Will AI make us happy?

If technology is not making us happy, why are we using it?

And if it is making us happy, why do we run away from it as soon as we can?

On Monday I went to the debate “This house believes that Artificial Intelligence/Robotics will make us happy“, organised by CSAR (Cambridge Society for the Application of Research). While it was the first time I went to one of these events so I wasn’t sure what to expect, I certainly didn’t expect the panel to only include one woman, with an audience of similar (but slightly more balanced) gender ratio, and an average age of maybe 60. I was stunned that there were only a handful of people my age, given that we are the generation that can have maybe the strongest impact on what direction AI can take. (more…)