Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.
How widely are the benefits of artificial intelligence likely to be felt - or are Big Tech firms hoarding the advantages for themselves?
This episode of Tech & Science Daily examines the challenges of making AI equitable, the appetite for legislation against monopolies and the march of the digital giants into our public services.
We asked Eleanor Shearer, senior research fellow specialising in AI and corporate governance at the Common Wealth think tank.
At least two people reportedly died as Hurricane Beryl hit land in the Caribbean with 160mph winds.
Thousands of residents are without power or have been forced to take cover in temporary shelters in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia.
Research by the University of Hong Kong and Harvard reports evidence of the benefits of statin use in cutting risk of cardiovascular disease in older adults.
The study examined statins used by Hong Kong pensioners and found such continuous therapy resulted in a 21 per cent risk reduction in cardiovascular diseases in the over-85s
And the rest
Space scientists at MIT have used simulations to suggest the ‘shores’ of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, are shaped by waves.
Meanwhile, Nasa has released animation for viewers to wonder at the so-called ‘Pillars of Creation’ in a nebula 6,500 light years from Earth.
Plus, developer Capcom confirms there’s a new Resident Evil video game in the works.
Listen on the above player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you stream.
Here’s an automated transcript of today’s episode:
Hello, I'm Mark Blunden, and this is The Standard’s Tech and Science Daily podcast.
Coming up, Hurricane Beryl Latest, but first.
Artificial intelligence and how widely are the benefits of AI likely to be felt, or are big tech firms hoarding the advantages for themselves?
This episode of Tech and Science Daily examines the challenges of making AI equitable, the appetite for legislation against monopolies, and the march of digital giants into our public services.
We asked Eleanor Shearer, Senior Research Fellow specialising in AI and corporate governance at the Commonwealth Think Tank.
This is not a market that's set up to distribute the benefits of AI fairly.
At every point in the supply chain, there's just a tiny handful of companies dominating, whether that's Nvidia that's designing the chips, whether it's Microsoft, Amazon, Google, that run the data centres that the chips get used in, or companies like OpenAI, which actually has a partnership with Microsoft that train the models.
So, you're absolutely seeing really high levels of market power.
And how these firms are consolidating their positions.
I think the big thing to watch out for is what's called vertical integration.
So, this is basically companies starting to do multiple things in that supply chain.
So, you're already seeing Nvidia, for example, making some investments in compute, which suggests it might want to kind of move in in the future into not just doing chips, but doing the data centres as well.
Companies like Amazon producing their own chips.
So, you end up in a position where a single supplier is providing almost everything to do with AI.
And you as a consumer or a user have only really one or two options.
Then you get locked into that one ecosystem, which is really bad for competition and it's really bad for innovation.
And, also, about the eco impact of all that monster computing power needed.
These big AI models like ChatGPT that many people will have played around with, they are trained and run off these big data centres that require a lot of electricity and require a lot of water to cool the data centres.
So, those obviously have big knock-on effects in terms of emissions and in terms of the use of drinkable water, often in quite resource distressed areas.
And we have seen protests around the world lately in Mexico where communities are saying, we don't want these data centres built because we're worried about the impact on our communities.
It's estimated, I think that every time you as an individual enter a prompt into ChatGPT, it's basically the equivalent of pouring out a bottle of drinking water.
And we've also seen companies like Microsoft who made all these net zero commitments about 2030, their emissions are actually going up because of the resource intensity of the AI that they're doing.
We also asked Eleanor about AI companies outsourcing push into future public services.
I absolutely do think that they have an eye on public services and actually in the US in particular, but I think it's starting to become salient in the UK, a real interest in defence applications.
There's a huge amount of growth in defence money and investment in the US in artificial intelligence and the former head of Google, Eric Schmidt, is a big evangelist for the military applications of AI, which a lot of people are quite concerned about.
Also, the general election is nearly here, and Eleanor's been investigating the party's appetite for taming tech giants power in the AI sector and what's in their manifestos.
I've been doing this exercise where I've been through the manifestos to look at what they said about artificial intelligence.
And I think what really does stand out is I don't think the parties have yet landed on the kind of retail offer.
So, when they're talking to the voters, they don't really know what to say in terms of why AI will actually benefit you and your life and why you should care about it.
And so, it's actually given it's such a big policy.
If you compare it to something like climate, I think we're seeing a lot less of a coherent strategy.
Governments are saying, oh, it's really important and we're going to do something, but you don't really have that language in the same way as an industrial strategy around climate change, for example, where governments are saying, well, this is what we're aiming for.
This is the timeframe we're being really specific about our targets.
Next, at least one person is reported to have died as Hurricane Beryl hit land in the Caribbean with 160 miles per hour winds.
Thousands of residents are without power or have been forced to take cover in temporary shelters in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St. Lucia.
Footage on social media shows roofs being blown from homes as residents try to salvage their belongings in the destruction.
The hurricane was upgraded to a Category 5 and is moving westwards towards Jamaica, bringing with it up to 30 centimetres of rain.
Now, research by the University of Hong Kong and Harvard reports evidence of the benefits of statin use in cutting risk of cardiovascular disease in older adults.
The study examined uptake of statins in Hong Kong pensioners and found continuous statin therapy resulted in a 21% risk reduction in cardiovascular diseases in the over 85’s.
Next, space scientists at MIT have used simulations to suggest the shores of Titan, that Saturn's largest moon, are shaped by waves.
Their findings used images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which first confirmed the existence of methane on Titan.
It's helping add to understanding of how coastal erosion helped form Titan's climate and seas.
Saturn's largest moon is also the only other solar system entity known to have active lakes and rivers.
Let's go to the ads.
Stay there for more news from the world of tech and science.
Plus, take a wonder through the stunning pillars of creation 6,500 light years away.
Why not hit follow in the meantime and give us a rating.
Welcome back.
NASA has released animation for viewers to wonder at the so-called pillars of creation in a nebular 6,500 light years from Earth.
It's the most detailed video created of the star-birthing clouds described as towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas.
The imaging has been made possible by combining observations from NASA's two most powerful galactic spyglasses.
That's the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
And thanks to James Webb's infrared spectrum, you can even peer inside three light-year tall pillars to see young stars being born.
And finally, developer Capcom has a new Resident Evil game in the works.
It was confirmed by the video game series director Kōshi Nakanishi during the company's Capcom Next livestream events.
No details as to what the new title features or a release date, but it follows the eighth instalment of the open world horror franchise called Resident Evil Village.
You're up to date.
Come back at 4pm for the latest news, interviews and analysis from The Standard podcast here in London.
And we'll be back on Wednesday at 1pm.
See you then.
