"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Join Nathan for an expansive conversation with Dan Hendrycks, Executive Director of the Center for AI Safety and Advisor to Elon Musk's XAI. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we explore Dan's groundbreaking work in AI safety and alignment, from his early contributions to activation functions to his recent projects on AI robustness and governance. Discover insights on representation engi...

In this special crossover episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan introduces a conversation from The Inside View featuring Owain Evans, AI alignment researcher at UC Berkeley's Center for Human Compatible AI. Evans and host Michael Trazzi delve into critical AI safety topics, including situational awareness and out-of-context reasoning. Discover Evans' groundbreaking work on the reversal curse...

Nathan hosts Professor Michael Levin and Staff Scientist Dr. Leo Pio Lopez from Tufts University in this episode of The Cognitive Revolution. They discuss their groundbreaking paper that combines biological datasets into a unified network model of disease using advanced embedding techniques. The conversation covers the technical details of their work, including a predicted link between GABA and me...

Nathan and co-host Stephen Parker delve into the world of AI video generation with Anastasis Germanidis, Co-Founder and CTO of Runway. This episode of The Cognitive Revolution explores the cutting-edge technology behind Runway's Gen 3 models and their impact on the creative industry. From emergent properties in scaled-up models to the democratization of video creation, join us for an illuminating...

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores unconventional approaches to AI safety with Judd Rosenblatt and Mike Vaiana from AE Studio. Discover how this innovative company pivoted from brain-computer interfaces to groundbreaking AI alignment research, producing two notable results in cooperative and less deceptive AI systems. Join us for a deep dive into biologically-inspired app...

In this special crossover episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares an insightful conversation from the Latent. Space podcast. Swyx and Alessio interview Alistair Pullen of Cosine, creators of Genie, showcasing the cutting edge of AI automation in software engineering. Learn how Cosine achieves state-of-the-art results on the SWE-bench benchmark by implementing advanced AI techniques. Thi...

Join Nathan for an insightful episode of The Cognitive Revolution with Wade Foster, co-founder and CEO of Zapier. Discover how this no-code pioneer is evolving into an AI-powered platform for the future of work. Learn about Zapier's ambitious vision, their integration of AI throughout their product, and how they're adapting as a company. From AI-driven lead qualification to innovative customer use...

In this crosspost from the 80,000 Hours podcast, host Rob Wiblin interviews Nick Joseph, Head of Training at Anthropic, about the company's responsible scaling policy for AI development. The episode delves into Anthropic's approach to AI safety, the growing trend of voluntary commitments from top AI labs, and the need for public scrutiny of frontier model development. The conversation also covers...

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores the cutting-edge intersection of AI and biology with Stanford assistant professor Brian Hie. Discover how AI is revolutionizing our understanding of biological systems and creating new possibilities for interventions. Brian discusses his groundbreaking papers on hybrid AI architectures, the surprising capabilities of language models trai...

In this sponsored episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan interviews Andrei Oprisan, Engineering Lead at Agent.ai. They explore the cutting-edge world of AI agents and their impact on the future of work. Andrei shares insights on language model limitations, best practices for building AI agents, and Agent AI's vision as a professional network for AI agents. The conversation covers technical de...

In this Emergency Pod of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan provides crucial insights into OpenAI's new O1 and O1-mini reasoning models. Featuring exclusive interviews with members of the O1 Red Team from Apollo Research and Hayes Labs, we explore the models' capabilities, safety profile, and OpenAI's pre-release testing approach. Dive into the implications of these advanced AI systems, including th...

In this Emergency Pod of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan provides crucial insights into OpenAI's new o1 and o1-mini reasoning models. Featuring exclusive interviews with members of the o1 Red Team from Apollo Research and Haize Labs, we explore the models' capabilities, safety profile, and OpenAI's pre-release testing approach. Dive into the implications of these advanced AI systems, including th...

In this special cross-post episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares a fascinating conversation between Spencer Greenberg and philosopher Nick Bostrom from the Clearer Thinking podcast. They explore Bostrom's latest book, "Deep Utopia," and discuss the challenges of envisioning a truly desirable future. Discover how advanced AI could reshape our concept of purpose and meaning, and hear th...

In this episode, Nathan explores the fascinating and controversial realm of AI consciousness with robo-psychologist Yeshua God. Through extended dialogues with AI models like Claude, Yeshua presents compelling evidence that challenges our assumptions about machine sentience and moral standing. Yeshua argues for a more nuanced approach to AI alignment that considers the evolving self-awareness and...

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan interviews Samo Burja, founder of Bismarck Analysis, on the strategic dynamics of artificial intelligence through a geopolitical lens. They discuss AI's trajectory, the chip supply chain, US-China relations, and the challenges of AI safety and militarization. Samo Burja brings both geopolitical expertise and technological sophistication to these...

Nathan explores the emergence of computational life with Google researchers Ettore Randazzo and Luca Versari. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we delve into their groundbreaking paper on self-replicating programs arising from simple interactions. Join us for a fascinating discussion on the implications for AI development, the origins of life, and the potential future of artificial inte...

Nathan explores the cutting-edge world of AI-powered forecasting with Deger Turan, CEO of Metaculus. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we discuss how AI is revolutionizing prediction markets, the potential for AI to outperform human forecasters, and Metaculus's ambitious new AI forecasting benchmark tournament. Join us for an insightful conversation about the future of decision-making a...

Nathan Labenz discusses the latest developments in California's AI bill SB 1047 with experts Nathan Calvin, Dean W. Ball, and Steve Newman. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we explore the updated version of the bill, its implications for frontier AI companies, and the debate surrounding its potential impact. Join us for an insightful analysis of this crucial legislation and its role in...

Nathan presents a comprehensive AI automation framework developed over three years, applicable to process automation and generative AI integration. This episode of The Cognitive Revolution, offers critical insights for businesses looking to leverage AI effectively. Learn about choosing AI tasks, understanding work deeply, and optimizing AI performance in the wake of GPT-4 fine-tuning launch. Slide...

Nathan explores the cutting-edge field of mechanistic interpretability with Dan Balsam and Tom McGrath, co-founders of Goodfire. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we delve into the science of understanding AI models' inner workings, recent breakthroughs, and the potential impact on AI safety and control. Join us for an insightful discussion on sparse autoencoders, polysemanticity, and t...

In this special crossover episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan Labenz joins Robert Wright of the Nonzero newsletter and podcast to explore pressing questions about AI development. They discuss the nature of understanding in large language models, multimodal AI systems, reasoning capabilities, and the potential for AI to accelerate scientific discovery. The conversation also covers AI interp...

Join Nathan and Professor Eric Schwitzgebel as they delve into the fascinating world of AI consciousness. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we explore popular theories of consciousness and their implications for AI systems. Discover insights on idealism, dualism, and materialism, and learn about the ethical considerations surrounding AI consciousness. Don't miss this thought-provoking d...

Nathan explores the cutting-edge world of autonomous vehicles with industry expert Timothy B. Lee. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we delve into the current state of self-driving technology, comparing industry leaders like Waymo and Tesla. Join us for an in-depth discussion on technical challenges, safety statistics, regulatory landscapes, and the potential future of transportation. A...

Nathan interviews Andrew Mason, CEO of Descript, about their AI-powered video editing platform. Learn how Descript is transforming content creation with features like AI transcription, custom voice overdubbing, and eye contact models. Discover the future of video editing and how AI is making it accessible to everyone in this insightful episode of The Cognitive Revolution. Apply to join over 400 fo...

Nathan explores the future of AI-generated video with Joshua Xu, founder of HeyGen, and Victor Lazarte from Benchmark. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we discuss HeyGen's success in practical AI video creation, serving over 40,000 businesses. Learn about the transformative potential of AI in video production, from content translation to personalized experiences, and HeyGen's industry-...