Category Archives: ai

Whitney Cummings: Comedy, Robotics, Neurology, and Love

Whitney Cummings is a stand-up comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, and the host of a new podcast called Good for You. Her most recent Netflix special called “Can I Touch It?” features in part a robot, she affectionately named Bearclaw, that is designed to be visually a replica of Whitney. It’s exciting for me to see one of my favorite comedians explore the social aspects of robotics and AI in our society. She also has some fascinating ideas about human behavior, psychology, and neurology, some of which she explores in her book called “I’m Fine…And Other Lies.”

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

The episode is also supported by ZipRecruiter. Try it: http://ziprecruiter.com/lexpod

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
03:51 – Eye contact
04:42 – Robot gender
08:49 – Whitney’s robot (Bearclaw)
12:17 – Human reaction to robots
14:09 – Fear of robots
25:15 – Surveillance
29:35 – Animals
35:01 – Compassion from people who own robots
37:55 – Passion
44:57 – Neurology
56:38 – Social media
1:04:35 – Love
1:13:40 – Mortality

Ray Dalio: Principles, the Economic Machine, Artificial Intelligence & the Arc of Life

Ray Dalio is the founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest and most successful investment firms that is famous for the principles of radical truth and transparency that underlie its culture. Ray is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with ideas that extend far beyond the specifics of how he made that wealth. His ideas, applicable to everyone, are brilliantly summarized in his book Principles.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
02:56 – Doing something that’s never been done before
08:39 – Shapers
13:28 – A Players
15:09 – Confidence and disagreement
17:10 – Don’t confuse dilusion with not knowing
24:38 – Idea meritocracy
27:39 – Is credit good for society?
32:59 – What is money?
37:13 – Bitcoin and digital currency
41:01 – The economic machine is amazing
46:24 – Principle for using AI
58:55 – Human irrationality
1:01:31 – Call for adventure at the edge of principles
1:03:26 – The line between madness and genius
1:04:30 – Automation
1:07:28 – American dream
1:14:02 – Can money buy happiness?
1:19:48 – Work-life balance and the arc of life
1:28:01 – Meaning of life

Noam Chomsky: Language, Cognition, and Deep Learning

Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest minds of our time and is one of the most cited scholars in history. He is a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. He has spent over 60 years at MIT and recently also joined the University of Arizona.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
03:59 – Common language with an alience species
05:46 – Structure of language
07:18 – Roots of language in our brain
08:51 – Language and thought
09:44 – The limit of human cognition
16:48 – Neuralink
19:32 – Deepest property of language
22:13 – Limits of deep learning
28:01 – Good and evil
29:52 – Memorable experiences
33:29 – Mortality
34:23 – Meaning of life

Gilbert Strang: Linear Algebra, Deep Learning, Teaching, and MIT OpenCourseWare

Gilbert Strang is a professor of mathematics at MIT and perhaps one of the most famous and impactful teachers of math in the world. His MIT OpenCourseWare lectures on linear algebra have been viewed millions of times.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it, use code LexPodcast. 

And it is supported by ZipRecruiter. Try it: http://ziprecruiter.com/lexpod

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
03:45 – Math rockstar
05:10 – MIT OpenCourseWare
07:29 – Four Fundamental Subspaces of Linear Algebra
13:11 – Linear Algebra vs Calculus
15:03 – Singular value decomposition
19:47 – Why people like math
23:38 – Teaching by example
25:04 – Andrew Yang
26:46 – Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
29:21 – Deep learning
37:28 – Theory vs application
38:54 – Open problems in mathematics
39:00 – Linear algebra as a subfield of mathematics
41:52 – Favorite matrix
46:19 – Advice for students on their journey through math
47:37 – Looking back

Dava Newman: Space Exploration, Space Suits, and Life on Mars

Dava Newman is the Apollo Program professor of AeroAstro at MIT and the former Deputy Administrator of NASA and has been a principal investigator on four spaceflight missions. Her research interests are in aerospace biomedical engineering, investigating human performance in varying gravity environments. She has developed a space activity suit, namely the BioSuit, which would provide pressure through compression directly on the skin via the suit’s textile weave, patterning, and materials rather than with pressurized gas.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it, use code LexPodcast. You get $10 and $10 is donated to FIRST, one of my favorite nonprofit organizations that inspires young minds through robotics and STEM education.

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
03:11 – Circumnavigating the globe by boat
05:11 – Exploration
07:17 – Life on Mars
11:07 – Intelligent life in the universe
12:25 – Advanced propulsion technology
13:32 – The Moon and NASA’s Artemis program
19:17 – SpaceX
21:45 – Science on a CubeSat
23:45 – Reusable rockets
25:23 – Spacesuit of the future
32:01 – AI in Space
35:31 – Interplanetary species
36:57 – Future of space exploration

Michael Kearns: Algorithmic Fairness, Bias, Privacy, and Ethics in Machine Learning

Michael Kearns is a professor at University of Pennsylvania and a co-author of the new book Ethical Algorithm that is the focus of much of our conversation, including algorithmic fairness, bias, privacy, and ethics in general. But, that is just one of many fields that Michael is a world-class researcher in, some of which we touch on quickly including learning theory or theoretical foundations of machine learning, game theory, algorithmic trading, quantitative finance, computational social science, and more.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon. This episode is sponsored by Pessimists Archive podcast. Here’s the outline with timestamps for this episode (on some players you can click on the timestamp to jump to that point in the episode):

00:00 – Introduction
02:45 – Influence from literature and journalism
07:39 – Are most people good?
13:05 – Ethical algorithm
24:28 – Algorithmic fairness of groups vs individuals
33:36 – Fairness tradeoffs
46:29 – Facebook, social networks, and algorithmic ethics
58:04 – Machine learning
58:05 – Machine learning
59:19 – Algorithm that determines what is fair
1:01:25 – Computer scientists should think about ethics
1:05:59 – Algorithmic privacy
1:11:50 – Differential privacy
1:19:10 – Privacy by misinformation
1:22:31 – Privacy of data in society
1:27:49 – Game theory
1:29:40 – Nash equilibrium
1:30:35 – Machine learning and game theory
1:34:52 – Mutual assured destruction
1:36:56 – Algorithmic trading
1:44:09 – Pivotal moment in graduate school

Elon Musk: Neuralink, AI, Autopilot, and the Pale Blue Dot

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and a co-founder of several other companies. This is the second time Elon has been on the podcast. You can watch the first time on YouTube or listen to the first time on its episode page. You can read the transcript (PDF) here. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon. Here’s the outline with timestamps for this episode (on some players you can click on the timestamp to jump to that point in the episode):

00:00 – Introduction
01:57 – Consciousness
05:58 – Regulation of AI Safety
09:39 – Neuralink – understanding the human brain
11:53 – Neuralink – expanding the capacity of the human mind
17:51 – Neuralink – future challenges, solutions, and impact
24:59 – Smart Summon
27:18 – Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving
31:16 – Carl Sagan and the Pale Blue Dot

Bjarne Stroustrup: C++

Bjarne Stroustrup is the creator of C++, a programming language that after 40 years is still one of the most popular and powerful languages in the world. Its focus on fast, stable, robust code underlies many of the biggest systems in the world that we have come to rely on as a society. If you’re watching this on YouTube, many of the critical back-end component of YouTube are written in C++. Same goes for Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, most Microsoft applications, Adobe applications, most database systems, and most physical systems that operate in the real-world like cars, robots, rockets that launch us into space and one day will land us on Mars.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon. Here’s the outline with timestamps for this episode (on some players you can click on the timestamp to jump to that point in the episode):

00:00 – Introduction
01:40 – First program
02:18 – Journey to C++
16:45 – Learning multiple languages
23:20 – Javascript
25:08 – Efficiency and reliability in C++
31:53 – What does good code look like?
36:45 – Static checkers
41:16 – Zero-overhead principle in C++
50:00 – Different implementation of C++
54:46 – Key features of C++
1:08:02 – C++ Concepts
1:18:06 – C++ Standards Process
1:28:05 – Constructors and destructors
1:31:52 – Unified theory of programming
1:44:20 – Proudest moment

Sean Carroll: Quantum Mechanics and the Many-Worlds Interpretation

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at Caltech and Santa Fe Institute specializing in quantum mechanics, arrow of time, cosmology, and gravitation. He is the author of Something Deeply Hidden and several popular books and he is the host of a great podcast called Mindscape. This is the second time Sean has been on the podcast. You can watch the first time on YouTube or listen to the first time on its episode page. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon. Here’s the outline with timestamps for this episode (on some players you can click on the timestamp to jump to that point in the episode):

00:00 – Introduction
01:23 – Capacity of human mind to understand physics
10:49 – Perception vs reality
12:29 – Conservation of momentum
17:20 – Difference between math and physics
20:10 – Why is our world so compressable
22:53 – What would Newton think of quantum mechanics
25:44 – What is quantum mechanics?
27:54 – What is an atom?
30:34 – What is the wave function?
32:30 – What is quantum entanglement?
35:19 – What is Hilbert space?
37:32 – What is entropy?
39:31 – Infinity
42:43 – Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
1:01:13 – Quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime
1:08:34 – Our branch of reality in many-worlds interpretation
1:10:40 – Time travel
1:12:54 – Arrow of time
1:16:18 – What is fundamental in physics
1:16:58 – Quantum computers
1:17:42 – Experimental validation of many-worlds and emergent spacetime
1:19:53 – Quantum mechanics and the human mind
1:21:51 – Mindscape podcast

Garry Kasparov: Chess, Deep Blue, AI, and Putin

Garry Kasparov is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, he dominated the chess world, ranking world number 1 for most of those 19 years. While he has many historic matches against human chess players, in the long arc of history he may be remembered for his match again a machine, IBM’s Deep Blue. His initial victories and eventual loss to Deep Blue captivated the imagination of the world of what role Artificial Intelligence systems may play in our civilization’s future. That excitement inspired an entire generation of AI researchers, including myself, to get into the field. Garry is also a pro-democracy political thinker and leader, a fearless human-rights activist, and author of several books including How Life Imitates Chess which is a book on strategy and decision-making, Winter Is Coming which is a book articulating his opposition to the Putin regime, and Deep Thinking which is a book the role of both artificial intelligence and human intelligence in defining our future. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon. Here’s the outline with timestamps for this episode (on some players you can click on the timestamp to jump to that point in the episode):

00:00 – Introduction
01:33 – Love of winning and hatred of losing
04:54 – Psychological elements
09:03 – Favorite games
16:48 – Magnus Carlsen
23:06 – IBM Deep Blue
37:39 – Morality
38:59 – Autonomous vehicles
42:03 – Fall of the Soviet Union
45:50 – Putin
52:25 – Life