Don’t be scared of AI... be scared of the people building it

Philosopher Shannon Vallor delivers a persuasive argument that artificial intelligence reflects a flawed society and distracts us from a far bigger threat

Emma Stone as Bella Baxter and Mark Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn in Poor Things

Roisin Kiberd

Fans of the film Dawn of the Dead will remember a character called Dr Millard Rausch, a scientist who appears on the news, early in the film, shouting “Dummies, dummies, dummies!” and warning of a coming zombie apocalypse. He might appear eccentric, with his eye patch and his forthright manner, but the events that follow prove him right.

Author, philosopher and AI ethicist Shannon Vallor is our real-world equivalent; a saner, more considered and poetic voice, calling for caution in a world of hype. She’s a professional Cassandra, a tech critic hired by tech companies to consider outcomes and to imagine the future. Vallor has consulted with Google’s Cloud AI programme and is co-director of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, an NGO that sounds like it belongs in science-fiction. The AI Mirror is her second book, following 2016’s Technology and the Virtues.