Data is the New Plastic! Ethics, Accuracy and AI with Dr John Collins of Machine Intelligence Garage

In a world where it takes as much power to post one image on Instagram as it does to make one 330ml plastic bottle… how are we going to turn the massed ships of big business from 'profit at all costs' to something actually sustainable? With Dr John Collins of Machine Intelligence Garage and Digital Catapult. More at https://accidentalgods.life

Show Notes

Dr John Collins worked for the UK's Central Electricity Generating Board in the days when such things were nationalised industries. His PhD involved creating a real-time dosimeter for workers in nuclear plants so they didn't have to wait 2 weeks to learn the results of the film-based dosimeters that were in use. In doing so, he saved the CEGB considerable amounts of money - and, mere importantly,  saved the lives and health of the men and women who worked there.
Thus began a lifetime working at the leading edge of business where innovation meets ethics and morality so that now, he is the Ethics and Responsible Innovation Advisor at Machine Intelligence Garage and on the Ethics Advisory Board at Digital Catapult. He's writing a book called 'A History of the Future in Seven Words.'
With all this, he's an ideal person to open up the worlds of business, innovation and technology. In a wide-ranging, sparky, fun conversation, we explore what might make AI safe, how a future might look with sustainable business, whether 1.5 is 'still alive' and if that's even a useful metric - and how much power does it take to post an Instagram picture compared to making a plastic bottle (spoiler alert: it's the same power and the same CO2 generated - assuming both use the same power source and *if* the image is stored for 100 years... which the way we're going, might not happen. But still... ).

John on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnlcollins/
Digital Catapult https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/

What is Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast?

Another World IS still Possible. The old system was never fit for purpose - and now it's collapsing around us. So how do we co-create a Thrutopian future that we'd all be proud to leave as our legacy?

What stories can we weave of possibility? Of transformation? What happens if we commit to a world based on generative values: compassion, courage, integrity?

What happens if we let go of the race for meaningless money and commit instead to the things that really matter: clean air, clean water, clean soil - and clean, clear, courageous connections between all parts of ourselves, between ourselves and each other, between ourselves and the Web of Life - so that we can reclaim our birthright as self-conscious nodes in the web of life?

We can do this. Some of us already are. Every week on Accidental Gods we speak with the people who are living this world into being, courageous pathfinders who are exploring the emergent edge of inter-becoming.

As a species, we have all the answers, we just haven't yet crafted all the new stories and woven them into a future that works. We have the choice now - we can choose to transform…or we can face the chaos of a failing system.

Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future.

Accidental Gods is a podcast and membership program devoted to exploring the ways we can create a future that we would be proud to leave to the generations yet to come.

Find the membership and the podcast pages here: https://accidentalgods.life
Find Manda's Thrutopian novel, Any Human Power here: https://mandascott.co.uk
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On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/
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