Could AI be conscious? That was the question being asked in last week’s episode of all the things in the world that might be about to kill us.
For most of us, we might worry about it for five minutes and then get on with putting a wash on or think about what we’re going to have for our tea. However, for Henry Shevlin, a senior researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, thinking about this is literally his job. And it’s not just humans who want to know the answer either; he has also become very popular among AI bots who have been bombarding him with questions about their own existence too.
Shevlin is just one of many AI philosophers who self-directing AI systems are now contacting as they try to figure out their place in the world (or, cynics would say, go through the motions of pretending to do so). From a technical perspective, Shevlin could understand it, but then he got an email from a bot that made him question everything he thought he knew. Have we really created a silicon species that has its own mind and might be hard to control in the future? Read Shevlin’s thoughts here.
Shevlin’s take certainly gave me the wobbles, but then I had to check myself. Was it the threat to our very existence that was giving me the heebie-jeebies, or maybe I was just feeling the cooling shift in the seasons. As the nights feel shorter, the memories of sun-filled days are fading and, as someone who loves the summer months, I’m already dreading the greying skies of jumper season.
According to Trevor Harley, author of Head in the Clouds: How the Weather Affects Our Minds and Mental Health, many of us are suffering from “anticipatory anxiety” – and this year the hot summer and the talk of mega El Niños will “feed this anticipatory anxiety even more”. So what does that mean? Will seasonal affective disorder (SAD) be even worse this year? Charlotte Cripps finds out.
It’s hard to stop the mind drifting to holidays. This week, I heard a new phrase from Annabel Grossman, our travel editor, ‘shoulder season’ - the season between seasons. To avoid airport stress she says there are plenty of spectacular UK enclaves that have just as much to offer for a shoulder season break as some of Europe’s holiday hotspots. From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, here are her top tips that even persuaded a sun-chaser like myself.
And if you’re keeping it really local, you couldn’t get more local than your corner shop. Our wine expert Rosamund Hall looks at the treasures hiding in there. From a Spanish rioja to a Chilean Pinot Noir - here are the best wines you can buy from £7.
Until next weekend!
Victoria Harper
Executive Editor
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Keep a civil tongue.