COMPLEXITY

Santa Fe Institute
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  • LIFE SCIENCES
  • TWICE MONTHLY
COMPLEXITY

The official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. Subscribe now and be part of the exploration!

  1. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 6: AI’s changing seasons

    4 DEC

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 6: AI’s changing seasons

    In the final episode of the season, Abha sits down with Melanie to hear her perspective. They chat about Melanie’s career and research with Douglas Hofstadter, the author of Gödel, Escher, Bach. They also discuss her opinions on LLMs’ current capabilities, what she thinks of existential questions like the alignment problem, how sustainable the industry is, the difficulty of making claims about concepts like “intelligence” and “understanding,” and what she thinks future technological development should focus on.

    44 min
  2. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 5: How do we assess intelligence?

    20 NOV

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 5: How do we assess intelligence?

    When it comes to assessing intelligence, people have all kinds of tests — the SAT, IQ tests, and so on. There’s controversy over how fairly these tests really measure human intelligence, but at the very least, we know that they correlate with some general reasoning skills when people take them. That assumption breaks down when we try to assess intelligence in non-humans. What does it mean when a large language model passes an intelligence test meant for humans? Does it actually have the same reasoning skills that a human does, or is it doing something else? In today’s episode, with guests Erica Cartmill and Ellie Pavlick, we investigate the best ways to assess intelligence in non-humans, whether animals or machines.

    48 min
  3. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 4: Babies vs Machines

    6 NOV

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 4: Babies vs Machines

    There’s an argument to be made that if we train AI systems to learn the way babies do, we’ll get them closer to human-like intelligence. But how our own learning development functions in babyhood is still a mystery that researchers are untangling. We know that the information babies absorb is very different from how an LLM learns, and in today’s episode, with guests Linda Smith and Michael Frank we’ll attempt to look at the world through an infant’s eyes and examine why they’re able to do more with, seemingly, less information.

    39 min
  4. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 3: What kind of intelligence is an LLM?

    23 OCT

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 3: What kind of intelligence is an LLM?

    Large language models, like ChatGPT and Claude, have remarkably coherent communication skills. Yet, what this says about their “intelligence” isn’t clear. Is it possible that they could arrive at the same level of intelligence as humans without taking the same evolutionary or learning path to get there? Or, if they’re not on a path to human-level intelligence, where are they now and where will they end up? In this episode, with guests Tomer Ullman and Murray Shanahan, we look at how large language models function and examine differing views on how sophisticated they are and where they might be going.

    45 min
  5. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 2: The relationship between language and thought

    9 OCT

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 2: The relationship between language and thought

    Complex language is unique to the human species. It’s part of how we evolved, the backbone of our societies, and one of the primary ways we judge others’ intellect. Is it our intelligence that leads to our language abilities, or conversely, does our ability for language enhance our intelligence, or both? How do language and thinking interact? And can one exist without the other? Guests: Evelina Federenko, Steve Piantadosi, and Gary Lupyan.

    38 min
  6. Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 1: What is Intelligence

    25 SEPT

    Nature of Intelligence, Ep. 1: What is Intelligence

    Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence is either going to solve all humanity’s problems, or it’s going to kill us. Business leaders are getting ready for it to “disrupt” entire industries, and educators are re-thinking how to teach in the age of ChatGPT. It can feel like artificial intelligence is going to transform everything about the way we live. But in order to understand how to think about AI, it’s useful to take a step back. In today’s episode, we’re asking what it means to call anything "intelligent". What makes humans intelligent? And how do machines compare? Guests: John Krakauer and Alison Gopnik

    43 min
  7. Trailer for The Nature of Intelligence

    SEASON 3 TRAILER

    Trailer for The Nature of Intelligence

    Right now, AI is having a moment — and it’s not the first time grand predictions about the potential of machines are being made. But, what does it really mean to say something like ChatGPT is “intelligent”? What exactly is intelligence? In this season of the Complexity podcast, The Nature of Intelligence, we'll explore this question through conversations with cognitive and neuroscientists, animal cognition researchers, and AI experts in six episodes. Together, we'll investigate the complexities of human intelligence, how it compares to that of other species, and where AI fits in. We'll dive into the relationship between language and thought, examine AI's limitations, and ask: Could machines ever truly be like us?

    3 min
  8. Physics of Life, Ep 6: Multiple worlds, containing multitudes

    10 APR

    Physics of Life, Ep 6: Multiple worlds, containing multitudes

    In the final episode of this season, we hear from a NASA researcher whose expertise spans from studying samples in deep, untouched regions of our planet all the way to organic chemistry happening in space. We consider the possibility of other, past origins of life on Earth and look at the rich potential to learn from sample return missions, including the recent OSIRIS-REx mission that retrieved samples of the asteroid Bennu. Abha also sits down with Chris to hear his perspective on the podcast as a researcher who's collaborated with this season's guests on diverse research.

    41 min
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About

The official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. Subscribe now and be part of the exploration!

Information

  • Creator
    Santa Fe Institute
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2024
  • Episodes
    119
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2019-2024 Santa Fe Institute
  • Show Website
    COMPLEXITY

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