The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

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The Local Maximum with Max Sklar episodes

  • Ep. 268 - Pascal's Mugging, Doomsday Clocks, and the AGI Debate
    Max discovers Pascal's Mugging, the counterpoint to Pascal's Wager. He speculates about the category of errors (and sometimes scams) made by doomsayers in every field including most recently general artificial intellgence.

    Probability Distribution of the Week: Gamma Distribution

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    34 min
  • Ep. 267 - Bernoulli's Fallacy with Aubrey Clayton
    Could the crisis in modern science be a result of fallacious probabilistic thinking? Mathematical researcher and writer Aubrey Clayton joins the Local Maximum to discuss his book Bernoulli’s Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science.

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    42 min
  • Ep. 265 - The Multi-Armed Bandit
    Max talks about the multi-armed bandit - an important concept in the Data Science world. The news of the day is Microsoft's plan to integrate generative text (from open AI) into it's Bing search engine, and whether Google can turn around from negative news stories and compete with this.

    Probability Distribution of the Week: Dirichlet Distribution

    localmaxradio.com/265

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    40 min
  • Ep. 264 - Talking Tik Tok, Privacy, and Propaganda with Adam Kovacevich
    Max talks to Adam Kovacevich, the Founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress in DC, to talk about several issues that have caught to attention of policymakers. We discuss the concerns of the rise of Tik Tok as a potential arm of the Chinese government, and whether similar concerns about domestic services are warranted.

    Chamber of Progress: https://progresschamber.org/

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    37 min
  • Ep. 263 - Relative Probability
    Aaron talks to Max about his new pamphlet entitled "Relative Probability on Finite Outcome Spaces".

    arXiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14555

    Probability Distribution of the Week: The Normal Distribution

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    58 min
  • Ep. 262 - Category Theory, Google Responds, and Another Covid Retro
    Max describes category theory as a branch of mathematics, and asks whether it will become more important in the age of AI. We then discuss the issues of the day:
    - looks at John Stossel's Video on how governments responded to Covid, and where their decisions stand three years later
    - Google's Recent Moves in Response to ChatGPT as well as layoffs

    Probability Distribution of the Week: Beta Distribution

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    47 min
  • Ep. 261 - Generative AI's Grand Entrance
    As Generative AI has captured the imagination, Max thinks about it from many different angles. How does it actually work under the hood? What does it mean for media creators, investors, and job seekers? And what does it mean for humans and their comparative advantage with respect to this new technology? All the big questions of our time!

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    39 min
  • Ep. 260 - New Year Predictions: Generative AI, Self Driving Cars, and Web3
    Max and Aaron start off the New Year with a predictions show for the short, medium, and long term outlook for technical advances. Today's episode focuses on generative AI and self driving cars.

    Probability Distribution of the Week: Continuous Uniform Distribution

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    1 hr 15 min
  • Ep. 259 - New Years Thoughts
    Max looks back at the previous New Year's episode, and was surprised by how right he was on the changes we saw in our channels of information online this year. He reviews the news of the year, particularly the innovations in AI that have come to the forefront, and comments on Clay Shirky's Twitter rant.

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit localmaximum.substack.com
    33 min

About The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

From the publisher's feed

Join Max Sklar and guests in this podcast about AI, technology, and society. Email [email protected] for questions and feedback.