Index Insight

Is artificial intelligence force for good? For many, the term Artificial Intelligence, conjures up images of sci-fi movies and humanoid robots, more often than not of malign intent. Yet the reality is that the spectrum of A.I. encompass everything from Siri, Facebook M and smart keyboards to drones and self-driving cars -- in other words, we are already using A.I. in our day-to-day lives, often without realising it. In this roundtable co-hosted by SwiftKey and Index Ventures and held at Second Home in London, AI experts from academia, the private sector and the literary world, discuss how we can maximise the opportunities and manage the risks which lie ahead in the space. Our guests include: -- Calum Chace, author of “Surviving AI” -- Jun Wang, Reader, Computer Science, UCL & co-founder MediaGamma -- Martin Mignot, Principal, Index Ventures -- Ben Medlock, co-founder SwiftKey -- Alexandre Dalyac, co-founder, Tractable -- Dr Yasemin J. Erden, Lecturer/Programme Director Philosophy, St Mary's University -- Martina King, CEO, Featurespace Read more about the roundtable discussion in a story by Natasha Lomas: "Not Just Another Discussion About Whether AI Is Going To Destroy Us" > http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/06/ais-real-risks-and-benefits

In this latest Index Ventures podcast, Richard Thaler, professor of behavioural science and economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, speaks to Rohan Silva, co-founder of Second Home, and Index’s Ventures’ Martin Mignot about behavioural economics and its lessons for entrepreneurs. Economist Richard H. Thaler’s bestseller Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, co-authored with Cass R. Sunstein, shook up the world of economics in much the same way as great entrepreneurs take on incumbent businesses, and influenced world leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron. To illustrate how humans require ‘nudges’ to improve their behaviour, Thaler famously cites how he once removed a bowl of cashew nuts from his dinner party guests to stop them filling up before dinner. “People were (a) happy, and (b) they realized their reaction conflicted with traditional economic theory,” he recently explained to Time magazine.