Machine Intelligence

What makes machines intelligent — and how close are we to achieving it? Through interviews and explainers, this season probes the current state of AI, exploring both flashy applications and the deeper limitations of today’s models. From creative outputs to reasoning gaps, the focus is on evaluating how far machine intelligence has come, and what still separates algorithms from human cognition.

Episodes

AI Roundtable — Algorithms can produce impressive results while still leaving important questions unanswered. Friends and former guests Pramit Choudhary and Frank Bell to have an open discussion of the impacts LLMs a
Uncontrollable AI Risks — Understanding a model means looking at more than whether its answer was correct. Darren McKee, a Policy Advisor and the host of Reality Check — a critical thinking podcast. Darren gave a background ab
I LLM and You Can Too — It took a massive financial investment for the first large language models (LLMs) to be created. Did their corporate backers lock these tools away for all but the richest? No.
LLMs for Data Analysis — Amir Netz (Microsoft Technical Fellow and CTO of Microsoft Fabric) explains how Power BI and Microsoft Fabric fit into today’s business intelligence landscape, emphasizing Fabric’s end-to-end approach
AI Platforms — Understanding a model means looking at more than whether its answer was correct. Eric Boyd, the Corporate Vice President of AI at Microsoft. Eric joins us to share how organizations can leverage AI fo
Deploying LLMs — We are excited to be joined by Aaron Reich and Priyanka Shah. Aaron is the CTO at Avanade, while Priyanka leads their AI/IoT offering for the SEA Region. Priyanka is also the MVP for Microsoft AI. The
A Survey Assessing Github Copilot — Machine learning can make impressive predictions while raising equally important questions. We are joined by Jenny Liang, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studies the usability o
Program Aided Language Models — Program Aided Language Models turns out to be a useful lens for thinking about data in the real world. Aman Madaan and Shuyan Zhou. They are both PhD students at the Language Technology Institute at C
Which Programming Language is ChatGPT Best At — Which Programming Language is ChatGPT Best At is more complicated than it first appears. We have Alessio Buscemi, a software engineer at Lifeware SA. Alessio was a post-doctoral researcher at the Univ
GraphText — On the show today, we are joined by Jianan Zhao, a Computer Science student at Mila and the University of Montreal. His research focus is on graph databases and natural language processing. He joins u
arXiv Publication Patterns — Today, we are joined by Rajiv Movva, a PhD student in Computer Science at Cornell Tech University. His research interest lies in the intersection of responsible AI and computational social science. He
Do LLMs Make Ethical Choices — We are excited to be joined by Josh Albrecht, the CTO of Imbue. Imbue is a research company whose mission is to create AI agents that are more robust, safer, and easier to use. He joins us to share fi
Emergent Deception in LLMs — Behind a seemingly simple model result are choices about data, assumptions, and tradeoffs. We are joined by Thilo Hagendorff, a Research Group Leader of Ethics of Generative AI at the University of St
Agents with Theory of Mind Play Hanabi — Nieves Montes, a Ph.D. student at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, joins us. Her PhD research revolves around value-based reasoning in relation to norms. She shares
LLMs for Evil — Understanding a model means looking at more than whether its answer was correct. Maximilian Mozes, a PhD student at the University College, London. His PhD research focuses on Natural Language Process
The Defeat of the Winograd Schema Challenge — Behind a seemingly simple model result are choices about data, assumptions, and tradeoffs. Vid Kocijan, a Machine Learning Engineer at Kumo AI. Vid has a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of
LLMs in Social Science — Today, We are joined by Petter Törnberg, an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science at the University of Amsterdam and a Senior Researcher at the University of Neuchatel. His research is c
LLMs in Music Composition — LLMs in Music Composition is more complicated than it first appears. We are joined by Carlos Hernández Oliván, a Ph.D. student at the University of Zaragoza. Carlos’s interest focuses on building new
Cuttlefish Model Tuning — Hongyi Wang, a Senior Researcher at the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, joins us. His research is in the intersection of systems and machine learning. He discussed his resea
Which Professions Are Threatened by LLMs — Understanding a model means looking at more than whether its answer was correct. We have Daniel Rock, an Assistant Professor of Operations Information and Decisions at the Wharton School of the Univer
Why Prompting is Hard — We are excited to be joined by J.D. Zamfirescu-Pereira, a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley. He focuses on the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI). He joins us
Automated Peer Review — Automated Peer Review is more complicated than it first appears. We are joined by Ryan Liu, a Computer Science graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. Ryan will begin his Ph.D. program at Princeton Un
Prompt Refusal — The creators of large language models impose restrictions on some of the types of requests one might make of them. LLMs commonly refuse to give advice on committing crimes, producing adult content, or
A Long Way Till AGI — There is more going on in A Long Way Till AGI than first meets the eye. Maciej Świechowski. Maciej is affiliated with QED Software and QED Games.
Computable AGI — Computable AGI has a bigger story behind it than the title alone suggests. We are joined by Michael Timothy Bennett, a Ph.D. student at the Australian National University. Michael’s research is center
AGI Can Be Safe — Machine learning gets more interesting when we look past the prediction itself. Koen Holtman, an independent AI researcher focusing on AI safety. Koen is the Founder of Holtman Systems Research, a res
AI Fails on Theory of Mind Tasks — An assistant professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Tomer Ullman, joins us. Tomer discussed the theory of mind and whether machines can indeed pass it. Using variations of the Sally-Anne test
AI for Mathematics Education — The application of LLMs cuts across various industries. Today, we are joined by Steven Van Vaerenbergh, who discussed the application of AI in mathematics education. He discussed how AI tools have cha
Evaluating Jokes with LLMs — Fabricio Goes, a Lecturer in Creative Computing at the University of Leicester, joins us today. Fabricio discussed what creativity entails and how to evaluate jokes with LLMs. He specifically shared t
Why Machines Will Never Rule the World — Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe, authors of the book “Why Machines will never Rule the World,” join us today. They discussed the limitations of AI systems in today’s world. They also shared elaborate
A Psychopathological Approach to Safety in AGI — While the possibilities with AGI emergence seem great, it also calls for safety concerns. On the show, Vahid Behzadan, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Data Science, joins us to discuss