By Alex Molak
Causal Bandits Podcast with Alex Molak is here to help you learn about causality, causal AI and causal machine learning through the genius of others.
The podcast focuses on causality f
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The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.
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Causal Bandits at AAAI 2024 || Part 1
In this special episode we interview researchers who presented their work at AAAI 2024 in Vancouver, Canada and participants of our workshop on causality and large language models (LLMs)
Time codes:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Osman Ali Mian (CISPA) - Adaptive causal discovery for time series
04:35 Emily McMilin (Independent/Meta) - LLMs, causality & selection bias
07:36 Scott Mueller (UCLA) - Causality for EV incentives
12:41 Andrew Lampinen (Google DeepMind) - Causality from passive data
15:16 Ali Edalati (Huawei) - About Causal Parrots workshop
15:26 Adbelrahman Zayed (MILA) - About Causal Parrots workshop
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Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
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Meet The Godfather of Modern Causal Inference
His work has pretty literally changed the course of my life and I am honored and incredibly grateful we could meet for this great conversation in his home in Los Angeles
To anybody who knows something about modern causal inference, he needs no introduction.
He loves history, philosophy and music, and I believe it's fair to say that he's the godfather of modern causality.
Ladies & gentlemen, please welcome, professor Judea Pearl.
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About The Guest
Judea Pearl is a computer scientist, and a creator of the Structural Causal Model (SCM) framework for causal inference. In 2011, he has been awarded the Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science, for his pioneering works on Bayesian networks and graphical causal models and "fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning".
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About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex:
Links
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
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Can we say something about YOUR personal treatment effect?
The estimation of individual treatment effects is the Holy Grail of personalized medicine.
It's also extremely difficult.
Yet, Scott is not discouraged from studying this topic.
In fact, he quit a pretty successful business to study it.
In a series of papers, Scott describes how combining experimental and observational data can help us understand individual causal effects.
Although this sounds enigmatic to many, the intuition behind this mechanism is simpler than you might think.
In the episode we discuss:
🔹 What made Scott quit a successful business he founded and study causal inference?
🔹 How a false conviction about his own skills helped him learn? 🔹 What are individual treatment effects?
🔹 Can we really say something about individual treatment effects?
Ready to dive in?
About The Guest
Scott Mueller is a researcher and a PhD candidate in causal modeling at UCLA, supervised by Prof. Judea Pearl. He's a serial entrepreneur and the founder of UCode, a coding school for kids. His current research focuses on the estimation of individual treatment effects and their bounds. He works under the supervision of professor Judea Pearl.
Connect with Scott:
- Scott on Twitter/X
- Scott's webpage
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
Video version of this episode is available here
Causal personalization?
Dima did not love computers enough to forget about his passion for understanding people.
His work at Booking.com focuses on recommender systems and personalization, and their intersection with AB testing, constrained optimization and causal inference.
Dima's passion for building things started early in his childhood and continues up to this day, but recent events in his life also bring new opportunities to learn.
In the episode, we discuss:
Ready to dive in?
About The Guest
Dima Goldenberg is a Senior Machine Learning Manager at Booking.com, Tel Aviv, where he leads machine learning efforts in recommendations and personalization utilizing uplift modeling. Dima obtained his MSc in Tel Aviv University and currently pursuing PhD on causal personalization at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He led multiple conference workshops and tutorials on causality and personalization and his research was published in top journals and conferences including WWW, CIKM, WSDM, SIGIR, KDD and RecSys.
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About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality (https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4).
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Links
The full list of links is available here
#machinelearning #causalai #causalinference #causality
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
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Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
Was Deep Learning Revolution Bad For Causal Inference?
Did deep learning revolution slowed down the progress in causal research?
Can causality help in finding drug repurposing candidates?
What are the main challenges in using causal inference at scale?
Ehud Karavani, the author of the CausalLib Python library and Researcher at IBM Research shares his experiences and thoughts on these challenging questions.
Ehud believes in the power of good code, but for him code is not only about software development.
He sees coding as an inseparable part of modern-day research.
A powerful conversation for anyone interested in applied causal modeling.
In this episode we discuss:
About The Guest
Ehud Karavani, MSc is Research Staff Member at IBM Research in the Causal Machine Learning for Healthcare & Life Sciences Group. He focuses on high-throughput causal inference for finding new indications for existing drugs using electronic health records and insurance claims data. He's the original author of Causallib - one of the first Python libraries specialized in causal inference.
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About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex: Alex on the Internet
Links
Links for this episode can be found here
Video version of this episode can be found here.
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
Causal AI: The Melting Pot. Can Physics, Math & Biology Help Us?
What is the relationship between physics and causal models?
What can science of non-human animal behavior teach causal AI researchers?
Bernhard Schölkopf's rich background and experience allow him to combine perspectives from computation, physics, mathematics, biology, theory of evolution, psychology and ethology to build a deep understanding of underlying principles that govern complex systems and intelligent behavior.
His pioneering work in causal machine learning has revolutionized the field, providing new insights that enhance our ability to understand causal relationships and mechanisms in both natural and artificial systems.
In the episode we discuss:
Ready to dive in?
About The Guest
Bernhard Schölkopf, PhD is a Director at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. He's one of the cofounders of European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and a recepient of the ACM Allen Newell Award, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and more. His contributions to modern machine learning are hard to overestimate. He's a an affiliated professor at ETH Zürich, honorary professor at the University of Tübingen and the Technical University Berlin. His pioneering work on causal inference and causal machine learning inspired thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide.
Connect with Bernhard:
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling a
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
What makes two tech giants collaborate on an open source causal AI package?
Emre's adventure with causal inference and causal AI has started before it was trendy.
He's one of the original core developers of DoWhy - one of the most popular and powerful Python libraries for causal inference - and a researcher focused on the intersection of causal inference, causal discovery, generative modeling and social impact.
His unique perspective, inspired by his experience with low-level programming combined with his vivid interest in how humans interact with technology, is driven by a deep seated desire to solve problems that matter to people.
In the episode we discuss:
🔹 What makes Microsoft and Amazon collaborate on an open source Python package?
🔹 Causal AI and the core of science
🔹 Is language model a world model?
🔹 When modeling physics is useful?
Ready to dive in?
Join the insightful discussions at https://causalbanditspodcast.com/
About The Guest
Emre Kıcıman, PhD is a Senior Principal Research Manager at Microsoft Research. He's one of the core developers of the DoWhy Python package, alongside Amit Sharma. He holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. Privately, he loves to climb and spend time with his family.
Connect with Emre:
- Emre on Twitter/X
- Emre on LinkedIn
- Emre's web page
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Links
Libraries
- DoWhy (https://www.pywhy.org/dowhy/v0.11.1/)
- EconML (https://econml.azurewebsites.net/)
- CausalPy (https://causalpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
Books
- Molak, A. - "Causal Inference and Discovery in Python"
- Pearl, J. -
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
Recorded on Jan 17, 2024 in London, UK.
Video version available here
What makes so many predictions about the future of AI wrong?
And what's possible with the current paradigm?
From medical imaging to song recommendations, the association-based paradigm of learning can be helpful, but is not sufficient to answer our most interesting questions.
Meet Athanasios (Thanos) Vlontzos who looks for inspirations everywhere around him to build causal machine learning and causal inference systems at Spotify's Advanced Causal Inference Lab.
In the episode we discuss:
- Why is causal discovery a better riddle than causal inference?
- Will radiologists be replaced by AI in 2024 or 2025?
- What are causal AI skeptics missing?
- Can causality emerge in Euclidean latent space?
Ready to dive in?
About The Guest
Athanasios (Thanos) Vlontzos, PhD is a Research Scientist at Advanced Causal Inference Lab at Spotify. Previousl;y, he worked at Apple, at SETI Institute with NASA stakeholders and published in some of the best scientific journals, including Nature Machine Learning. He's specialized in causal modeling, causal inferernce, causal discovery and medical imaging.
Connect with Athanasios:
- Athanasios on Twitter/X
- Athanasios on LinkedIn
- Athanasios's web page
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Links
The full list of links can be found here.
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
Video version available here
Are markets efficient, and if not, can causal models help us leverage the inefficiencies?
Do we really need to understand what we're modeling?
What's the role of symmetry in modeling financial markets?
What are the main challenges in applying causal models in finance?
Ready to dive in?
About The Guest
Alexander Denev is the CEO of Turnleaf Analytics. He's an author of multiple books on financial modeling and a former Head of AI (Financial Services) at Deloitte. He lectures at the University of Oxford and has worked for organizations like IHS Markit, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and the European Investment Bank. He has over 20 years of experience in finance, data science, and modeling. His first book about causal models was published well ahead of its time.
Connect with Alexander:
- Alexander on LinkedIn
- Alexander's web page
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality.
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Full list of links can be found here.
#machinelearning #causalai #causalinference #causality #finance #CauslBanditsPodcast
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
Send us a text
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Video version of this episode is available here
Causal Inference with LLMs and Reinforcement Learning Agents?
Do LLMs have a world model?
Can they reason causally?
What's the connection between LLMs, reinforcement learning, and causality?
Andrew Lampinen, PhD (Google DeepMind) shares the insights from his research on LLMs, reinforcement learning, causal inference and generalizable agents.
We also discuss the nature of intelligence, rationality and how they play with evolutionary fitness.
Join us in the journey!
Recorded on Dec 1, 2023 in London, UK.
About The Guest
Andrew Lampinen, PhD is a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. He holds a PhD in PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University. He's interested in cognitive flexibility and generalization, and how these abilities are enabled by factors like language, memory, and embodiment.
Connect with Andrew:
- Andrew on Twitter/X
- Andrew's web page
About The Host
Aleksander (Alex) Molak is an independent machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur and a best-selling author in the area of causality (https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4).
Connect with Alex:
- Alex on the Internet
Links
Papers
- Lampinen et al. (2023) - "Passive learning of active causal strategies in agents and language models" (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.16183.pdf)
- Dasgupta, Lampinen, et al. (2022) Language models show human-like content effects on reasoning tasks" (https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.07051)
- Santoro, Lampinen, et al. (2021) - "Symbolic behaviour in artificial intelligence" (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349125191_Symbolic_Behaviour_in_Artificial_Intelligence)
- Webb et al. (2022) - “Emergent Analog
Should we build the Causal Experts Network?
Share your thoughts in the survey
Support the show
Causal Bandits Podcast
Causal AI || Causal Machine Learning || Causal Inference & Discovery
Web: https://causalbanditspodcast.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandermolak/
Join Causal Python Weekly: https://causalpython.io
The Causal Book: https://amzn.to/3QhsRz4
The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.
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