Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

By Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Technology

What's Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) about?

Welcome! The team at MLST is inspired by academic research and each week we engage in dynamic discussion with pre-eminent figures in the AI field. Our flagship show covers current affairs in AI with in-depth analysis. Our approach is unrivalled in terms of scope and rigour – we believe in intellectual diversity in AI, and we touch on all of the main ideas in the field without succumbing to hype. MLST is run by Tim Scarfe, Ph.D (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecsquizor/)

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Prof. Melanie Mitchell 2.0 ...

09.10.2023

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Prof. Melanie Mitchell argues that the concept of "understanding" in AI is ill-defined and multidimensional - we can't simply say an AI system does or doesn't understand. She advocates for rigorously testing AI systems' capabilities using ...

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) episodes:

09.10.2023 Prof. Melanie Mitchell 2.0 - AI Benchmarks are Broken! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Prof. Melanie Mitchell argues that the concept of "understanding" in AI is ill-defined and multidimensional - we can't simply say an AI system does or doesn't understand. She advocates for rigorously testing AI systems' capabilities using ...
09.05.2023 Autopoitic Enactivism and the Free Energy Principle - Prof. Friston, Prof Buckley, Dr. Ramstead We explore connections between FEP and enactivism, including tensions raised in a paper critiquing FEP from an enactivist perspective. Dr. Maxwell Ramstead provides background on enactivism emerging from autopoiesis, with a focus on embodied cognition and rejecting information processing/computational views ...
08.15.2023 STEPHEN WOLFRAM 2.0 - Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics Please check out Numerai - our sponsor @ http://numer.ai/mlst Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics Buy Stephen's book here - https://tinyurl.com/2jj2t9wa The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed ...
08.14.2023 Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber - FATHER OF AI ON ITS DANGERS Please check out Numerai - our sponsor @ http://numer.ai/mlst Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Professor Jürgen Schmidhuber, the father of artificial intelligence, joins us today. Schmidhuber discussed the history of machine learning, the current state of AI, and his career researching ...
08.04.2023 Can We Develop Truly Beneficial AI? George Hotz and Connor Leahy Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB George Hotz and Connor Leahy discuss the crucial challenge of developing beneficial AI that is aligned with human values. Hotz believes truly aligned AI is impossible, while Leahy argues it's a solvable technical challenge. Hotz contends ...
07.16.2023 Dr. MAXWELL RAMSTEAD - The Physics of Survival Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Join us for a fascinating discussion of the free energy principle with Dr. Maxwell Ramsted, a leading thinker exploring the intersection of math, physics, and philosophy and Director of Research at VERSES. The FEP was proposed ...
07.02.2023 MUNK DEBATE ON AI (COMMENTARY) [DAVID FOSTER] Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB The discussion between Tim Scarfe and David Foster provided an in-depth critique of the arguments made by panelists at the Munk AI Debate on whether artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity. While the panelists ...
06.29.2023 [SPONSORED] The Digitized Self: AI, Identity and the Human Psyche (YouAi) Sponsored Episode - YouAi What if an AI truly knew you—your thoughts, values, aptitudes, and dreams? An AI that could enhance your life in profound ways by amplifying your strengths, augmenting your weaknesses, and connecting you with like-minded souls. That ...
06.20.2023 Joscha Bach and Connor Leahy on AI risk Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk The first 10 mins of audio from Joscha isn't great, it improves after. Transcript and longer summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TUJhlSVbrHf2vWoe6p7xL5tlTK_BGZ140QqqTudF8UI/edit?usp=sharing Dr. Joscha Bach argued that general intelligence emerges from civilization, not individuals. Given our ...
06.18.2023 Neel Nanda - Mechanistic Interpretability In this wide-ranging conversation, Tim Scarfe interviews Neel Nanda, a researcher at DeepMind working on mechanistic interpretability, which aims to understand the algorithms and representations learned by machine learning models. Neel discusses how models can represent their thoughts using motifs, ...
06.04.2023 Prof. Daniel Dennett - Could AI Counterfeit People Destroy Civilization? (SPECIAL EDITION) Please check out Numerai - our sponsor using our link @ http://numer.ai/mlst Numerai is a groundbreaking platform which is taking the data science world by storm. Tim has been using Numerai to build state-of-the-art models which predict the stock market, ...
05.31.2023 Decoding the Genome: Unraveling the Complexities with AI and Creativity [Prof. Jim Hughes, Oxford] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk In this eye-opening discussion between Tim Scarfe and Prof. Jim Hughes, a professor of gene regulation at Oxford University, they explore the intersection of creativity, genomics, and artificial intelligence. Prof. Hughes brings ...
05.21.2023 ROBERT MILES - "There is a good chance this kills everyone" Please check out Numerai - our sponsor @ https://numerai.com/mlst Numerai is a groundbreaking platform which is taking the data science world by storm. Tim has been using Numerai to build state-of-the-art models which predict the stock market, all while being ...
05.16.2023 AI Senate Hearing - Executive Summary (Sam Altman, Gary Marcus) Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk In a historic and candid Senate hearing, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Professor Gary Marcus, and IBM's Christina Montgomery discussed the regulatory landscape of AI in the US. The discussion was particularly interesting ...
05.11.2023 Future of Generative AI [David Foster] Generative Deep Learning, 2nd Edition [David Foster] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/generative-deep-learning/9781098134174/ Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk In this conversation, Tim Scarfe and David Foster, the author of 'Generative Deep Learning,' dive deep into the world of generative AI, discussing topics ...
05.08.2023 PERPLEXITY AI - The future of search. https://www.perplexity.ai/ https://www.perplexity.ai/iphone https://www.perplexity.ai/android Interview with Aravind Srinivas, CEO and Co-Founder of Perplexity AI – Revolutionizing Learning with Conversational Search Engines Dr. Tim Scarfe talks with Dr. Aravind Srinivas, CEO and Co-Founder of Perplexity AI, about his journey from studying AI ...
04.16.2023 #114 - Secrets of Deep Reinforcement Learning (Minqi Jiang) Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk In this exclusive interview, Dr. Tim Scarfe sits down with Minqi Jiang, a leading PhD student at University College London and Meta AI, as they delve into the fascinating world of deep reinforcement learning ...
04.10.2023 Unlocking the Brain's Mysteries: Chris Eliasmith on Spiking Neural Networks and the Future of Human-Machine Interaction Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst Discord: https://discord.gg/ESrGqhf5CB Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLStreetTalk Chris Eliasmith is a renowned interdisciplinary researcher, author, and professor at the University of Waterloo, where he holds the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Neuroscience. As the Founding Director of the Centre for ...
04.02.2023 #112 AVOIDING AGI APOCALYPSE - CONNOR LEAHY Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 In this podcast with the legendary Connor Leahy (CEO Conjecture) recorded in Dec 2022, we discuss various topics related to artificial intelligence (AI), including AI alignment, the success of ChatGPT, the potential threats of ...
04.01.2023 #111 - AI moratorium, Eliezer Yudkowsky, AGI risk etc Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Send us a voice message which you want us to publish: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/machinelearningstreettalk/message In a recent open letter, over 1500 individuals called for a six-month pause on the development of advanced AI systems, expressing concerns ...
03.23.2023 #110 Dr. STEPHEN WOLFRAM - HUGE ChatGPT+Wolfram announcement! HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT, CHATGPT+WOLFRAM! You saw it HERE first! YT version: https://youtu.be/z5WZhCBRDpU Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Stephen's announcement post: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/03/chatgpt-gets-its-wolfram-superpowers/ OpenAI's announcement post: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins In an era of technology and innovation, few individuals have left as indelible a mark ...
03.20.2023 #109 - Dr. DAN MCQUILLAN - Resisting AI YT version: https://youtu.be/P1j3VoKBxbc (references in pinned comment) Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Dan McQuillan, a visionary in digital culture and social innovation, emphasizes the importance of understanding technology's complex relationship with society. As an academic at Goldsmiths, University of ...
03.16.2023 #108 - Dr. JOEL LEHMAN - Machine Love [Staff Favourite] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 We are honoured to welcome Dr. Joel Lehman, an eminent machine learning research scientist, whose work in AI safety, reinforcement learning, creative open-ended search algorithms, and indeed the philosophy of open-endedness and abandoning objectives ...
03.13.2023 #107 - Dr. RAPHAËL MILLIÈRE - Linguistics, Theory of Mind, Grounding Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Dr. Raphaël Millière is the 2020 Robert A. Burt Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience in the Center for Science and Society, and a Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Columbia University. His research ...
03.11.2023 #106 - Prof. KARL FRISTON 3.0 - Collective Intelligence [Special Edition] This show is sponsored by Numerai, please visit them here with our sponsor link (we would really appreciate it) http://numer.ai/mlst Prof. Karl Friston recently proposed a vision of artificial intelligence that goes beyond machines and algorithms, and embraces humans and ...
03.04.2023 #105 - Dr. MICHAEL OLIVER [CSO - Numerai] Access Numerai here: http://numer.ai/mlst Michael Oliver is the Chief Scientist at Numerai, a hedge fund that crowdsources machine learning models from data scientists. He has a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from UC Berkeley and was a postdoctoral researcher at the ...
02.22.2023 #104 - Prof. CHRIS SUMMERFIELD - Natural General Intelligence [SPECIAL EDITION] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Christopher Summerfield, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a Research Scientist at Deepmind UK. His work focusses on the neural and ...
02.11.2023 #103 - Prof. Edward Grefenstette - Language, Semantics, Philosophy Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 YT: https://youtu.be/i9VPPmQn9HQ Edward Grefenstette is a Franco-American computer scientist who currently serves as Head of Machine Learning at Cohere and Honorary Professor at UCL. He has previously been a research scientist at Facebook AI ...
02.11.2023 #102 - Prof. MICHAEL LEVIN, Prof. IRINA RISH - Emergence, Intelligence, Transhumanism Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 YT: https://youtu.be/Vbi288CKgis Michael Levin is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University, and the holder of the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair. He is the Director of the Allen Discovery Center at ...
02.10.2023 #101 DR. WALID SABA - Extrapolation, Compositionality and Learnability MLST Discord! https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mlst YT: https://youtu.be/snUf_LIfQII We had a discussion with Dr. Walid Saba about whether or not MLP neural networks can extrapolate outside of the training support, and what it means to extrapolate in a vector space. Then ...
02.10.2023 #100 Dr. PATRICK LEWIS (co:here) - Retrieval Augmented Generation Dr. Patrick Lewis is a London-based AI and Natural Language Processing Research Scientist, working at co:here. Prior to this, Patrick worked as a research scientist at the Fundamental AI Research Lab (FAIR) at Meta AI. During his PhD, Patrick split ...
02.05.2023 #99 - CARLA CREMER & IGOR KRAWCZUK - X-Risk, Governance, Effective Altruism YT version (with references): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxaTinmKxs0 Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 Carla Cremer and Igor Krawczuk argue that AI risk should be understood as an old problem of politics, power and control with known solutions, and that threat models should ...
02.03.2023 [NO MUSIC] #98 - Prof. LUCIANO FLORIDI - ChatGPT, Singularitarians, Ethics, Philosophy of Information Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 YT version: https://youtu.be/YLNGvvgq3eg We are living in an age of rapid technological advancement, and with this growth comes a digital divide. Professor Luciano Floridi of the Oxford Internet Institute / Oxford University believes that ...
02.03.2023 #98 - Prof. LUCIANO FLORIDI - ChatGPT, Superintelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Information Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5 YT version: https://youtu.be/YLNGvvgq3eg (If music annoying, skip to main interview @ 14:14) We are living in an age of rapid technological advancement, and with this growth comes a digital divide. Professor Luciano Floridi of ...
01.28.2023 #97 SREEJAN KUMAR - Human Inductive Biases in Machines from Language Research has shown that humans possess strong inductive biases which enable them to quickly learn and generalize. In order to instill these same useful human inductive biases into machines, a paper was presented by Sreejan Kumar at the NeurIPS conference ...
12.30.2022 #96 Prof. PEDRO DOMINGOS - There are no infinities, utility functions, neurosymbolic Pedro Domingos, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, is renowned for his research in machine learning, particularly for his work on Markov logic networks that allow for uncertain inference. He is also the author ...
12.26.2022 #95 - Prof. IRINA RISH - AGI, Complex Systems, Transhumanism Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Autonomous AI. Irina holds an MSc and PhD in AI from the University of California, Irvine as well as an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the Moscow Gubkin Institute. Her research focuses on machine learning, ...
12.26.2022 #94 - ALAN CHAN - AI Alignment and Governance #NEURIPS Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Alan Chan is a PhD student at Mila, the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, supervised by Nicolas Le Roux. Before joining Mila, Alan was a Masters student at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and the University of ...
12.24.2022 #93 Prof. MURRAY SHANAHAN - Consciousness, Embodiment, Language Models Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Professor Murray Shanahan is a renowned researcher on sophisticated cognition and its implications for artificial intelligence. His 2016 article ‘Conscious Exotica’ explores the Space of Possible Minds, a concept first proposed by philosopher Aaron Sloman in 1984, ...
12.23.2022 #92 - SARA HOOKER - Fairness, Interpretability, Language Models Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Sara Hooker is an exceptionally talented and accomplished leader and research scientist in the field of machine learning. She is the founder of Cohere For AI, a non-profit research lab that seeks to solve complex machine learning ...
12.20.2022 #91 - HATTIE ZHOU - Teaching Algorithmic Reasoning via In-context Learning #NeurIPS Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Hattie Zhou, a PhD student at Université de Montréal and Mila, has set out to understand and explain the performance of modern neural networks, believing it a key factor in building better, more trusted models. Having previously ...
12.19.2022 (Music Removed) #90 - Prof. DAVID CHALMERS - Consciousness in LLMs [Special Edition] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst (On the main version we released; the music was a tiny bit too loud in places, and some pieces had percussion which was a bit distracting -- here is a version with all music removed so you ...
12.19.2022 #90 - Prof. DAVID CHALMERS - Consciousness in LLMs [Special Edition] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst David Chalmers is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University, and an honorary professor of philosophy at the Australian National University. He is the co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, ...
12.16.2022 #88 Dr. WALID SABA - Why machines will never rule the world [UNPLUGGED] Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Dr. Walid Saba recently reviewed the book Machines Will Never Rule The World, which argues that strong AI is impossible. He acknowledges the complexity of modeling mental processes and language, as well as interactive dialogues, and questions ...
12.11.2022 #86 - Prof. YANN LECUN and Dr. RANDALL BALESTRIERO - SSL, Data Augmentation, Reward isn't enough [NEURIPS2022] Yann LeCun is a French computer scientist known for his pioneering work on convolutional neural networks, optical character recognition and computer vision. He is a Silver Professor at New York University and Vice President, Chief AI Scientist at Meta. Along ...
12.08.2022 #85 Dr. Petar Veličković (Deepmind) - Categories, Graphs, Reasoning [NEURIPS22 UNPLUGGED] Dr. Petar Veličković is a Staff Research Scientist at DeepMind, he has firmly established himself as one of the most significant up and coming researchers in the deep learning space. He invented Graph Attention Networks in 2017 and has been ...
12.06.2022 #84 LAURA RUIS - Large language models are not zero-shot communicators [NEURIPS UNPLUGGED] In this NeurIPSs interview, we speak with Laura Ruis about her research on the ability of language models to interpret language in context. She has designed a simple task to evaluate the performance of widely used state-of-the-art language models and ...
12.04.2022 #83 Dr. ANDREW LAMPINEN (Deepmind) - Natural Language, Symbols and Grounding [NEURIPS2022 UNPLUGGED] First in our unplugged series live from #NeurIPS2022 We discuss natural language understanding, symbol meaning and grounding and Chomsky with Dr. Andrew Lampinen from DeepMind. We recorded a LOT of material from NeurIPS, keep an eye out for the uploads. ...
11.27.2022 #82 - Dr. JOSCHA BACH - Digital Physics, DL and Consciousness [UNPLUGGED] AI Helps Ukraine - Charity Conference A charity conference on AI to raise funds for medical and humanitarian aid for Ukraine https://aihelpsukraine.cc/ YT version: https://youtu.be/LgwjcqhkOA4 Support us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst Dr. Joscha Bach (born 1973 in Weimar, Germany) is a German artificial ...
11.20.2022 #81 JULIAN TOGELIUS, Prof. KEN STANLEY - AGI, Games, Diversity & Creativity [UNPLUGGED] Support us (and please rate on podcast app) https://www.patreon.com/mlst In this show tonight with Prof. Julian Togelius (NYU) and Prof. Ken Stanley we discuss open-endedness, AGI, game AI and reinforcement learning. [Prof Julian Togelius] https://engineering.nyu.edu/faculty/julian-togelius https://twitter.com/togelius [Prof Ken Stanley] https://www.cs.ucf.edu/~kstanley/ ...

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