#225 - Baroness Susan Greenfield - A Neuroscientist's Warning About AI & Children - The Peter McCormack Show

Have smartphones been a terrible mistake? Are social media and artificial intelligence changing the way our children think, learn and develop? And what happens to humanity when technology removes the need to struggle, imagine and think for ourselves? In this episode Baroness Susan Greenfield, Oxford neuroscientist and member of the House of Lords, explains the impact of digital technology on the human brain. We discuss smartphone addiction, declining attention, the mental health of young people, the importance of resilience, and whether our education system is preparing children for a future that no longer exists.

We also explore what makes us human, the pursuit of happiness, the importance of imagination, and how to build a better world for the next generation. Susan also shares her deeply personal experience of her mother's Alzheimer's disease and the experimental research she is leading into early diagnosis and potential treatments. Finally, they confront political polarisation, the failings of modern democracy and the responsibilities we have to future generations. At its heart, this is a conversation about whether technological progress is genuinely improving our lives, or whether we're sacrificing the very things that make life worth living.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - They Chose Electric Shocks Instead

00:03:22 - Struggle Shaped Us

00:05:55 - The Pony She Had To Wait For

00:11:23 - Was The Smartphone A Mistake?

00:15:48 - Outsourcing Your Thoughts

00:19:45 - Deliberately Addictive

00:20:59 - Should AI Images Be Labelled?

00:26:20 - The Girl Who Used AI To Get An A

00:29:20 - Educating For A World That Doesn't Exist

00:31:48 - Wine, Women And Song