The Retort AI Podcast

Nathan Lambert
  • 4.7 (9)
  • TECHNOLOGY
The Retort AI Podcast

Distilling the major events and challenges in the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, from Thomas Krendl Gilbert and Nathan Lambert. www.retortai.com

  1. Tom leaves stealth: Hortus AI

    FEB 18

    Tom leaves stealth: Hortus AI

    An exciting week for Tom, who tells Nate about his company Hortus AI, whose mission is to make AI accountable to local communities. We cover a lot of classic Retort themes as Tom makes a case for what's missing from AI development, and how models could be more healthily integrated into everyday people's lives. Press release: https://hortus.ai/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hortus-AI-Press-Release_Feb25.pdf Company website: https://hortus.ai/ Link to whitepaper: https://www.newamerica.org/rethinkai/policy-papers/a-sustainable-path-for-ai-development/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    54 min
  2. We ask again: Is AI a science?

    JAN 10

    We ask again: Is AI a science?

    Tom and Nate sit down for a classic discussion of the role of AI in the modern philosophy of science. Much of this discussion is based on Thomas Samuel Kuhn's influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. We ask -- is AI a science in the Kuhn'ian sense? Will the "paradigm" worldview apply to other sciences post AI? How will scientific institutions manage the addition of AI? We promised an AI for science reading list, so here it is: [Dario interview with Lex] https://youtu.be/ugvHCXCOmm4?si=1hnlvue8M4pV2TqCLevers for biological progress https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/levers?r=68gy5&utm_medium=iosX thread on theories of change in scienceshttps://x.com/AdamMarblestone/status/1845158919523664019whitepaper linked by seb krierDwarkesh physics pod https://open.substack.com/pub/dwarkesh/p/adam-brown?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios — Nobel in physics went to aiAi policy perspectives piece A new golden age of discoveryhttps://www.aipolicyperspectives.com/p/a-new-golden-age-of-discoveryOwl posting checking recent NeurIPS papers https://www.owlposting.com/p/can-o1-preview-find-major-mistakes based on idea from Ethan Mollick https://x.com/emollick/status/1868329599438037491also another post on the subject https://open.substack.com/pub/amistrongeryet/p/the-black-spatula-project?r=68gy5&utm_medium=iosKuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutionsintrinsic perspective https://open.substack.com/pub/erikhoel/p/great-scientists-follow-intuition?r=68gy5&utm_medium=iosGet The Retort (https://retortai.com/)… … on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast … on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee … on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190 … Follow Interconnects: https://www.interconnects.ai/ … email us: mail@retortai.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    54 min
  3. The Retort's biggest AI stories of 2024

    12/06/2024

    The Retort's biggest AI stories of 2024

    We're back! Tom and Nate catch up after the Thanksgiving holiday. Our main question was -- what were the biggest AI stories of the year? We touch on the core themes of the show: infrastructure, AI realities, and and antitrust. The power buildout to scale out AI is going to have very real long-term impacts. Some links this week: * Ben Thompson's, The End of the Beginning: https://stratechery.com/2020/the-end-of-the-beginning/ * Miles Brundage's Substack: https://milesbrundage.substack.com/p/why-im-leaving-openai-and-what-im * Stochastic Parrots paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922 Thanks for listening!  Get The Retort (https://retortai.com/)… … on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast … on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee … on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190 … Follow Interconnects: https://www.interconnects.ai/ … email us: mail@retortai.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    48 min
  4. The Nobel Albatross

    10/11/2024

    The Nobel Albatross

    Tom and Nate catch up on the happenings in AI. Of course, we're focused on the biggest awards available to us as esteemed scientists (or something close enough) -- the Nobel Prizes! What does it mean in the trajectory of AI for Hinton and Hassabis to carry added scientific weight. Honestly, feels like a sinking ship.  Some links: * Schmidhuber tweet: https://x.com/SchmidhuberAI/status/1844022724328394780 * Hinton "I'm proud my student fired Sam": https://x.com/Grady_Booch/status/1844145422824243290 00:00 Introduction 04:43 Criticism of AI-related Nobel Prize awards 09:06 Geoffrey Hinton's comments on winning the Nobel Prize 18:14 Debate on who should be credited for current AI advancements 25:53 Changes in the nature of scientific research and recognition 34:44 Changes in AI safety culture and company dynamics 37:27 Discussion on AI scaling and its impact on the industry 42:21 Reflection on the ongoing AI hype cycle Retort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast Retort on Twitter: https://x.com/retortai Retort website: https://retortai.com/ Retort email: mail at retortai dot com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    45 min
  5. Claude Needs a Constitutional Convention

    09/13/2024

    Claude Needs a Constitutional Convention

    Tom and Nate catch up on recent events (before the OpenAI o1 release) and opportunities in transparency/policy. We recap the legendary scam of Matt from IT department, why disclosing the outcomes of process is not enough, and more. This is a great episode on understanding why the process technology was birthed from is just as important as the outcome! Some links: * Nathan's post on Model Specs for regulation https://www.interconnects.ai/p/a-post-training-approach-to-ai-regulation * Nathan's post on inference spend https://www.interconnects.ai/p/openai-strawberry-and-inference-scaling-laws Send your questions to mail at retortai dot com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    42 min
  6. Avoiding the AI burnout

    08/26/2024

    Avoiding the AI burnout

    Tom and Nate catch up on core themes of AI after a somewhat unintended summer break. We discuss the moral groundings and philosophy of what we're building, our travels, The Anxious Generation, AGI obsessions, an update on AI Ethics vs. AI Safety, and plenty more in between. As always, contact us at mail@retortai.com Some links we mention in the episode: * The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail https://motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/emotional_dog_and_rational_tail.pdf * The Anxious Generation https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036 * Shadow Lake Lodge https://shadowlakelodge.com/ * Recent Dwarkesh Podcast https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/joe-carlsmith This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    37 min
  7. What we are getting wrong about AI regulation

    07/19/2024

    What we are getting wrong about AI regulation

    Tom and Nate catch up on the rapidly evolving (and political) space of AI regulation. We cover CA SB 1047, recent policing of data scraping, presidential appointees, antitrust intention vs. implementation, FLOP thresholds, and everything else touching the future of large ML models. Nate's internet cut out, so this episode ends a little abruptly. Reach out with any questions to mail at retortai.com Some links: - night falls on the cumberlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Comes_to_the_Cumberlands - hillbilly elegy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy - wired piece on data https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-training-data-apple-nvidia-anthropic/ - nate's recent piece on AI regulation https://www.interconnects.ai/p/sb-1047-and-open-weights 00:00  Intro  01:19 Training Data and the Media  03:43 Norms, Power, and the Limits of Regulation 08:52 OpenAI's Business Model 12:33  Antitrust: The Essential Tool for Governing AI 17:11 Users as Afterthoughts 20:07 Depoliticizing AI  26:14  "Breaking Bad" & the AI Parallel 28:11  The "Little Tech" Agenda 31:03  Reframing the Narrative of Big Tech   32:20  "The Lean Startup" & AI's Uncertainty This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    35 min
  8. AI, feedback, and population public health

    06/28/2024

    AI, feedback, and population public health

    Tom and Nate revisit one of their old ideas -- AI through the lens of public health infrastructure, and especially alignment. Sorry about Tom's glitchy audio, I figured it out after the fact that he was talking into the microphone at the wrong angle. Regardless, here are some links for this week. Links: - Data foundry for AI https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-series-f  - Information piece on Scale AI ($) https://www.theinformation.com/articles/why-a-14-billion-startup-is-now-hiring-phds-to-train-ai-from-their-living-rooms?shared=168f685a864ca709  - ChatGPT compounding math: https://chatgpt.com/share/2c19a357-acb2-441d-8203-946b74ce785c  contact us at mail at retortai dot com 00:00 Intro 00:39 Chicago's Tech Scene and the "The Bear" 01:22 AI and Public Health: A New Framework 08:17 Lessons for AI from Sanitation Infrastructure 12:58 The Mental Health Impact of Generative AI 23:28 Aligning AI with Diverse Societal Values 27:06 Power Dynamics in AI's Development 33:02 The Need for a Neutral AI Research Body (NAIRR) 36:57 New Regulations for a New Era of AI 41:05 Outro: Join the Conversation This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com

    42 min
See All (38)

4.7
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Distilling the major events and challenges in the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, from Thomas Krendl Gilbert and Nathan Lambert. www.retortai.com

Information

  • Creator
    Nathan Lambert
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Nathan Lambert
  • Show Website
    The Retort AI Podcast

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada