Cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus, whom I recently met in New York at the roundtable on sustainable employment and technological change, sent me the following link to a fascinating new PBS video on what “being human” might mean as artificial intelligence technologies (AI) develop further and further. Gary is one of the experts who is interviewed.

Will Humans Still Be Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?  runs just over 8 minutes. You’ll see some of the latest human-machines, and get a sense of how quickly this world is advancing – or threatening?

As Gary says in the film: “Once somebody develops a good AI program,”it doesn’t just replace one worker. It might replace millions of workers.” And that, he continued, may bring another concern when it comes to our relationship with our notional robot overlords: “What happens if they decide that we’re not useful anymore? I think we do need to think about how to build machines that are ethical. The smarter the machines get, the more important that is.”

Gary writes widely on cognitive development and artificial intelligence. His recent book Guitar Zero  (described as “Jimi Hendrix meets Oliver Sacks”) is on many best seller lists these days, including the New York Times.