Some of the leading brains behind generative AI have warned about the risk of artificial superintelligence wiping out humanity, if left unchecked.
But what if the influence of AI on humans is much more mundane, influencing our evolution over thousands of years through natural selection?
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast we talk to evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks about what AI could do to the evolution of humanity, from smaller brains to fewer friends.
Rob Brooks is Scientia professor of evolution at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Through his research on artificial intimacy between humans and AI chatbots, Brooks became interested in how human evolution might be shaped by the proliferation of AI. He recently published a paper exploring various scenarios, from AI’s potential influence on human intelligence, to brain size, to more direct intervention in fertility treatment.
