Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun Reveals Three Rights and Two Wrongs About the Future

We all have thoughts of the future. Some of us will only think of it in passing, but others will spend months or even years contemplating the endless possibilities.Kazuo Ishiguro’s vision for the future, beautifully presented in his latest book, ‘Klara and the Sun,’ shows an excellent level of thought and research. The British novelist presents an emotionally nuanced concept of what it means to be human or non-human.In this episode of Short and Sweet AI, I discuss Ishiguro’s latest book and its depiction of robots and artificial intelligence. I also delve into what immortality could look like for humans – will it be robots in our future or something different?In this episode, find out:What Ishiguro got right and wrong about the future of robots and AIHow Ishiguro depicts robots and the future of workThe debate about immortality – robots vs. the cloudThe ethical considerations of human-like robotsImportant Links & Mentions:Neuralink UpdateThe Nobel Prize: Kazuo IshiguroResources:The Atlantic: The Radiant Inner Life of a RobotWired: The Future of Work: ‘Remembrance,’ by Lexi PandellCNN International: Kazuo Ishiguro asks what it is to be humanWaterstones: Kazuo Ishiguro on Klara and the SunEpisode Transcript:Hello to you who are curious about AI, I’m Dr. Peper.We all have thoughts about the future, some of us in passing and some spend months and years thinking about it. Kazuo Ishiguro’s vision, beautifully presented in his latest book, Klara and the Sun, shows much thought and research. This British novelist presents emotionally nuanced concepts about what it means to be human and not human. I’m not an artificial intelligence expert nor a Nobel prizing winning author like Ishiguro. But I am someone who’s fascinated by artificial intelligence and want people to understand what AI means for our future. From that perspective, I’ve identified three things Ishiguro got right, and two things I think he got wrong, in his new book Klara and the Sun. First, his depiction of Klara, an artificial friend, or robot, meshes with my understanding of what robots will be like in the future. They will have the ability to understand and integrate information and read and understand human emotions. This ability will surpass the ability of the humans around them at times. With exposure to more human situations and more human observations, robots will increase and refine their emotional abilities. They’ll have true feelings, not simulate them.The second thing Ishiguro gets right is the future of work. There will be substitutions of humans with machines as machines do more and more of the work. Humans will be displaced and just as in the novel, people will struggle to redefine their role in society and find new meaning.And the third thing that Ishiguro accurately writes about is the inequality created by those who choose and can afford to have gene-edited children, described as the lifted kids compared to the non-lifted kids, and those whose parents can’t afford or choose not to have their children’s genes edited before birth. I think this will be a real possibility in the near future. There will also be major inequalities in wealth,...