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ChatGPT burst onto the technology world, gaining 100 million users by the end of January 2023, just two months after its launch and bringing with it a looming sense of change.
The technology itself is fascinating, but part of what makes ChatGPT uniquely interesting is the fact that essentially overnight, most of the world gained access to a powerful generative artificial intelligence that they could use for their own purposes. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak with researchers who study computer science, technology and economics to explore how the rapid adoption of technologies has, for the most part, failed to change social and economic systems in the past – but why AI might be different, despite its weaknesses.
It is beginning to feel like a fairly pivotal moment in U.S.-China relations. Decades of “engagement” with the Asian economic giant have given way to, if not outright hostility, then at least an era marked by suspicion, tension and spikiness. In short, the hawks are circling. A new bipartisan House committee dedicated to confronting the perceived threat from Beijing met Tuesday to discuss how the U.S. should respond. Michael Beckley, an expert on U.S.-China relations outlines how a number of policy changes implicit in the session would affect the way the U.S. does – or doesn’t – do business with Beijing.
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Daniel Merino
Associate Breaking News Editor and Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast
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New technologies are often surrounded by hopeful messages that they will alleviate poverty and bring about positive social change. History shows these assumptions are often misplaced.
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Michael Beckley, Tufts University
US lawmakers heard testimony that suggests the era of engagement with China is over. Rather, policy may be hardening.
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Matthias Pierce, University of Manchester; Kathryn Abel, University of Manchester
Antipsychotic prescribing in children has doubled in 20 years.
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Mark Beeson, University of Technology Sydney
A new book argues that sanctions are a bad idea in principle, not very effective in practice, and often have unintended consequences.
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Dana Goldman, University of Southern California; Karen Van Nuys, University of Southern California
The drugmaker’s move responded to the growing competition that has shaken up the insulin market in recent years.
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Ash Porter, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; Michelle Wille, University of Sydney
While a small proportion of people have become ill while in contact with infected birds, there is no evidence it has spread from human to human.
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Dennis Jjuuko, UMass Boston; Tonny Raymond Kirabira, University of Portsmouth
The Ugandan militant remains on the run despite a US$5 million bounty on his head for war crimes committed between 1987 and 2006.
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Tristan Salles, University of Sydney
To us, Earth’s landscapes might change very little. But over millions of years, our planet’s surface has shifted in innumerable ways.
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Rosario Aguilar, Newcastle University
Many Mexicans fear that the democratic safeguards set up after decades of authoritarian rule are being undermined.
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Ted Olson, East Tennessee State University
Doc Watson’s popularity and influence came from his virtuosic guitar playing, powerful voice, broad musical taste, folksy storytelling and lack of pretense.
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