February 2023

12 Bytes: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the Way We Live and Love

Discussion: February 26th, 5:30-7pm

This month we are reading Jeanette Winterson's book of essays 12 Bytes. Twelve eye-opening, mind-expanding, funny and provocative essays on the implications of artificial intelligence.  In addition to the essays, have a look at the interview Bridget shared with us from the Edinburgh International Book Festival "Jeanette Winterson - Remaking Ourselves". There is also an extensive bibliography at the end of 12 Bytes for those of you who would like to dive deeper into the topic. 

Here are some questions to get you started. Feel free to bring any additional questions the book raised for you...

1. Do you agree that artificial intelligence can make our planet a better place? How? Will it solve the problems that we have failed to solve, or create new ones? 

2. What alternatives do people find to human relationships? Are these necessarily negative? What differences are there between the human and non-human attachments we form?

3. What does Winterson criticize about our "sharing" society? How could AI help us move away from competition towards cooperation?

4. Winterson suggests that in a future defined by connectivity, love will be more meaningful than intelligence. Do you agree?

5. Having grown up in an evangelical household, Winterson is “fascinated and horrified in equal measure by the similarities between AI enthusiasts and ole-time religion”. How is AI like a religion?

6. How can we assure that AI will benefit the many and not just the few? How did the industrial revolution exacerbate inequality? How can we avoid this happening again in the AI revolution?

7. How can we ensure that technology is used ethically, and not put to the wrong uses? Can this be done thorough self-monitoring alone or is there a need for government regulation?

8. Do you agree that increased life expectancy would give us an increased sense of responsibility for the future?

9. Winterson writes, “What you can’t see you can’t be.” Why are female role models so important? Why is the exceptionalism narrative so dangerous? What is she suggesting when she writes, “Equal chances lead to equal choices”?

10. According to Winterson, “Nothing can be realized if it hasn’t been imagined first.” What does this suggest about the importance of fiction, and art in general?

11. Winterson quotes the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, who believes the 2050 Nobel Prize for Literature will go to Alexa. Do you think this is possible and if so, what would the implications be for the arts?

12. The algorithms and data sets that instruct AI have tended to show a strong white male bias. How could algorithmic amplifications of these biases be avoided?

13. Winterson argues that AI has the potential to end male entitlement and white supremacy. How could interacting with intelligent, non-biological life forms break down our deep-rooted preconceptions about gender and race? At the same time, Winterson warns that AI-enhanced sex dolls “reinforce the gender at its most oppressive and unimaginative”. How do you explain this apparent contradiction?

14. Winterson makes a distinction between AI and AGI. How similar is AGI to human intelligence? Can AGI be trained to not just recognize but feel emotions? 

15. Will the merging of humans and AI at some point be so complete that the two will be indistinguishable and the human race as we now know it will have disappeared? Do you see this as a positive step in the evolutionary process?

Movie Night & Discussion: February 23rd, 7:15 - 10:15pm

Come and join us one Thursday a month for a secret film in English followed by a discussion. We usually try to choose a film related to the topic of the book we are reading, but the two events are independent.