Carry the Two IMSI

Find our transcript here: LINK







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Follow Sadie Witkowski: https://www.sadiewit.com/, @SadieWit



This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.



Music by Blue Dot Sessions.



The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

In this classic episode, we explore how GPT-3, a free online natural language processing artificial intelligence by Open AI, does and doesn’t work. Make sure to stick around until the end for an update on how AI is a core demand between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.



GPT-3 takes advantage of a whole new method of artificial intelligence research, called neural nets, to create plays, write code, and even roleplay as a historical figure. But what are the limitations to this kind of AI? University of Chicago professor Allyson Ettinger walks us through how GPT-3 manages to sound so human and where and how it fails in interesting ways.



Find our transcript here: LINK



Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:



When GPT-3 accidentally lies: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-large-language-model-ai-only-survived-three-days-gpt-3-science/



Microsoft’s chatbot that went racist: https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist



Is GPT-3 a replacement or tool for journalists: https://contently.net/2022/12/15/trends/chatgpt/



Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/



Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/



AO3 and data scraping: https://www.transformativeworks.org/ai-and-data-scraping-on-the-archive/



Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute



Follow Caitlin Parrish: @caitcrime



Follow Allyson Ettinger: https://allenai.org/team, @AllysonEttinger



This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. 



Music by Blue Dot Sessions.



The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Were you impressed by the underwater scenes in Avatar 2? Have you spent hours trying to figure out how they built the ice wall in Game of Thrones? Everything from big effects like these to smaller hidden visual effects like creating a skyline for an indoor set fall under the purview of visual effects. In this episode of Carry the Two, we get a behind-the-scenes tour of how Fuse FX effects supervisor Jamie Barty from I’m a Virgo leads a team to achieve these effects - and the copious amounts of mathematics that come into play!



Find our transcript here: LINK



Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:



Fuse FX: https://fusefx.com/



Course on the mathematics behind visual effects: https://www.fxphd.com/details/215/



I’m a Virgo: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13649510/



Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/



Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/



Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute



Follow Jamie Barty: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4495160/



This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. 



Music by Blue Dot Sessions.



The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Could a fungus really wipe out the majority of humans, as shown in the HBO (Max) series The Last of Us? How realistic is the show’s portrayal of epidemiology? Guest and project scientist at UCLA, Tara Kerin explores these questions and how statistics are a core tool in her field of research.
Find our transcript here: LINK
Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:
The San Diego Comic Con International masquerade ball: https://www.comic-con.org/cci/newsletter/sunday
How to calculate R0 (R-naught): https://globalhealth.harvard.edu/understanding-predictions-what-is-r-naught/
Tara’s work on HIV: https://cch.ucla.edu/about-atn-cares/
More on R0: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/1/17-1901_article
More on the science in The Last of Us: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/17/1157842018/the-science-that-spawned-fungal-fears-in-hbos-the-last-of-us
Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/
Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/
Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute
Follow Tara Kerin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarakerin/, @tarakerin
This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. 
Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

The world, and the US in particular, have a complicated history with nuclear fission. Splitting atoms led to both the development of nuclear energy and weapons with catastrophic power. In the film Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan explores these issues.



Here we expand this examination to the seminal work done in the Midwest. In this episode of Carry the Two, we speak with nuclear engineer from the University of Wisconsin, Paul Wilson, and University of Chicago physicist, Robert Rosner. They unveil how the University of Chicago was a key research site that tested theories of Oppenheimer and his colleagues, allowing the United States to win the race in building a nuclear weapon.



Find our transcript here: LINK



Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:



The first nuclear reactor, explained: https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/first-nuclear-reactor-explained



American Prometheus (novel that Oppenheimer is based on): https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kai-bird-and-martin-j-sherwin



Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/



Nuclear energy and cutting carbon emissions: https://www.wpr.org/nuclear-key-key-cutting-carbon-emissions-combat-climate-change



Rosner elected president of American Physical Society: https://chicagomaroon.com/28020/news/theoretical-physicist-robert-rosner-elected-presid/



Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute



Follow Robert Rosner: https://astro.uchicago.edu/people/robert-rosner.php



Follow Paul Wilson: https://directory.engr.wisc.edu/neep/faculty/wilson_paul



The Science and Entertainment Exchange: scienceandentertainmentexchange.org



This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. 



Music by Blue Dot Sessions.



The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

If you’ve seen the first season of Apple TV’s Foundation, you probably noticed how heavily the show relies on ideas based in mathematics and statistics. However, while the idea of a field of research called psycho-history seems far-fetched, some of the show's scenes are much closer to reality than you might realize.



In this episode, we hear from planetary physicist and television science advisor Kevin Grazier about how researchers can help advise TV projects and what that actually looks like.



Find our transcript here: LINK



Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:



Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43939-foundation-chronological-order



Foundation (tv series) season 1 promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4QYV5GTz7c



The Cassini mission: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/



Orbital dynamics: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-0802-8_10



Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/



Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute



Follow Kevin Grazier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-grazier-1057792/



This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. 



Music by Blue Dot Sessions.



The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.