Show Notes

In our latest episode we spoke to Dr Patricia Scanlon, Ireland’s AI ambassador, about the kind of work that needs to be done to build better AI, and we wondered why that isn’t already the done thing. In this extended cut of the interview, you can also hear Patricia’s thoughts on how every start-up is an AI start-up now, and why “computer says no” just won’t cut it when it comes to explaining your AI.

Patricia is also the founder of SoapBox Labs, which uses AI to build speech recognition and voice-tech tailored specifically for kids, so we also spoke to her about kid-tech. She revealed how AI could be used to better protect kids online but, for some reason, this isn’t often deployed.

If you want to skip to the stuff you missed, jump in at 21:55 and enjoy the extra chat.

You can find Patricia @ScanlonPatricia and see her work @soapboxlabs on Twitter (we’re not calling it X).

You can also read more on the role of Ireland’s AI ambassador here: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ai-ambassador-patricia-scanlon-chatgpt-ethical-ai

— The story about nurses being overruled by AI was actually published by The Wall Street Journal, not The Washington Post, and can be found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-medical-diagnosis-nurses-f881b0fe

— The AI bias scandal that brought down the Dutch government can be found here: https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-scandal-serves-as-a-warning-for-europe-over-risks-of-using-algorithms/

— And the mistakes made by AI detectors are covered here: https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-bias-plagiarism-non-native-english-speakers/

Also, if you want to hear us picking apart the potential of self-driving cars, we covered this in a previous bonus episode, v1.7_bonus: You drive me lazy.

You can find us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice or let us know what you think via fortechssakepod@gmail.com.

For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Julie Hassett for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.

As a HeadStuff+ Community member, you get access to bonus content from across the network, so do check out some of our sister shows and give them your support.

We hope you enjoy this discussion with Dr Patricia Scanlon as much as we did, and be sure to come back next week for an all-new episode.