"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Jan 18 2025 209 ep. 93 mins 584

A biweekly podcast where hosts Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg interview the builders on the edge of AI and explore the dramatic shift it will unlock in the coming years.

The Cognitive Revolution is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co

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Dodging Latent Space Detectors: Obfuscated Activation Attacks with Luke, Erik, and Scott.

Jan 18 2025 130 mins  
In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores the groundbreaking paper on obfuscated activations with 3 members from the research team - Luke Bailey, Eric Jenner, and Scott Emmons. The team discusses how their work challenges latent-based defenses in AI systems, demonstrating methods to bypass safety mechanisms while maintaining harmful behaviors. Join us for an in-d

Gene Hunting with o1-pro: Reasoning about Rare Diseases with ChatGPT Pro Grantee Dr. Catherine Brownstein

Jan 15 2025 93 mins  
Nathan explores the cutting-edge intersection of AI and rare disease research with Dr. Catherine Brownstein of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we dive into how frontier AI models are revolutionizing the diagnosis of rare diseases. Join us for an insightful conversation with a ChatGPT Pro grant winner who's pioneeri

AI AMA – Part 2: AI Utopia, Consciousness, and the Future of Work

Jan 08 2025 121 mins  
In this second part of the special AMA episode, Nathan explores profound questions about AI's future and its impact on society. From painting a picture of AI utopia to discussing the challenges of consciousness and potential doom scenarios, Nathan shares insights on how we might adapt and thrive in an AI-transformed world. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that delves in

AI AMA – Part 1: OpenAI’s o3, Deliberative Alignment, and AI Surprises of 2024

Jan 07 2025 126 mins  
In this special AMA episode, Nathan answers questions posed by The Cognitive Revolution podcast listeners. He discusses AI developments in 2024, including OpenAI's o3 announcement, deliberative alignment, and the future of AI technology. It is an insightful discussion about AI's impact on education, coding careers, and business sustainability in an AI-driven world. Check out http:

Teaching AI to See: A Technical Deep-Dive on Vision Language Models with Will Hardman of Veratai

Jan 03 2025 236 mins  
In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan hosts Will Hardman, founder of AI advisory firm Veritai, for a comprehensive technical survey of vision language models (VLMs). We explore the evolution of VLMs from early vision transformers to state-of-the-art architectures like InternVL and Llama3V, examining key innovations and architectural decisions. Join us for an in-depth

roon's Heroic Duty: Will "the Good Guys" Build AGI First? (from Doom Debates)

Dec 28 2024 117 mins  
In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares a fascinating cross-post from Doom Debates featuring a conversation between Liron Shapira and roon, an influential Twitter Anon from OpenAI's technical staff. They explore crucial insights into how OpenAI's team views AI's future, including discussions on AGI development, alignment challenges, and extinction risks. Join us

Emad Mostaque on the Intelligent Internet and Universal Basic AI

Dec 25 2024 131 mins  
In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan interviews Emad Mostaque, former Founder and CEO of Stability AI and Founder of The Intelligent Internet. We explore humanity's future with AI, from the stark 50-50 survival odds to Emad's optimistic vision for universal basic intelligence. Join us for a fascinating discussion about open-source AI infrastructure, the three-tier sy

Can AIs do AI R&D? Reviewing REBench Results with Neev Parikh of METR

Dec 21 2024 107 mins  
In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores METR's groundbreaking REBench evaluation framework with Neev Parikh. We dive deep into how this new benchmark assesses AI systems' ability to perform real machine learning research tasks, from optimizing GPU kernels to fine-tuning language models. Join us for a fascinating discussion about the current capabilities of AI m

Breakthroughs in AI for Biology: AI Lab Groups & Protein Model Interpretability with Prof James Zou

Dec 18 2024 62 mins  
Nathan discusses groundbreaking AI and biology research with Stanford Professor James Zou from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we explore two remarkable papers: the virtual lab framework that created novel COVID treatments with minimal human oversight, and InterPLM's discovery of new protein motifs through mechanistic interpretability. J

Scouting Frontiers in AI for Biology: Dynamics, Diffusion, and Design, with Amelie Schreiber

Dec 14 2024 107 mins  
Nathan welcomes back computational biochemist Amelie Schreiber for a fascinating update on AI's revolutionary impact in biology. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we explore recent breakthroughs including AlphaFold3, ESM3, and new diffusion models transforming protein engineering and drug discovery. Join us for an insightful discussion about how AI is reshaping our under