Robert J. Marks II on the Benefits and Potential Perils of Artificial Intelligence

_{Wesley J. Smith
August 10, 2026

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Season: 5

Episode: 16

With: Wesley J. Smith

Guest(s): Robert J. Marks II

Duration: 1:08:28

Download: Audio File (94.02M)

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We are in the age of artificial intelligence. But what does that mean for the human future? Some claim that AI is merely a very sophisticated tool that will lead to stunning societal improvements such as miraculous medical breakthroughs, greater economic efficiency, and an exponential increase in human knowledge. But others worry that an out-of-human-control AI could destroy liberty, create immeasurable societal destruction, and perhaps, even unleash a technological Armageddon that brings about the end of the human race.

Which is it? Or are both potential possibilities?

To sort it all out for us, on this special summer edition of Humanize, Wesley asked Discovery Institute’s Robert J. Marks II to return for his third appearance.

An electrical engineer by education and training, Marks is the Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science at Baylor University. He has worked on artificial intelligence for more than three decades. His research supporters include NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Lab, and the Office of Naval Research. He has consulted for Microsoft and Boeing, and has authored several books and hundreds of peer-reviewed journal and conference papers on this and related issues. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), (now the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society).

He is also the Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Discovery Institute. His most recent book is Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will.

Show Notes