The Most Important Question

There’s these metaphors that sum up a lot of what we’re trying to do here, what needs to be done on planet Earth, from climate change to COVID to AI ethics, which is something you definitely need to know and care about before it's too late, there are like 7 Terminator movies and only 1/3 of them are any good.

Anyways!

Re: today’s conversation, we need to design and implement standardized AI ethics regulations across everything AI touches, so, everything, while also asking questions like: what is “ethical”?

And who gets to decide?

And why do they get to decide?

And how are they incentivized to decide, in today’s society?

And who provides those incentives?

Who gets to regulate all of this?

Who elects the regulators?

And how do we make sure companies actually implement all of this?

These are among the most important questions of our time, because AI touches everything you do.

The phone in your hand, your insurance, your mortgage, your flood risk, your wildfire risk, your electronic health record, your face, your taxes, your police record, those Instagram ads for the concerningly comfortable sweatpants, your 401k –

– some version of AI, whether it’s the AI we always thought was coming or not – is integrated into every part of your life.

My guest in Episode #132 is Abhishek Gupta.

Abhiskek is the founder and principal researcher at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, an international non-profit research institute, with a mission to democratize AI ethics literacy.

He works in machine learning and serves on the CSE Responsible AI Board at Microsoft, he works as the Chair of the Standards Working Group at the Green Software Foundation, and is the author of the widely read AI Ethics Brief, and the State of the AI Ethics Reports, the most recent of which just dropped.

Abhishek helps me ask better questions every single week and his work is instrumental to helping society build not only more powerful and equitable AI, but one that somehow improves on the most important element of all: us.

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Jafar Tabebordbar was in his early 30’s, living and working as an accountant in Shiraz, Iran, when he became a father.

It was 1986, nearly a decade after the 1979 revolution, and Jafar’s muscles were already beginning to whither.

As his sons grew, and watched, their father Jafar lost his balance, his ability to walk, to drive, and eventually, the reliable use of his hands. There were no answers, and no treatments to be found.

Two questions haunted his sons as they grew: What was causing their father’s suffering? And would they get it next?

Quinn's guest today, 30 years later, is Dr. Sharif Tabebordbar, Jafar’s oldest son, and the man closest to a cure.

Sharif received his bachelors and masters degrees in biotechnology from University of Tehran and a Ph.D. in Developmental and Regenerative Biology from Harvard University.

He is the recipient of Distinction in Teaching Award from Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard, the Albert J. Ryan Foundation Award for Outstanding Graduate Students in Biomedical Sciences, the Excellence in Research Award and the Career Development Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and the Royan International Research Award in Regenerative Medicine. 

In 2020, Sharif was listed as a finalist in the MIT “35 innovators under 35” competition.

In 2021, Sharif and others posted an article in the journal Cell that may change the world.

All of these years later, Jafar’s son Sharif has figured out how to help: He stands on the cusp of transforming gene therapy for nearly all muscle wasting diseases.

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In 2019, Quinn interviewed his good friend Craig Mazin, writer, producer, and creator of the hit HBO miniseries, Chernobyl, to learn what happened there, and what it means for our energy future.

This week, Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, directing the Russian military to take Ukraine's bases, cities, people, and strategic assets.

Today, they took Chernobyl.

We're re-running this invaluable conversation because misinformation is rampant, and it's never been more important to understand the cost of lies.

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New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

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It's been 26 months since so many of us took our kids out of schools, downloaded an app called Zoom, and started videoconferencing our work from our kitchens and sweatpants. For many others, especially the marginalized and those working in the service industry, working from home was never an option.

It's been 12 months since groundbreaking vaccines began to roll out across the world. You've probably got at least two, maybe three.

And yet today, 39% of humans across the globe haven't received a single shot, and just 10% across low-income countries have received a single dose.

Over 3 billion humans remain not only susceptible to sickness and death, but also a vector for transmission and mutations that could affect us all.

The only way any of us is truly done with this is if we vaccinate the world. So why aren't we doing it?

Quinn's guest this week is Dr. Madhukar Pai. Dr. Pai is not only an outspoken advocate for vaccine equity, but also the Canada Research Chair of Epidemiology and Global Health at McGill University, the associate director of the McGill International Tuberculosis Centre, the Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on Diagnostics, the recipient of the Union Scientific Prize and many others.

If you want to understand how this ends, why it hasn't yet, and what you can do to get us there -- this conversation is for you.

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