Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Bodies

In the video above, the Wilson Center NOW interviews Richard Solash, editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Eleonore Pauwels, director of the Anticipatory Intelligence (AI) Lab with the Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program, about the IoB and the role AI will play in the coming “algorithmic age.”

Pauwels makes it clear that one of the inescapable facets of the IoB is that we will be under constant assessment, “under measure of computation,” in every aspect of our lives, “from what you eat, whom you date, what you buy, how much energy you use” up to and including your vital signs and genetic data.

To explain the idea behind the IoB, she suggests you begin by thinking about how the Internet of Things work, all these smart devices that are connected not only to each other, but also to a wider network, where AI can analyze and optimize all those data.

Now, add to those networks health-monitoring devices, from wearables to implants, which will share your most private data. AI will then “analyze and optimize” those data as well, and while Pauwels doesn’t state that such optimization will be carried out automatically, without your knowledge, I see no reason to assume that that’s part of the plan.

Considering all of this, the biggest challenge, Pauwels says, will be to figure out how we can maintain control of our own futures and make sure AI is “shaped to our ideals.”