The Gradient: Perspectives on AI

Dec 12 2024 146 ep. 80 mins 361
The Gradient: Perspectives on AI Podcast artwork

Deeply researched, technical interviews with experts thinking about AI and technology.

thegradientpub.substack.com

  Technology  Science
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Philip Goff: Panpsychism as a Theory of Consciousness

Dec 12 2024 60 mins  
Episode 141I spoke with Professor Philip Goff about:* What a “post-Galilean” science of consciousness looks like* How panpsychism helps explain consciousness and the hybrid cosmopsychist viewEnjoy!Philip Goff is a British author, idealist philosopher, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. Specifically, it focuses on h

Some Changes at The Gradient

Nov 21 2024 34 mins  
Hi everyone!If you’re a new subscriber or listener, welcome. If you’re not new, you’ve probably noticed that things have slowed down from us a bit recently. Hugh Zhang, Andrey Kurenkov and I sat down to recap some of The Gradient’s history, where we are now, and how things will look going forward. To summarize and give some context:The Gradient has been around for around 6

Jacob Andreas: Language, Grounding, and World Models

Oct 10 2024 112 mins  
Episode 140I spoke with Professor Jacob Andreas about:* Language and the world* World models* How he’s developed as a scientistEnjoy!Jacob is an associate professor at MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as well as the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research aims to understand the computational foundations of language

Evan Ratliff: Our Future with Voice Agents

Sep 26 2024 79 mins  
Episode 139I spoke with Evan Ratliff about:* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast, where he creates an AI voice clone of himself and sets it loose. * The end of the Longform Podcast and his thoughts on the state of journalism. Enjoy!Evan is an award-winning investigative journalist, bestselling author, podcast host, and entrepreneur. He’s the author of the The Mastermind: A True Stor

Meredith Ringel Morris: Generative AI's HCI Moment

Sep 12 2024 97 mins  
Episode 138I spoke with Meredith Morris about:* The intersection of AI and HCI and why we need more cross-pollination between AI and adjacent fields* Disability studies and AI* Generative ghosts and technological determinism* Developing a useful definition of AGII didn’t get to record an intro for this episode since I’ve been sick. Enjoy!Meredith is Director for Human-AI Intera

Davidad Dalrymple: Towards Provably Safe AI

Sep 05 2024 80 mins  
Episode 137I spoke with Davidad Dalrymple about:* His perspectives on AI risk* ARIA (the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency) and its Safeguarded AI ProgrammeEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Davidad is a Programme Director at ARIA. He was most recently a Research Fellow in technical AI safety at Oxford. He co-invented the top-40 cryptocurrency Filecoin, led an inter

Clive Thompson: Tales of Technology

Aug 29 2024 147 mins  
Episode 136I spoke with Clive Thompson about:* How he writes* Writing about the climate and biking across the US* Technology culture and persistent debates in AI* PoetryEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Clive is a journalist who writes about science and technology. He is a contributing writer forWired magazine, and is currently writing his next book about micromobility and cyc

Judy Fan: Reverse Engineering the Human Cognitive Toolkit

Aug 22 2024 92 mins  
Episode 136I spoke with Judy Fan about:* Our use of physical artifacts for sensemaking* Why cognitive tools can be a double-edged sword* Her approach to scientific inquiry and how that approach has developedEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Judy is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford and director of the Cognitive Tools Lab. Her lab employs converging approaches from

L.M. Sacasas: The Questions Concerning Technology

Aug 15 2024 107 mins  
Episode 135I spoke with L. M. Sacasas about:* His writing and intellectual influences* The value of asking hard questions about technology and our relationship to it* What happens when we decide to outsource skills and competency* Evolving notions of what it means to be human and questions about how to live a good lifeEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Michael is Executive Dire

Pete Wolfendale: The Revenge of Reason

Aug 08 2024 172 mins  
Episode 134I spoke with Pete Wolfendale about:* The flaws in longtermist thinking* Selections from his new book, The Revenge of Reason* Metaphysics* What philosophy has to say about reason and AIEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Pete is an independent philosopher based in Newcastle. Dr. Wolfendale got both his undergraduate degree and his Ph.D in Philosophy at the University o