Sci-Fight Comedy Debate: Should we fear Ai?

Come and watch 6 very human UOW scientists/researchers and comedians assess whether we’re on the brink of the AI-pocalypse a UptopAI.

Sci Fight Science Comedy Debate brings together comedians and scientists to debate serious issues in a ridiculous way.

Sci-Fight Comedy Debate

Doors open: 6.30 pm
Run time 7.00 pm till 8.30ish
Tickets $20
Proceedings are loosely held together by your definitely qualified host, Alanta Colley. Sci Fight has been described as a nerdy, silly, and only occasionally litigious romp into what it even means to be alive.

This round, we debate: should we fear AI?

Just this year, AI chatbots have given people instructions on how to build a bomb, told users that they loved them, and instructed one user to leave their spouse and a child to stick nails into a live power socket. Before now, you had to go to 4chan for that quality of abuse. Has Silicon Valley simply built a better troll?

Programmers are running behind ChatGPT and other AI trying to fix the problems as they arise and yet for every bit of fool proofing they achieve, humanity builds a better fool. Our one saving grace right now? It’s bad at Wordle. But this will surely not be the case for long.

Or is AI overhyped? Is our distrust of AI just our barely concealed sense of inadequacy, concern that a jacked-up two-bit calculator might prove a more sparkling conversationalist than we do?

Or is the real fear that the true flaw of AI is that it is built on data that humans made, and that all of its shortcomings were inherited from us? Do we simply fear ourselves?

Come and watch 6 very human scientists and comedians assess whether we’re on the brink of the AI-pocalypse a UptopAI.

The debate team line up:

• Armin Alimardarni: Lecturer in the School of Law, Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Wollongong (UOW). His interdisciplinary research sits at the intersection of law, technology, science and philosophy. His publications and talks focus on the social, ethical and legal impact of emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML)
• Tia Wilson: Original comedian and bizarre song-writer
• Lindsay McDougall: Australian rock guitarist and radio presenter.
• Mark Freeman: Senior lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at UOW
• Sarah Howard: Associate Professor; School of Education, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, UOW
• Shane Ladymoon: backbone of Wollongong’s comedy scene; community maker

Friday 8 September 2023
UOW Science Space, Innovation Campus, Puckey Avenue, Wollongong