Apr 19, 2025

Filtered Feed #8 - AI: Actually, It's Complicated

Exploring AI: past myths, present truths, and future fears

Rebooting The Way We Think About AI

Pod #8 is Out Now!

AI Has Entered the Chat (Again)

What’s Inside This Episode?

This week on Filter Feeders, in this two part episode Ollie and Vinny untangle the wires around the history of Artificial Intelligence (it's older than you think), the wild west of modern ethics, data training, marketing manipulation and whether Artificial Intelligence is actually "intelligent"? Get ready for some beep-boop banter while Ollie and Vinny get philosophical.

Why This Topic?

Let's talk about everyone's new favourite buzzword in the age of the internet of things (IoT) and how suddenly everything has AI? Can machines mimic meaning, or only mirror it back to us? Can minds really be built from math? Are we ready for a world where intelligence is no longer uniquely human? Does intelligence need a soul, or only code? Filter Feeders connect the dots and explore how artificial intelligence grew from myth to machinery to modern magic. We trace its long arc through culture, curiosity, and the need to know ourselves better through the tools we create.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke

Key Takeaways

Pod #8.1 - Part One

AI Is Older Than You Think
Artificial intelligence isn’t a 21st-century invention. From ancient Greek automata to 1960s chatbots like Eliza, humans have long pursued the goal of mimicking thought through machines.
Most ‘AI’ Isn’t What You Think It Is
The public often equates AI with tools like ChatGPT, but that’s only one type—generative AI. Much of what’s called “AI” today (even in marketing) is simply advanced automation or pre-trained models, not general intelligence.
Transformers Changed the Game
The introduction of the transformer architecture in 2017 revolutionised AI’s ability to understand and generate language. It enabled models to evaluate entire contexts at once, not just word-by-word sequences.
Ethics, Regulation & the Illusion of Control
AI systems rely heavily on post-processing filters created by humans to enforce moral and ethical standards. But who decides what is ethical—and how those rules are applied—is still a messy and unregulated frontier.
Pop Culture Fuels Fear More Than Fact
From HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey to iRobot, the perception of AI as a threat comes more from fictional narratives than actual technological capabilities. The real risk lies not in machines “rising up,” but in how humans design and deploy them.

Pod #8.2 - Part Two

AI Is a Tool, Not a Threat — But Context Matters
AI’s power lies in how we use it. When treated as a tool for enhancing creativity or productivity, it can level the playing field. But outsourcing core thinking skills or emotional depth risks eroding what makes us human.
Transparency Trumps Trickery
Audiences aren’t necessarily opposed to AI use — they just want to know when and how it’s used. Whether in films, writing, or music, the call is clear: honesty builds trust, deception breeds skepticism.
The Education System Is Lagging Behind
Banning AI tools in schools is as misguided as banning spellcheck. Instead, education must evolve to teach higher-order reasoning, critical analysis, and how to coexist with intelligent technologies.
AI Creativity Is Real — But It’s Different
AI-generated content can impress, surprise, and even move us. But it lacks intention and lived experience. That doesn’t invalidate it — it just creates a different kind of art that needs new ways of appreciation.
We’re Using AI to Understand Ourselves
Beneath the technical marvel lies a deeper human quest: to reflect on our intelligence, creativity, and identity. AI holds a mirror to us — sometimes flattering, sometimes unsettling — forcing us to ask what it truly means to be human.

Looking Forward

AI isn't some future fantasy—it's been around and it's not going anywhere. AI isn’t coming for us, well not yet anyway—it’s already here, working with us. As we move forward in this AI-shaped world, it’s clear we need more than just better tech—we need better understanding. Learn to leverage it to your advantage instead of fearing it.

Additional Resources

| Hanson Robotics | Meet Sophia | The blinking robot with unsettling charm

| TED | Stuart Russell’s AI Ethics Framework | Watch his TED talk on why AI alignment matters

| Futurism| AI Doctors a near reality? | New Law Would Allow AI to Replace Your Doctor, Prescribe Drugs

| Futurism| AI Doctors a near reality? | An AI Model Has Officially Passed the Turing Test

Engage With Us

What’s your first memory of AI—was it Clippy, a robot movie, or that time your playlist read your mind?

Drop your stories and AI hot takes on our Discord server, The Filtration Station.

For any queries, reach out to us at [email protected]

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“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate it in the long run.” – Roy Amara

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