265 - Guest: Kate Hayles, Literary and Technological Analyst, part 1

265 - Guest: Kate Hayles, Literary and Technological Analyst, part 1

Author: aiandyou July 14, 2025 Duration: 34:04
This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . It’s more important than ever to define just what we mean by words like intelligence, consciousness, and thinking. Here to help us is Kate Hayles, Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the relations of literature, science and technology, and a new theory of mind—what she calls an integrated cognitive framework (ICF)—that includes the meaning-making practices of lifeforms from bacteria to plants, animals, humans, and some forms of artificial intelligence. That’s the topic of her new book, Bacteria to AI:  Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts. A symbiont is an organism living in symbiosis with another, with a closely-coupled mutual relationship between them. Kate’s other books include Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational, Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious, and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. She has many fellowships, including two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. We talk about the relationship between cognition and consciousness, and between cognition and computation; our dependency and codependency on technology; concepts like anthropocentrism and technosymbiosis, which Kate unpacks in the service of laying out a really novel way of thinking about thinking; and whether AI is thinking, or feeling. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

The conversation around artificial intelligence is often filled with either breathless hype or dire warnings, leaving little room for grounded, practical understanding. Artificial Intelligence and You cuts through that noise. This isn't a lecture series from a distant ivory tower; it's a guided exploration meant for anyone curious about how these tools are reshaping the everyday. Each episode takes a focused look at a single facet of AI, from the algorithms curating your social media feed to the software that might change how you work. We break down complex concepts into clear, relatable terms, asking the questions that actually matter for your decisions and your future. You'll hear straightforward explanations of how different AI systems function, alongside thoughtful discussions about their real-world implications-the ethical dilemmas, the economic shifts, and the personal impacts that rarely make the headlines. The goal of this podcast is to replace confusion with clarity and anxiety with informed perspective. Whether you're a professional navigating new tools, a student planning a career, or simply a person living in an increasingly digital world, these conversations provide the context you need to form your own opinions. Join us as we move beyond the abstract to examine what AI genuinely means for your life, your community, and the kind of world we're all building together, one line of code at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Artificial Intelligence and You
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