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Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Welcome! We engage in fascinating discussions with pre-eminent figures in the AI field. Our flagship show covers current affairs in AI, cognitive science, neuroscience and philosophy of mind with in-depth analysis. Our approach is unrivalled in terms of scope and rigour – we believe in intellectual diversity in AI, and we touch on all of the main ideas in the field with the hype surgically removed. MLST is run by Tim Scarfe, Ph.D (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecsquizor/) and features regular appearances from MIT Doctor of Philosophy Keith Duggar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-keith-duggar/).

  • 257 episodes
  • Updated Friday

Episodes257

  • Oct 12, 2024 · 46 min

    It's Not About Scale, It's About Abstraction - Francois Chollet

    François Chollet discusses the limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs) and proposes a new approach to advancing artificial intelligence. He argues that current AI systems excel at pattern recognition but struggle with logical reasoning and true generalization. This was Chollet's keynote talk at AGI-24, filmed in high-quality. We will be releasing a full interview with him shortly. A teaser clip from that is played in the intro! Chollet introduces the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC) as a benchmark for measuring AI progress towards human-like intelligence. He explains the concept of abstraction in AI systems and proposes combining deep learning with program synthesis to overcome current limitations. Chollet suggests that breakthroughs in AI might come from outside major tech labs and encourages researchers to explore new ideas in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence. TOC 1. LLM Limitations and Intelligence Concepts [00:00:00] 1.1 LLM Limitations and Composition [00:12:05] 1.2 Intelligence as Process vs. Skill [00:17:15] 1.3 Generalization as Key to AI Progress 2. ARC-AGI Benchmark and LLM Performance [00:19:59] 2.1 Introduction to ARC-AGI Benchmark [00:20:05] 2.2 Introduction to ARC-AGI and the ARC Prize [00:23:35] 2.3 Performance of LLMs and Humans on ARC-AGI 3. Abstraction in AI Systems [00:26:10] 3.1 The Kaleidoscope Hypothesis and Abstraction Spectrum [00:30:05] 3.2 LLM Capabilities and Limitations in Abstraction [00:32:10] 3.3 Value-Centric vs Program-Centric Abstraction [00:33:25] 3.4 Types of Abstraction in AI Systems 4. Advancing AI: Combining Deep Learning and Program Synthesis [00:34:05] 4.1 Limitations of Transformers and Need for Program Synthesis [00:36:45] 4.2 Combining Deep Learning and Program Synthesis [00:39:59] 4.3 Applying Combined Approaches to ARC Tasks [00:44:20] 4.4 State-of-the-Art Solutions for ARC Shownotes (new!): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i7nsyoahuei6np95lbjxw/CholletKeynote.pdf?rlkey=t3502kbov5exsdxhderq70b9i&st=1ca91ewz&dl=0 [0:01:15] Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC): AI benchmark (François Chollet) https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.01547 [0:05:30] Monty Hall problem: Probability puzzle (Steve Selvin) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00031305.1975.10479121 [0:06:20] LLM training dynamics analysis (Tirumala et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.10770 [0:10:20] Transformer limitations on compositionality (Dziri et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18654 [0:10:25] Reversal Curse in LLMs (Berglund et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12288 [0:19:25] Measure of intelligence using algorithmic information theory (François Chollet) https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.01547 [0:20:10] ARC-AGI: GitHub repository (François Chollet) https://github.com/fchollet/ARC-AGI [0:22:15] ARC Prize: $1,000,000+ competition (François Chollet) https://arcprize.org/ [0:33:30] System 1 and System 2 thinking (Daniel Kahneman) https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555 [0:34:00] Core knowledge in infants (Elizabeth Spelke) https://www.harvardlds.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SpelkeKinzler07-1.pdf [0:34:30] Embedding interpretive spaces in ML (Tennenholtz et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.04475 [0:44:20] Hypothesis Search with LLMs for ARC (Wang et al.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05660 [0:44:50] Ryan Greenblatt's high score on ARC public leaderboard https://arcprize.org/

  • Oct 10, 2024 · 47 min

    Bold AI Predictions From Cohere Co-founder

    Ivan Zhang, co-founder of Cohere, discusses the company's enterprise-focused AI solutions. He explains Cohere's early emphasis on embedding technology and training models for secure environments. Zhang highlights their implementation of Retrieval-Augmented Generation in healthcare, significantly reducing doctor preparation time. He explores the shift from monolithic AI models to heterogeneous systems and the importance of improving various AI system components. Zhang shares insights on using synthetic data to teach models reasoning, the democratization of software development through AI, and how his gaming skills transfer to running an AI company. He advises young developers to fully embrace AI technologies and offers perspectives on AI reliability, potential risks, and future model architectures. https://cohere.com/ https://ivanzhang.ca/ https://x.com/1vnzh TOC: 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:20 AI & Language Model Evolution 00:06:09 Future AI Apps & Development 00:09:29 Impact on Software Dev Practices 00:13:03 Philosophical & Societal Implications 00:16:30 Compute Efficiency & RAG 00:20:39 Adoption Challenges & Solutions 00:22:30 GPU Optimization & Kubernetes Limits 00:24:16 Cohere's Implementation Approach 00:28:13 Gaming's Professional Influence 00:34:45 Transformer Optimizations 00:36:45 Future Models & System-Level Focus 00:39:20 Inference-Time Computation & Reasoning 00:42:05 Capturing Human Thought in AI 00:43:15 Research, Hiring & Developer Advice REFS: 00:02:31 Cohere, https://cohere.com/ 00:02:40 The Transformer architecture, https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 00:03:22 The Innovator's Dilemma, https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780 00:09:15 The actor model, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor_model 00:14:35 John Searle's Chinese Room Argument, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/ 00:18:00 Retrieval-Augmented Generation, https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401 00:18:40 Retrieval-Augmented Generation, https://docs.cohere.com/v2/docs/retrieval-augmented-generation-rag 00:35:39 Let’s Verify Step by Step, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.20050 00:39:20 Adaptive Inference-Time Compute, https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.02725 00:43:20 Ryan Greenblatt ARC entry, https://redwoodresearch.substack.com/p/getting-50-sota-on-arc-agi-with-gpt Disclaimer: This show is part of our Cohere partnership series

  • Oct 4, 2024 · 55 min

    Open-Ended AI: The Key to Superhuman Intelligence? - Prof. Tim Rocktäschel

    Prof. Tim Rocktäschel, AI researcher at UCL and Google DeepMind, talks about open-ended AI systems. These systems aim to keep learning and improving on their own, like evolution does in nature. Ad: Are you a hardcore ML engineer who wants to work for Daniel Cahn at SlingshotAI building AI for mental health? Give him an email! - danielc@slingshot.xyz TOC: 00:00:00 Introduction to Open-Ended AI and Key Concepts 00:01:37 Tim Rocktäschel's Background and Research Focus 00:06:25 Defining Open-Endedness in AI Systems 00:10:39 Subjective Nature of Interestingness and Learnability 00:16:22 Open-Endedness in Practice: Examples and Limitations 00:17:50 Assessing Novelty in Open-ended AI Systems 00:20:05 Adversarial Attacks and AI Robustness 00:24:05 Rainbow Teaming and LLM Safety 00:25:48 Open-ended Research Approaches in AI 00:29:05 Balancing Long-term Vision and Exploration in AI Research 00:37:25 LLMs in Program Synthesis and Open-Ended Learning 00:37:55 Transition from Human-Based to Novel AI Strategies 00:39:00 Expanding Context Windows and Prompt Evolution 00:40:17 AI Intelligibility and Human-AI Interfaces 00:46:04 Self-Improvement and Evolution in AI Systems Show notes (New!) https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5avpsyz8jbn4j1az7kevs/TimR.pdf?rlkey=pqjlcqbtm3undp4udtgfmie8n&st=x50u1d1m&dl=0 REFS: 00:01:47 - UCL DARK Lab (Rocktäschel) - AI research lab focusing on RL and open-ended learning - https://ucldark.com/ 00:02:31 - GENIE (Bruce) - Generative interactive environment from unlabelled videos - https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15391 00:02:42 - Promptbreeder (Fernando) - Self-referential LLM prompt evolution - https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.16797 00:03:05 - Picbreeder (Secretan) - Collaborative online image evolution - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1357054.1357328 00:03:14 - Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned (Stanley) - Book on open-ended exploration - https://www.amazon.com/Why-Greatness-Cannot-Planned-Objective/dp/3319155237 00:04:36 - NetHack Learning Environment (Küttler) - RL research in procedurally generated game - https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.13760 00:07:35 - Open-ended learning (Clune) - AI systems for continual learning and adaptation - https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.10985 00:07:35 - OMNI (Zhang) - LLMs modeling human interestingness for exploration - https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01711 00:10:42 - Observer theory (Wolfram) - Computationally bounded observers in complex systems - https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/12/observer-theory/ 00:15:25 - Human-Timescale Adaptation (Rocktäschel) - RL agent adapting to novel 3D tasks - https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07608 00:16:15 - Open-Endedness for AGI (Hughes) - Importance of open-ended learning for AGI - https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04268 00:16:35 - POET algorithm (Wang) - Open-ended approach to generate and solve challenges - https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.01753 00:17:20 - AlphaGo (Silver) - AI mastering the game of Go - https://deepmind.google/technologies/alphago/ 00:20:35 - Adversarial Go attacks (Dennis) - Exploiting weaknesses in Go AI systems - https://www.ifaamas.org/Proceedings/aamas2024/pdfs/p1630.pdf 00:22:00 - Levels of AGI (Morris) - Framework for categorizing AGI progress - https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.02462 00:24:30 - Rainbow Teaming (Samvelyan) - LLM-based adversarial prompt generation - https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16822 00:25:50 - Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned (Stanley) - 'False compass' and 'stepping stone collection' concepts - https://www.amazon.com/Why-Greatness-Cannot-Planned-Objective/dp/3319155237 00:27:45 - AI Debate (Khan) - Improving LLM truthfulness through debate - https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/khan24a.html 00:29:40 - Gemini (Google DeepMind) - Advanced multimodal AI model - https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/ 00:30:15 - How to Take Smart Notes (Ahrens) - Effective note-taking methodology - https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction/dp/1542866502 (truncated, see shownotes)

  • Oct 1, 2024 · 1 hr 37 min

    Ben Goertzel on "Superintelligence"

    Ben Goertzel discusses AGI development, transhumanism, and the potential societal impacts of superintelligent AI. He predicts human-level AGI by 2029 and argues that the transition to superintelligence could happen within a few years after. Goertzel explores the challenges of AI regulation, the limitations of current language models, and the need for neuro-symbolic approaches in AGI research. He also addresses concerns about resource allocation and cultural perspectives on transhumanism. TOC: [00:00:00] AGI Timeline Predictions and Development Speed [00:00:45] Limitations of Language Models in AGI Development [00:02:18] Current State and Trends in AI Research and Development [00:09:02] Emergent Reasoning Capabilities and Limitations of LLMs [00:18:15] Neuro-Symbolic Approaches and the Future of AI Systems [00:20:00] Evolutionary Algorithms and LLMs in Creative Tasks [00:21:25] Symbolic vs. Sub-Symbolic Approaches in AI [00:28:05] Language as Internal Thought and External Communication [00:30:20] AGI Development and Goal-Directed Behavior [00:35:51] Consciousness and AI: Expanding States of Experience [00:48:50] AI Regulation: Challenges and Approaches [00:55:35] Challenges in AI Regulation [00:59:20] AI Alignment and Ethical Considerations [01:09:15] AGI Development Timeline Predictions [01:12:40] OpenCog Hyperon and AGI Progress [01:17:48] Transhumanism and Resource Allocation Debate [01:20:12] Cultural Perspectives on Transhumanism [01:23:54] AGI and Post-Scarcity Society [01:31:35] Challenges and Implications of AGI Development New! PDF Show notes: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fyetzwgoaf70gpovyfc4x/BenGoertzel.pdf?rlkey=pze5dt9vgf01tf2wip32p5hk5&st=svbcofm3&dl=0 Refs: 00:00:15 Ray Kurzweil's AGI timeline prediction, Ray Kurzweil, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity 00:01:45 Ben Goertzel: SingularityNET founder, Ben Goertzel, https://singularitynet.io/ 00:02:35 AGI Conference series, AGI Conference Organizers, https://agi-conf.org/2024/ 00:03:55 Ben Goertzel's contributions to AGI, Wikipedia contributors, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goertzel 00:11:05 Chain-of-Thought prompting, Subbarao Kambhampati, https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04776 00:11:35 Algorithmic information content, Pieter Adriaans, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/information-entropy/ 00:12:10 Turing completeness in neural networks, Various contributors, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-machine/ 00:16:15 AlphaGeometry: AI for geometry problems, Trieu, Li, et al., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06747-5 00:18:25 Shane Legg and Ben Goertzel's collaboration, Shane Legg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Legg 00:20:00 Evolutionary algorithms in music generation, Yanxu Chen, https://arxiv.org/html/2409.03715v1 00:22:00 Peirce's theory of semiotics, Charles Sanders Peirce, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/ 00:28:10 Chomsky's view on language, Noam Chomsky, https://chomsky.info/1983____/ 00:34:05 Greg Egan's 'Diaspora', Greg Egan, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diaspora-post-apocalyptic-thriller-perfect-MIRROR/dp/0575082097 00:40:35 'The Consciousness Explosion', Ben Goertzel & Gabriel Axel Montes, https://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Explosion-Technological-Experiential-Singularity/dp/B0D8C7QYZD 00:41:55 Ray Kurzweil's books on singularity, Ray Kurzweil, https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889 00:50:50 California AI regulation bills, California State Senate, https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/news/senate-unanimously-approves-senator-padillas-artificial-intelligence-package 00:56:40 Limitations of Compute Thresholds, Sara Hooker, https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.05694 00:56:55 'Taming Silicon Valley', Gary F. Marcus, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768076/taming-silicon-valley-by-gary-f-marcus/ 01:09:15 Kurzweil's AGI prediction update, Ray Kurzweil, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/29/ray-kurzweil-google-ai-the-singularity-is-nearer

  • Sep 24, 2024 · 1 hr 56 min

    Taming Silicon Valley - Prof. Gary Marcus

    AI expert Prof. Gary Marcus doesn't mince words about today's artificial intelligence. He argues that despite the buzz, chatbots like ChatGPT aren't as smart as they seem and could cause real problems if we're not careful. Marcus is worried about tech companies putting profits before people. He thinks AI could make fake news and privacy issues even worse. He's also concerned that a few big tech companies have too much power. Looking ahead, Marcus believes the AI hype will die down as reality sets in. He wants to see AI developed in smarter, more responsible ways. His message to the public? We need to speak up and demand better AI before it's too late. Buy Taming Silicon Valley: https://amzn.to/3XTlC5s Gary Marcus: https://garymarcus.substack.com/ https://x.com/GaryMarcus Interviewer: Dr. Tim Scarfe (Refs in top comment) TOC [00:00:00] AI Flaws, Improvements & Industry Critique [00:16:29] AI Safety Theater & Image Generation Issues [00:23:49] AI's Lack of World Models & Human-like Understanding [00:31:09] LLMs: Superficial Intelligence vs. True Reasoning [00:34:45] AI in Specialized Domains: Chess, Coding & Limitations [00:42:10] AI-Generated Code: Capabilities & Human-AI Interaction [00:48:10] AI Regulation: Industry Resistance & Oversight Challenges [00:54:55] Copyright Issues in AI & Tech Business Models [00:57:26] AI's Societal Impact: Risks, Misinformation & Ethics [01:23:14] AI X-risk, Alignment & Moral Principles Implementation [01:37:10] Persistent AI Flaws: System Limitations & Architecture Challenges [01:44:33] AI Future: Surveillance Concerns, Economic Challenges & Neuro-Symbolic AI YT version with refs: https://youtu.be/o9MfuUoGlSw

  • Sep 18, 2024 · 1 hr 26 min

    Prof. Mark Solms - The Hidden Spring

    Prof. Mark Solms, a neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, discusses his groundbreaking work on consciousness, challenging conventional cortex-centric views and emphasizing the role of brainstem structures in generating consciousness and affect. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Key points discussed: The limitations of vision-centric approaches to consciousness studies. Evidence from decorticated animals and hydranencephalic children supporting the brainstem's role in consciousness. The relationship between homeostasis, the free energy principle, and consciousness. Critiques of behaviorism and modern theories of consciousness. The importance of subjective experience in understanding brain function. The discussion also explored broader topics: The potential impact of affect-based theories on AI development. The role of the SEEKING system in exploration and learning. Connections between neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and philosophy of mind. Challenges in studying consciousness and the limitations of current theories. Mark Solms: https://neuroscience.uct.ac.za/contacts/mark-solms Show notes and transcript: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/roipwmnlfmwk2e7kivzms/ACjZF-VIGC2-Suo30KcwVV0?rlkey=53y8v2cajfcgrf17p1h7v3suz&st=z8vu81hn&dl=0 TOC (*) are best bits 00:00:00 1. Intro: Challenging vision-centric approaches to consciousness * 00:02:20 2. Evidence from decorticated animals and hydranencephalic children * 00:07:40 3. Emotional responses in hydranencephalic children 00:10:40 4. Brainstem stimulation and affective states 00:15:00 5. Brainstem's role in generating affective consciousness * 00:21:50 6. Dual-aspect monism and the mind-brain relationship 00:29:37 7. Information, affect, and the hard problem of consciousness * 00:37:25 8. Wheeler's participatory universe and Chalmers' theories 00:48:51 9. Homeostasis, free energy principle, and consciousness * 00:59:25 10. Affect, voluntary behavior, and decision-making 01:05:45 11. Psychoactive substances, REM sleep, and consciousness research 01:12:14 12. Critiquing behaviorism and modern consciousness theories * 01:24:25 13. The SEEKING system and exploration in neuroscience Refs: 1. Mark Solms' book "The Hidden Spring" [00:20:34] (MUST READ!) https://amzn.to/3XyETb3 2. Karl Friston's free energy principle [00:03:50] https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2787 3. Hydranencephaly condition [00:07:10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydranencephaly 4. Periaqueductal gray (PAG) [00:08:57] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periaqueductal_gray 5. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) [00:13:52] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography 6. Paul MacLean's triune brain theory [00:03:30] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain 7. Baruch Spinoza's philosophy of mind [00:23:48] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza-epistemology-mind 8. Claude Shannon's "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" [00:32:15] https://people.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/others/shannon/entropy/entropy.pdf 9. Francis Crick's "The Astonishing Hypothesis" [00:39:57] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Astonishing_Hypothesis 10. Frank Jackson's Knowledge Argument [00:40:54] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/ 11. Mesolimbic dopamine system [01:11:51] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolimbic_pathway 12. Jaak Panksepp's SEEKING system [01:25:23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaak_Panksepp#Affective_neuroscience

  • Sep 16, 2024 · 1 hr 13 min

    Patrick Lewis (Cohere) - Retrieval Augmented Generation

    Dr. Patrick Lewis, who coined the term RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) and now works at Cohere, discusses the evolution of language models, RAG systems, and challenges in AI evaluation. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmented generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Key topics covered: - Origins and evolution of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) - Challenges in evaluating RAG systems and language models - Human-AI collaboration in research and knowledge work - Word embeddings and the progression to modern language models - Dense vs sparse retrieval methods in information retrieval The discussion also explored broader implications and applications: - Balancing faithfulness and fluency in RAG systems - User interface design for AI-augmented research tools - The journey from chemistry to AI research - Challenges in enterprise search compared to web search - The importance of data quality in training AI models Patrick Lewis: https://www.patricklewis.io/ Cohere Command Models, check them out - they are amazing for RAG! https://cohere.com/command TOC 00:00:00 1. Intro to RAG 00:05:30 2. RAG Evaluation: Poll framework & model performance 00:12:55 3. Data Quality: Cleanliness vs scale in AI training 00:15:13 4. Human-AI Collaboration: Research agents & UI design 00:22:57 5. RAG Origins: Open-domain QA to generative models 00:30:18 6. RAG Challenges: Info retrieval, tool use, faithfulness 00:42:01 7. Dense vs Sparse Retrieval: Techniques & trade-offs 00:47:02 8. RAG Applications: Grounding, attribution, hallucination prevention 00:54:04 9. UI for RAG: Human-computer interaction & model optimization 00:59:01 10. Word Embeddings: Word2Vec, GloVe, and semantic spaces 01:06:43 11. Language Model Evolution: BERT, GPT, and beyond 01:11:38 12. AI & Human Cognition: Sequential processing & chain-of-thought Refs: 1. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) paper / Patrick Lewis et al. [00:27:45] https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401 2. LAMA (LAnguage Model Analysis) probe / Petroni et al. [00:26:35] https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.01066 3. KILT (Knowledge Intensive Language Tasks) benchmark / Petroni et al. [00:27:05] https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.02252 4. Word2Vec algorithm / Tomas Mikolov et al. [01:00:25] https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.3781 5. GloVe (Global Vectors for Word Representation) / Pennington et al. [01:04:35] https://nlp.stanford.edu/projects/glove/ 6. BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) / Devlin et al. [01:08:00] https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.04805 7. 'The Language Game' book / Nick Chater and Morten H. Christiansen [01:11:40] https://amzn.to/4grEUpG Disclaimer: This is the sixth video from our Cohere partnership. We were not told what to say in the interview. Filmed in Seattle in June 2024.

  • Sep 13, 2024 · 25 min

    Ashley Edwards - Genie Paper (DeepMind/Runway)

    Ashley Edwards, who was working at DeepMind when she co-authored the Genie paper and is now at Runway, covered several key aspects of the Genie AI system and its applications in video generation, robotics, and game creation. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Genie's approach to learning interactive environments, balancing compression and fidelity. The use of latent action models and VQE models for video processing and tokenization. Challenges in maintaining action consistency across frames and integrating text-to-image models. Evaluation metrics for AI-generated content, such as FID and PS&R diff metrics. The discussion also explored broader implications and applications: The potential impact of AI video generation on content creation jobs. Applications of Genie in game generation and robotics. The use of foundation models in robotics and the differences between internet video data and specialized robotics data. Challenges in mapping AI-generated actions to real-world robotic actions. Ashley Edwards: https://ashedwards.github.io/ TOC (*) are best bits 00:00:00 1. Intro to Genie & Brave Search API: Trade-offs & limitations * 00:02:26 2. Genie's Architecture: Latent action, VQE, video processing * 00:05:06 3. Genie's Constraints: Frame consistency & image model integration 00:07:26 4. Evaluation: FID, PS&R diff metrics & latent induction methods 00:09:44 5. AI Video Gen: Content creation impact, depth & parallax effects 00:11:39 6. Model Scaling: Training data impact & computational trade-offs 00:13:50 7. Game & Robotics Apps: Gamification & action mapping challenges * 00:16:16 8. Robotics Foundation Models: Action space & data considerations * 00:19:18 9. Mask-GPT & Video Frames: Real-time optimization, RL from videos 00:20:34 10. Research Challenges: AI value, efficiency vs. quality, safety 00:24:20 11. Future Dev: Efficiency improvements & fine-tuning strategies Refs: 1. Genie (learning interactive environments from videos) / Ashley and DM collegues [00:01] https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15391 2. VQ-VAE (Vector Quantized Variational Autoencoder) / Aaron van den Oord, Oriol Vinyals, Koray Kavukcuoglu [02:43] https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.00937 3. FID (Fréchet Inception Distance) metric / Martin Heusel et al. [07:37] https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.08500 4. PS&R (Precision and Recall) metric / Mehdi S. M. Sajjadi et al. [08:02] https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.00035 5. Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture / Alexey Dosovitskiy et al. [12:14] https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.11929 6. Genie (robotics foundation models) / Google DeepMind [17:34] https://deepmind.google/research/publications/60474/ 7. Chelsea Finn's lab work on robotics datasets / Chelsea Finn [17:38] https://ai.stanford.edu/~cbfinn/ 8. Imitation from observation in reinforcement learning / YuXuan Liu [20:58] https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.03374 9. Waymo's autonomous driving technology / Waymo [22:38] https://waymo.com/ 10. Gen3 model release by Runway / Runway [23:48] https://runwayml.com/ 11. Classifier-free guidance technique / Jonathan Ho and Tim Salimans [24:43] https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.12598

  • Sep 12, 2024 · 1 hr 30 min

    Cohere's SVP Technology - Saurabh Baji

    Saurabh Baji discusses Cohere's approach to developing and deploying large language models (LLMs) for enterprise use. * Cohere focuses on pragmatic, efficient models tailored for business applications rather than pursuing the largest possible models. * They offer flexible deployment options, from cloud services to on-premises installations, to meet diverse enterprise needs. * Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is highlighted as a critical capability, allowing models to leverage enterprise data securely. * Cohere emphasizes model customization, fine-tuning, and tools like reranking to optimize performance for specific use cases. * The company has seen significant growth, transitioning from developer-focused to enterprise-oriented services. * Major customers like Oracle, Fujitsu, and TD Bank are using Cohere's models across various applications, from HR to finance. * Baji predicts a surge in enterprise AI adoption over the next 12-18 months as more companies move from experimentation to production. * He emphasizes the importance of trust, security, and verifiability in enterprise AI applications. The interview provides insights into Cohere's strategy, technology, and vision for the future of enterprise AI adoption. https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurabhbaji/ https://x.com/sbaji https://cohere.com/ https://cohere.com/business MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. TOC (*) are best bits 00:00:00 1. Introduction and Background 00:04:24 2. Cloud Infrastructure and LLM Optimization 00:06:43 2.1 Model deployment and fine-tuning strategies * 00:09:37 3. Enterprise AI Deployment Strategies 00:11:10 3.1 Retrieval-augmented generation in enterprise environments * 00:13:40 3.2 Standardization vs. customization in cloud services * 00:18:20 4. AI Model Evaluation and Deployment 00:18:20 4.1 Comprehensive evaluation frameworks * 00:21:20 4.2 Key components of AI model stacks * 00:25:50 5. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in Enterprise 00:32:10 5.1 Pragmatic approach to RAG implementation * 00:33:45 6. AI Agents and Tool Integration 00:33:45 6.1 Leveraging tools for AI insights * 00:35:30 6.2 Agent-based AI systems and diagnostics * 00:42:55 7. AI Transparency and Reasoning Capabilities 00:49:10 8. AI Model Training and Customization 00:57:10 9. Enterprise AI Model Management 01:02:10 9.1 Managing AI model versions for enterprise customers * 01:04:30 9.2 Future of language model programming * 01:06:10 10. AI-Driven Software Development 01:06:10 10.1 AI bridging human expression and task achievement * 01:08:00 10.2 AI-driven virtual app fabrics in enterprise * 01:13:33 11. Future of AI and Enterprise Applications 01:21:55 12. Cohere's Customers and Use Cases 01:21:55 12.1 Cohere's growth and enterprise partnerships * 01:27:14 12.2 Diverse customers using generative AI * 01:27:50 12.3 Industry adaptation to generative AI * 01:29:00 13. Technical Advantages of Cohere Models 01:29:00 13.1 Handling large context windows * 01:29:40 13.2 Low latency impact on developer productivity * Disclaimer: This is the fifth video from our Cohere partnership. We were not told what to say in the interview, and didn't edit anything out from the interview. Filmed in Seattle in Aug 2024.

  • Sep 10, 2024 · 53 min

    David Hanson's Vision for Sentient Robots

    David Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics and creator of the humanoid robot Sofia, explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, and human potential. In this thought-provoking interview, Hanson discusses his vision for developing AI systems that embody the best aspects of humanity while pushing beyond our current limitations, aiming to achieve what he calls "super wisdom." YT version: https://youtu.be/LFCIEhlsozU MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. The interview with David Hanson covers: The importance of incorporating biological drives and compassion into AI systems Hanson's concept of "existential pattern ethics" as a basis for AI morality The potential for AI to enhance human intelligence and wisdom Challenges in developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) The need to democratize AI technologies globally Potential future advancements in human-AI integration and their societal impacts Concerns about technological augmentation exacerbating inequality The role of ethics in guiding AI development and deployment Hanson advocates for creating AI systems that embody the best aspects of humanity while surpassing current human limitations, aiming for "super wisdom" rather than just artificial super intelligence. David Hanson: https://www.hansonrobotics.com/david-hanson/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u1O954cMmE TOC 1. Introduction and Background [00:00:00] 1.1. David Hanson's interdisciplinary background [0:01:49] 1.2. Introduction to Sofia, the realistic robot [0:03:27] 2. Human Cognition and AI [0:03:50] 2.1. Importance of social interaction in cognition [0:03:50] 2.2. Compassion as distinguishing factor [0:05:55] 2.3. AI augmenting human intelligence [0:09:54] 3. Developing Human-like AI [0:13:17] 3.1. Incorporating biological drives in AI [0:13:17] 3.2. Creating AI with agency [0:20:34] 3.3. Implementing flexible desires in AI [0:23:23] 4. Ethics and Morality in AI [0:27:53] 4.1. Enhancing humanity through AI [0:27:53] 4.2. Existential pattern ethics [0:30:14] 4.3. Expanding morality beyond restrictions [0:35:35] 5. Societal Impact of AI [0:38:07] 5.1. AI adoption and integration [0:38:07] 5.2. Democratizing AI technologies [0:38:32] 5.3. Human-AI integration and identity [0:43:37] 6. Future Considerations [0:50:03] 6.1. Technological augmentation and inequality [0:50:03] 6.2. Emerging technologies for mental health [0:50:32] 6.3. Corporate ethics in AI development [0:52:26] This was filmed at AGI-24

  • Sep 5, 2024 · 46 min

    The Fabric of Knowledge - David Spivak

    David Spivak, a mathematician known for his work in category theory, discusses a wide range of topics related to intelligence, creativity, and the nature of knowledge. He explains category theory in simple terms and explores how it relates to understanding complex systems and relationships. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. We discuss abstract concepts like collective intelligence, the importance of embodiment in understanding the world, and how we acquire and process knowledge. Spivak shares his thoughts on creativity, discussing where it comes from and how it might be modeled mathematically. A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence on human thinking and its potential role in the evolution of intelligence. Spivak also touches on the importance of language, particularly written language, in transmitting knowledge and shaping our understanding of the world. David Spivak http://www.dspivak.net/ TOC: 00:00:00 Introduction to category theory and functors 00:04:40 Collective intelligence and sense-making 00:09:54 Embodiment and physical concepts in knowledge acquisition 00:16:23 Creativity, open-endedness, and AI's impact on thinking 00:25:46 Modeling creativity and the evolution of intelligence 00:36:04 Evolution, optimization, and the significance of AI 00:44:14 Written language and its impact on knowledge transmission REFS: Mike Levin's work https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=luouyakAAAAJ&hl=en Eric Smith's videos on complexity and early life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpJZw-68QyE Richard Dawkins' book "The Selfish Gene" https://amzn.to/3X73X8w Carl Sagan's statement about the cosmos knowing itself https://amzn.to/3XhPruK Herbert Simon's concept of "satisficing" https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bounded-rationality/ DeepMind paper on open-ended systems https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04268 Karl Friston's work on active inference https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5299/Active-InferenceThe-Free-Energy-Principle-in-Mind MIT category theory lectures by David Spivak (available on the Topos Institute channel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UusLtx9fIjs

  • Aug 28, 2024 · 1 hr 39 min

    Jürgen Schmidhuber - Neural and Non-Neural AI, Reasoning, Transformers, and LSTMs

    Jürgen Schmidhuber, the father of generative AI shares his groundbreaking work in deep learning and artificial intelligence. In this exclusive interview, he discusses the history of AI, some of his contributions to the field, and his vision for the future of intelligent machines. Schmidhuber offers unique insights into the exponential growth of technology and the potential impact of AI on humanity and the universe. YT version: https://youtu.be/DP454c1K_vQ MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. TOC 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:38 Reasoning 00:13:09 Potential AI Breakthroughs Reducing Computation Needs 00:20:39 Memorization vs. Generalization in AI 00:25:19 Approach to the ARC Challenge 00:29:10 Perceptions of Chat GPT and AGI 00:58:45 Abstract Principles of Jurgen's Approach 01:04:17 Analogical Reasoning and Compression 01:05:48 Breakthroughs in 1991: the P, the G, and the T in ChatGPT and Generative AI 01:15:50 Use of LSTM in Language Models by Tech Giants 01:21:08 Neural Network Aspect Ratio Theory 01:26:53 Reinforcement Learning Without Explicit Teachers Refs: ★ "Annotated History of Modern AI and Deep Learning" (2022 survey by Schmidhuber): ★ Chain Rule For Backward Credit Assignment (Leibniz, 1676) ★ First Neural Net / Linear Regression / Shallow Learning (Gauss & Legendre, circa 1800) ★ First 20th Century Pioneer of Practical AI (Quevedo, 1914) ★ First Recurrent NN (RNN) Architecture (Lenz, Ising, 1920-1925) ★ AI Theory: Fundamental Limitations of Computation and Computation-Based AI (Gödel, 1931-34) ★ Unpublished ideas about evolving RNNs (Turing, 1948) ★ Multilayer Feedforward NN Without Deep Learning (Rosenblatt, 1958) ★ First Published Learning RNNs (Amari and others, ~1972) ★ First Deep Learning (Ivakhnenko & Lapa, 1965) ★ Deep Learning by Stochastic Gradient Descent (Amari, 1967-68) ★ ReLUs (Fukushima, 1969) ★ Backpropagation (Linnainmaa, 1970); precursor (Kelley, 1960) ★ Backpropagation for NNs (Werbos, 1982) ★ First Deep Convolutional NN (Fukushima, 1979); later combined with Backprop (Waibel 1987, Zhang 1988). ★ Metalearning or Learning to Learn (Schmidhuber, 1987) ★ Generative Adversarial Networks / Artificial Curiosity / NN Online Planners (Schmidhuber, Feb 1990; see the G in Generative AI and ChatGPT) ★ NNs Learn to Generate Subgoals and Work on Command (Schmidhuber, April 1990) ★ NNs Learn to Program NNs: Unnormalized Linear Transformer (Schmidhuber, March 1991; see the T in ChatGPT) ★ Deep Learning by Self-Supervised Pre-Training. Distilling NNs (Schmidhuber, April 1991; see the P in ChatGPT) ★ Experiments with Pre-Training; Analysis of Vanishing/Exploding Gradients, Roots of Long Short-Term Memory / Highway Nets / ResNets (Hochreiter, June 1991, further developed 1999-2015 with other students of Schmidhuber) ★ LSTM journal paper (1997, most cited AI paper of the 20th century) ★ xLSTM (Hochreiter, 2024) ★ Reinforcement Learning Prompt Engineer for Abstract Reasoning and Planning (Schmidhuber 2015) ★ Mindstorms in Natural Language-Based Societies of Mind (2023 paper by Schmidhuber's team) https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.17066 ★ Bremermann's physical limit of computation (1982) EXTERNAL LINKS CogX 2018 - Professor Juergen Schmidhuber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17shdT9-wuA Discovering Neural Nets with Low Kolmogorov Complexity and High Generalization Capability (Neural Networks, 1997) https://sferics.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/loconet.pdf The paradox at the heart of mathematics: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem - Marcus du Sautoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4pQbo5MQOs (Refs truncated, full version on YT VD)

  • Aug 25, 2024 · 2 hr 12 min

    "AI should NOT be regulated at all!" - Prof. Pedro Domingos

    Professor Pedro Domingos, is an AI researcher and professor of computer science. He expresses skepticism about current AI regulation efforts and argues for faster AI development rather than slowing it down. He also discusses the need for new innovations to fulfil the promises of current AI techniques. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmented generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Show notes: * Domingos' views on AI regulation and why he believes it's misguided * His thoughts on the current state of AI technology and its limitations * Discussion of his novel "2040", a satirical take on AI and tech culture * Explanation of his work on "tensor logic", which aims to unify neural networks and symbolic AI * Critiques of other approaches in AI, including those of OpenAI and Gary Marcus * Thoughts on the AI "bubble" and potential future developments in the field Prof. Pedro Domingos: https://x.com/pmddomingos 2040: A Silicon Valley Satire [Pedro's new book] https://amzn.to/3T51ISd TOC: 00:00:00 Intro 00:06:31 Bio 00:08:40 Filmmaking skit 00:10:35 AI and the wisdom of crowds 00:19:49 Social Media 00:27:48 Master algorithm 00:30:48 Neurosymbolic AI / abstraction 00:39:01 Language 00:45:38 Chomsky 01:00:49 2040 Book 01:18:03 Satire as a shield for criticism? 01:29:12 AI Regulation 01:35:15 Gary Marcus 01:52:37 Copyright 01:56:11 Stochastic parrots come home to roost 02:00:03 Privacy 02:01:55 LLM ecosystem 02:05:06 Tensor logic Refs: The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World [Pedro Domingos] https://amzn.to/3MiWs9B Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust [Gary Marcus] https://amzn.to/3AAywvL Flash Boys [Michael Lewis] https://amzn.to/4dUGm1M

  • Aug 22, 2024 · 1 hr 28 min

    Adversarial Examples and Data Modelling - Andrew Ilyas (MIT)

    Andrew Ilyas, a PhD student at MIT who is about to start as a professor at CMU. We discuss Data modeling and understanding how datasets influence model predictions, Adversarial examples in machine learning and why they occur, Robustness in machine learning models, Black box attacks on machine learning systems, Biases in data collection and dataset creation, particularly in ImageNet and Self-selection bias in data and methods to address it. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api Andrew's site: https://andrewilyas.com/ https://x.com/andrew_ilyas TOC: 00:00:00 - Introduction and Andrew's background 00:03:52 - Overview of the machine learning pipeline 00:06:31 - Data modeling paper discussion 00:26:28 - TRAK: Evolution of data modeling work 00:43:58 - Discussion on abstraction, reasoning, and neural networks 00:53:16 - "Adversarial Examples Are Not Bugs, They Are Features" paper 01:03:24 - Types of features learned by neural networks 01:10:51 - Black box attacks paper 01:15:39 - Work on data collection and bias 01:25:48 - Future research plans and closing thoughts References: Adversarial Examples Are Not Bugs, They Are Features https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.02175 TRAK: Attributing Model Behavior at Scale https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.14186 Datamodels: Predicting Predictions from Training Data https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.00622 Adversarial Examples Are Not Bugs, They Are Features https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.02175 IMAGENET-TRAINED CNNS https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.12231 ZOO: Zeroth Order Optimization Based Black-box https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.03999 A Spline Theory of Deep Networks https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/balestriero18b/balestriero18b.pdf Scaling Monosemanticity https://transformer-circuits.pub/2024/scaling-monosemanticity/ Adversarial Examples Are Not Bugs, They Are Features https://gradientscience.org/adv/ Adversarial Robustness Limits via Scaling-Law and Human-Alignment Studies https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/bartoldson24a.html Prior Convictions: Black-Box Adversarial Attacks with Bandits and Priors https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07978 Estimation of Standard Auction Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02060 From ImageNet to Image Classification: Contextualizing Progress on Benchmarks https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11295 Estimation of Standard Auction Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02060 What Makes A Good Fisherman? Linear Regression under Self-Selection Bias https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.03246 Towards Tracing Factual Knowledge in Language Models Back to the Training Data [Akyürek] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.11482

  • Aug 21, 2024 · 57 min

    Joscha Bach - AGI24 Keynote (Cyberanimism)

    Dr. Joscha Bach introduces a surprising idea called "cyber animism" in his AGI-24 talk - the notion that nature might be full of self-organizing software agents, similar to the spirits in ancient belief systems. Bach suggests that consciousness could be a kind of software running on our brains, and wonders if similar "programs" might exist in plants or even entire ecosystems. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Joscha takes us on a tour de force through history, philosophy, and cutting-edge computer science, teasing us to rethink what we know about minds, machines, and the world around us. Joscha believes we should blur the lines between human, artificial, and natural intelligence, and argues that consciousness might be more widespread and interconnected than we ever thought possible. Dr. Joscha Bach https://x.com/Plinz This is video 2/9 from our coverage of AGI-24 in Seattle https://agi-conf.org/2024/ Watch the official MLST interview with Joscha which we did right after this talk on our Patreon now on early access - https://www.patreon.com/posts/joscha-bach-110199676 (you also get access to our private discord and biweekly calls) TOC: 00:00:00 Introduction: AGI and Cyberanimism 00:03:57 The Nature of Consciousness 00:08:46 Aristotle's Concepts of Mind and Consciousness 00:13:23 The Hard Problem of Consciousness 00:16:17 Functional Definition of Consciousness 00:20:24 Comparing LLMs and Human Consciousness 00:26:52 Testing for Consciousness in AI Systems 00:30:00 Animism and Software Agents in Nature 00:37:02 Plant Consciousness and Ecosystem Intelligence 00:40:36 The California Institute for Machine Consciousness 00:44:52 Ethics of Conscious AI and Suffering 00:46:29 Philosophical Perspectives on Consciousness 00:49:55 Q&A: Formalisms for Conscious Systems 00:53:27 Coherence, Self-Organization, and Compute Resources YT version (very high quality, filmed by us live) https://youtu.be/34VOI_oo-qM Refs: Aristotle's work on the soul and consciousness Richard Dawkins' work on genes and evolution Gerald Edelman's concept of Neural Darwinism Thomas Metzinger's book "Being No One" Yoshua Bengio's concept of the "consciousness prior" Stuart Hameroff's theories on microtubules and consciousness Christof Koch's work on consciousness Daniel Dennett's "Cartesian Theater" concept Giulio Tononi's Integrated Information Theory Mike Levin's work on organismal intelligence The concept of animism in various cultures Freud's model of the mind Buddhist perspectives on consciousness and meditation The Genesis creation narrative (for its metaphorical interpretation) California Institute for Machine Consciousness

  • Aug 17, 2024 · 1 hr 12 min

    Gary Marcus' keynote at AGI-24

    Prof Gary Marcus revisited his keynote from AGI-21, noting that many of the issues he highlighted then are still relevant today despite significant advances in AI. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Gary Marcus criticized current large language models (LLMs) and generative AI for their unreliability, tendency to hallucinate, and inability to truly understand concepts. Marcus argued that the AI field is experiencing diminishing returns with current approaches, particularly the "scaling hypothesis" that simply adding more data and compute will lead to AGI. He advocated for a hybrid approach to AI that combines deep learning with symbolic AI, emphasizing the need for systems with deeper conceptual understanding. Marcus highlighted the importance of developing AI with innate understanding of concepts like space, time, and causality. He expressed concern about the moral decline in Silicon Valley and the rush to deploy potentially harmful AI technologies without adequate safeguards. Marcus predicted a possible upcoming "AI winter" due to inflated valuations, lack of profitability, and overhyped promises in the industry. He stressed the need for better regulation of AI, including transparency in training data, full disclosure of testing, and independent auditing of AI systems. Marcus proposed the creation of national and global AI agencies to oversee the development and deployment of AI technologies. He concluded by emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, focusing on robust AI with deep understanding, and implementing smart, agile governance for AI and AGI. YT Version (very high quality filmed) https://youtu.be/91SK90SahHc Pre-order Gary's new book here: Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us https://amzn.to/4fO46pY Filmed at the AGI-24 conference: https://agi-conf.org/2024/ TOC: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:34 Introduction by Ben G 00:05:17 Gary Marcus begins talk 00:07:38 Critiquing current state of AI 00:12:21 Lack of progress on key AI challenges 00:16:05 Continued reliability issues with AI 00:19:54 Economic challenges for AI industry 00:25:11 Need for hybrid AI approaches 00:29:58 Moral decline in Silicon Valley 00:34:59 Risks of current generative AI 00:40:43 Need for AI regulation and governance 00:49:21 Concluding thoughts 00:54:38 Q&A: Cycles of AI hype and winters 01:00:10 Predicting a potential AI winter 01:02:46 Discussion on interdisciplinary approach 01:05:46 Question on regulating AI 01:07:27 Ben G's perspective on AI winter

  • Aug 15, 2024 · 32 min

    Is ChatGPT an N-gram model on steroids?

    DeepMind Research Scientist / MIT scholar Dr. Timothy Nguyen discusses his recent paper on understanding transformers through n-gram statistics. Nguyen explains his approach to analyzing transformer behavior using a kind of "template matching" (N-grams), providing insights into how these models process and predict language. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Key points covered include: A method for describing transformer predictions using n-gram statistics without relying on internal mechanisms. The discovery of a technique to detect overfitting in large language models without using holdout sets. Observations on curriculum learning, showing how transformers progress from simpler to more complex rules during training. Discussion of distance measures used in the analysis, particularly the variational distance. Exploration of model sizes, training dynamics, and their impact on the results. We also touch on philosophical aspects of describing versus explaining AI behavior, and the challenges in understanding the abstractions formed by neural networks. Nguyen concludes by discussing potential future research directions, including attempts to convert descriptions of transformer behavior into explanations of internal mechanisms. Timothy Nguyen's earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Caltech and MIT, respectively. He held positions as Research Assistant Professor at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (2011-2014) and Visiting Assistant Professor at Michigan State University (2014-2017). During this time, his research expanded into high-energy physics, focusing on mathematical problems in quantum field theory. His work notably provided a simplified and corrected formulation of perturbative path integrals. Since 2017, Nguyen has been working in industry, applying his expertise to machine learning. He is currently at DeepMind, where he contributes to both fundamental research and practical applications of deep learning to solve real-world problems. Refs: The Cartesian Cafe https://www.youtube.com/@TimothyNguyen Understanding Transformers via N-Gram Statistics https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382204056_Understanding_Transformers_via_N-Gram_Statistics TOC 00:00:00 Timothy Nguyen's background 00:02:50 Paper overview: transformers and n-gram statistics 00:04:55 Template matching and hash table approach 00:08:55 Comparing templates to transformer predictions 00:12:01 Describing vs explaining transformer behavior 00:15:36 Detecting overfitting without holdout sets 00:22:47 Curriculum learning in training 00:26:32 Distance measures in analysis 00:28:58 Model sizes and training dynamics 00:30:39 Future research directions 00:32:06 Conclusion and future topics

  • Aug 11, 2024 · 57 min

    Jay Alammar on LLMs, RAG, and AI Engineering

    Jay Alammar, renowned AI educator and researcher at Cohere, discusses the latest developments in large language models (LLMs) and their applications in industry. Jay shares his expertise on retrieval augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, and the future of AI architectures. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Cohere Command R model series: https://cohere.com/command Jay Alamaar: https://x.com/jayalammar Buy Jay's new book here! Hands-On Large Language Models: Language Understanding and Generation https://amzn.to/4fzOUgh TOC: 00:00:00 Introduction to Jay Alammar and AI Education 00:01:47 Cohere's Approach to RAG and AI Re-ranking 00:07:15 Implementing AI in Enterprise: Challenges and Solutions 00:09:26 Jay's Role at Cohere and the Importance of Learning in Public 00:15:16 The Evolution of AI in Industry: From Deep Learning to LLMs 00:26:12 Expert Advice for Newcomers in Machine Learning 00:32:39 The Power of Semantic Search and Embeddings in AI Systems 00:37:59 Jay Alammar's Journey as an AI Educator and Visualizer 00:43:36 Visual Learning in AI: Making Complex Concepts Accessible 00:47:38 Strategies for Keeping Up with Rapid AI Advancements 00:49:12 The Future of Transformer Models and AI Architectures 00:51:40 Evolution of the Transformer: From 2017 to Present 00:54:19 Preview of Jay's Upcoming Book on Large Language Models Disclaimer: This is the fourth video from our Cohere partnership. We were not told what to say in the interview, and didn't edit anything out from the interview. Note also that this combines several previously unpublished interviews from Jay into one, the earlier one at Tim's house was shot in Aug 2023, and the more recent one in Toronto in May 2024. Refs: The Illustrated Transformer https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-transformer/ Attention Is All You Need https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/ Neural Networks in 11 Lines of Code https://iamtrask.github.io/2015/07/12/basic-python-network/ Understanding LSTM Networks (Chris Olah's blog post) http://colah.github.io/posts/2015-08-Understanding-LSTMs/ Luis Serrano's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBncpylJ1kiVaPyP-PZauQ Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.10084 GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-gpt2/ https://openai.com/research/gpt-4 BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-bert/ https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.04805 RoPE (Rotary Positional Encoding) https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.09864 (Linked paper discussing rotary embeddings) Grouped Query Attention https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.13245 RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) https://openai.com/research/learning-from-human-preferences https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03741 DPO (Direct Preference Optimization) https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18290

  • Aug 8, 2024 · 2 hr 14 min

    Can AI therapy be more effective than drugs?

    Daniel Cahn, co-founder of Slingshot AI, on the potential of AI in therapy. Why is anxiety and depression affecting a large population? To what extent are these real categories? Why is the mental health getting worse? How often do you want an AI to agree with you? What are the ethics of persuasive AI? You will discover all in this conversation. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. Daniel Cahn (who is also hiring ML engineers by the way!) https://x.com/thecahnartist?lang=en / cahnd https://thinkingmachinespodcast.com/ TOC: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:56 Therapy effectiveness vs drugs and societal implications 00:04:02 Mental health categories: Iatrogenesis and social constructs 00:10:19 Psychiatric treatment models and cognitive perspectives 00:13:30 AI design and human-like interactions: Intentionality debates 00:20:04 AI in therapy: Ethics, anthropomorphism, and loneliness mitigation 00:28:13 Therapy efficacy: Neuroplasticity, suffering, and AI placebos 00:33:29 AI's impact on human agency and cognitive modeling 00:41:17 Social media's effects on brain structure and behavior 00:50:46 AI ethics: Altering values and free will considerations 01:00:00 Work value perception and personal identity formation 01:13:37 Free will, agency, and mutable personal identity in therapy 01:24:27 AI in healthcare: Challenges, ethics, and therapy improvements 01:53:25 AI development: Societal impacts and cultural implications Full references on YT VD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hwX6OZyNC0 (and baked into mp3 metadata)

  • Jul 29, 2024 · 1 hr 42 min

    Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati - LLMs don't reason, they memorize (ICML2024 2/13)

    Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati argues that while LLMs are impressive and useful tools, especially for creative tasks, they have fundamental limitations in logical reasoning and cannot provide guarantees about the correctness of their outputs. He advocates for hybrid approaches that combine LLMs with external verification systems. MLST is sponsored by Brave: The Brave Search API covers over 20 billion webpages, built from scratch without Big Tech biases or the recent extortionate price hikes on search API access. Perfect for AI model training and retrieval augmentated generation. Try it now - get 2,000 free queries monthly at http://brave.com/api. TOC (sorry the ones baked into the MP3 were wrong apropos due to LLM hallucination!) [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:06] Bio [00:03:02] LLMs are n-gram models on steroids [00:07:26] Is natural language a formal language? [00:08:34] Natural language is formal? [00:11:01] Do LLMs reason? [00:19:13] Definition of reasoning [00:31:40] Creativity in reasoning [00:50:27] Chollet's ARC challenge [01:01:31] Can we reason without verification? [01:10:00] LLMs cant solve some tasks [01:19:07] LLM Modulo framework [01:29:26] Future trends of architecture [01:34:48] Future research directions Youtube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1WnHpedi2A Refs: (we didn't have space for URLs here, check YT video description instead) Can LLMs Really Reason and Plan? On the Planning Abilities of Large Language Models : A Critical Investigation Chain of Thoughtlessness? An Analysis of CoT in Planning On the Self-Verification Limitations of Large Language Models on Reasoning and Planning Tasks LLMs Can't Plan, But Can Help Planning in LLM-Modulo Frameworks Embers of Autoregression: Understanding Large Language Models Through the Problem They are Trained to Solve "Task Success" is not Enough Partition function (number theory) (Srinivasa Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy's work) Poincaré conjecture Gödel's incompleteness theorems ROT13 (Rotate13, "rotate by 13 places") A Mathematical Theory of Communication (C. E. SHANNON) Sparks of AGI Kambhampati thesis on speech recognition (1983) PlanBench: An Extensible Benchmark for Evaluating Large Language Models on Planning and Reasoning about Change Explainable human-AI interaction Tree of Thoughts On the Measure of Intelligence (ARC Challenge) Getting 50% (SoTA) on ARC-AGI with GPT-4o (Ryan Greenblatt ARC solution) PROGRAMS WITH COMMON SENSE (John McCarthy) - "AI should be an advice taker program" Original chain of thought paper ICAPS 2024 Keynote: Dale Schuurmans on "Computing and Planning with Large Generative Models" (COT) The Hardware Lottery (Hooker) A Path Towards Autonomous Machine Intelligence (JEPA/LeCun) AlphaGeometry FunSearch Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models Language models are not naysayers (Negation in LLMs) The Reversal Curse: LLMs trained on "A is B" fail to learn "B is A" Embracing negative results