In this enlightening episode, we delve deep with Finnish machine learning grandmaster Aapo Hyvärinen, as he discusses his latest book, “Painful Intelligence”. Hyvärinen, a trailblazer in unsupervised learning, sheds light on the profound connections between human suffering, the pursuit of goals, and the mechanics of learning. His discussion moves from super technical realms of non-gaussian latent variable models to the philosophical, exploring how the connection between machine learning and mindfulness meditation. As we venture into the future of AI, Hyvärinen raises thought-provoking questions about possibilities for the emergence of a survival instinct of AI agents.