E3: Chris Watkins on existential risk and paths to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

How far away are we from creating AI systems whose capabilities rival our own? And would doing so pose an existential risk? In this episode, we speak to Chris Watkins, Professor of Machine Learning at Royal Holloway, University of London. Professor Watkins introduced the hugely influential Q-learning algorithm during his PhD at Cambridge, which, when combined with neural networks, ultimately led to DeepMind’s incredible Atari playing agent in 2013. He has done fascinating research in kernel methods, the role of communication in pandemic modelling, and information-theoretic analysis of evolution.

Date of episode recording: 2023-10-17T00:00:00Z
 Duration: 01:34:20
 Language of episode: English
 Presenter: Reuben Adams
 Guests: Chris Watkins
 Producer: Reuben Adams