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Are you looking forward to self-driving cars? Perhaps you love taking the curves of the road yourself, but more likely, you would relish a commute where you could read or catch up on the latest episode of “Mandalorian“.  But do you trust your self-driving car to get you to your destination safely?  What happens if there is a pedestrian in the way?  Would your car choose to protect your life over the pedestrian?  What if it was your child in the self-driving car?

Whether it’s your self-driving car, your smart speaker at home, or algorithms that decide if you are going to apply for a loan, we have to have a certain amount of trust in artificial intelligence.  But what does trust in AI look like?  And how is it different than the trust you have in an “unthinking” machine, like your washing machine, or another person?

Today on the podcast we welcome Dr. David Danks.  David is the Thurstone Professor of Philosophy and Psychology and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University.  He looks at what happens when humans and technology interact, particularly when that technology is given autonomy.  From everything from autonomous weapons systems to self-driving cars to algorithms that control so much of our lives – can we trust AI?

Patrons of the podcast will be given access to a bonus podcast episode where David talks further on some surprising ways that self-driving cars may affect society. More information can be found on the Patreon page.

Some of the background music you heard were clips from SUNBIRDS by BOCrew, Chapstick by Bradley27, Undercover by Karstenholymoly, The Sun Smiles on Lightsail 2 by Gurdonark, and SkyDub by Psykik (all licensed under CC by 3.0.).