take us into the future.

Stephen Hawking recently warned that the development of full artificial intelligence (AI) systems could spell the end of the human race.

From agriculture and manufacturing to education and medicine, some experts are predicting a future where blue and white collar workers will soon be replaced by ‘robots’.

Could we actually be entering an age of abundance for humans catered to by robot slaves? Or wiping ourselves out?

Join experts, scientists and some robot friends as they explore the ethical, moral and economic impacts of AI.

Guests include:

Prof. Toby Walsh
Professor in AI. “One of the problems with all technologies is it can be used for good or for bad… the technology could be misused by people and that’s something we just have to be aware of and to worry about how we control the technology.”

Tim Dean
Science Editor and Philosopher. “The idea of working to earn a living could change. Some people talk about a universal basic income, basically giving everybody a preliminary wage.“

Prof. Peter Corke
Roboticist. “In this country we have productivity issues and if we’re not productive than as a country we’re not going to be able to compete. So I think people plus machines is going to improve our global productivity and competitiveness.”

Yvonne Cartwright
Mum of two autistic children who uses a robot to help them learn. “It’s about not being judged, it’s about the robot or the computer or the iPad will repeat things 100 times over and it really doesn’t matter”.

Prof. Wendy Moyle
Uses robots in dementia research. “We’ve got a very large trial running with over 400 people with dementia… and we’re looking at whether (the robot) makes a difference to them in terms of emotional response… we’re halfway through the trial and certainly I’m seeing some very positive responses.”

Assoc. Prof. Rob Sparrow
Explores the ethics of technologies. “People here are trying to have it two ways, it’s a conversation that is being driven by a vaudeville act from engineers and computer scientists.”

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.