LIVE SOON: Talking AI ethics, opportunities and threats

Jen Gerson goes On The Line with Karin Valis, a Berlin-based machine learning engineer.

Hello, friends. We’ve split On The Line’s releases into audio and video. Videos are now in the late afternoon/evenings, and you can check them out in all our usual places. (Audio options can all be found here, as ever.)

In this episode of On The Line, Jen Gerson chats with Karin Valis, a Berlin-based machine learning engineer, and a writer at Mercurial Minutes. Together, they explore the complex and sometimes unsettling ways artificial intelligence intersects with human cognition, creativity, and mental health.

They talk about how the role of AI engineers is shifting and what that means for the future. They get into the way we lean on machines to do our thinking for us — and what that does to our own brains. There’s a lively back-and-forth about whether AI companionship helps or hurts us, and what happens when we start to depend on it too much. Karin also explains how these systems reflect our own behaviour back at us, often in surprising ways, and why the ethical questions are only getting harder.

Join the queue now! Video goes live on YouTube in 30 minutes, at 7 p.m. Eastern, 5 Mountain.

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On The Line wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors.

This episode of On the Line is brought to you by Airbnb. As we’ve discussed many times before, it’s no secret that Canada is in a housing crisis. Some think that one way we can solve it is by regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb. But the closer you look, the clearer it gets: that’s simply not the case. According to Statistics Canada, the number of Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes amounts to only 0.6 per cent of Canada’s housing stock. Something that has been clear for a long time is that tackling affordability will require big and bold action that addresses all of the housing market, not just 0.6 per cent of it. To learn more, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.

And:

This episode of On The Line is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. It's Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, 1993. A father and son — Steve and Roddy Powley — went hunting moose without a tag. What followed was more than a trial. For a decade, their entire community stood accused — told they didn’t exist, told they had no rights. In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. In R. v. Powley, Métis rights were fully recognized in law — rights rooted in history, culture, and community in Ontario.

Today, on those same lands where Métis once farmed river lots and were pushed aside, a new chapter has begun. The old Central United Church has been reclaimed as the Powley Institute — a Métis-led centre for education, culture, and truth. Here, the stories once silenced will be told and the lessons of Powley will endure: justice follows when you stand firm in the truth of your history. To learn more, visit OntarioMetisFacts.com.

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The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: lineeditor@protonmail.com.