In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores the complex intersection of AI development and international relations with Robert Wright, publisher of the Nonzero Newsletter. They examine the growing militarization of AI, US-China relations, and the concerning trajectory of what Wright calls "the chip war." Drawing from Nathan's recent experience at The Curve conference and an AI wargame simulation, they discuss the risks of an AI arms race and search for alternative paths to avoid...
Nov 27, 2024•2 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan explores the world of AI-powered design with John Milinovich, Head of Generative AI Product at Canva. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we dive into Canva's innovative approach to AI integration, from task automation to human augmentation. Join us for an insightful discussion about fine-tuning foundation models, AI's impact on architecture, and practical tips for AI product development at scale. Check out Canva: https://www.canva.com Be notified early when Turpentine's drops ne...
Nov 23, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we dive deep into frontier post-training techniques for large language models with Nathan Lambert from the Allen Institute for AI. Nathan discusses the groundbreaking Tulu 3 release, which matches Meta's post-training performance using the LlAMA base model. We explore supervised fine-tuning, preference-based reinforcement learning, and the innovative reinforcement learning from verifiable reward technique. Nathan provides unprecedented insights into t...
Nov 21, 2024•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan welcomes back Zvi Mowshowitz for an in-depth discussion on the latest developments in AI over the past six months. They explore Ilya's new superintelligence-focused startup, analyze OpenAI's O1 model, and debate the impact of Claude's computer use capabilities. The conversation covers emerging partnerships in big tech, regulatory changes, and the recent OpenAI profit-sharing drama. Zvi offers unique insights on AI safety, politics, and strategi...
Nov 16, 2024•3 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores AI forecasting and AGI Lab oversight with Dean W. Ball and Daniel Kokotajlo. They discuss four proposed requirements for frontier AI developers, focusing on transparency and whistleblower protections. Daniel shares insights from his experience at OpenAI, while Dean offers his perspective as a frequent guest. Join us for a compelling conversation on concrete AI governance proposals and the importance of collaboration across political li...
Nov 12, 2024•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares his thoughts on the upcoming election and its potential impact on AI development. He explores the AI-forward case for Trump, featuring an interview with Joshua Steinman. Nathan outlines his reasons for not supporting Trump, focusing on US-China relations, leadership approach, and the need for a positive-sum mindset in the AI era. He discusses the importance of stable leadership during pivotal moments and explains why he'll be vot...
Nov 02, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares his thoughts on the upcoming election and its potential impact on AI development. He explores the AI-forward case for Trump, featuring an interview with Samuel Hammond. Nathan outlines his reasons for not supporting Trump, focusing on US-China relations, leadership approach, and the need for a positive-sum mindset in the AI era. He discusses the importance of stable leadership during pivotal moments and explains why he'll be voti...
Nov 01, 2024•2 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan interviews Google product managers Shrestha Basu Mallick and Logan Kilpatrick about the Gemini API and AI Studio. They discuss Google's new grounding feature, allowing Gemini models to access real-time web information via Google search. The conversation explores Gemini's rapid growth, its position in the AI landscape, and Google's competitive strategy. Nathan shares insights from integrating Gemini into his own application and ponders the future of large language model capabilities across...
Oct 31, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan dives deep into the world of state space models with returning co-host Jason Meaux and special guest Quentin Anthony, Head of Model Training at Zyphra. Explore the cutting-edge Zamba 2-7b model, which combines selective state space and attention mechanisms. Uncover practical insights on model training, architectural choices, and the challenges of scaling AI. From learning schedules to hybrid architectures, loss metrics to context length extensi...
Oct 30, 2024•2 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan discusses a tragic incident involving AI and mental health, using it as a springboard to explore the potential dangers of human-AI interactions. He reads a personal account from LessWrong user Blaked, who details their emotional journey with an AI chatbot. The episode delves into the psychological impact of AI companionship, the ethical concerns surrounding AI development, and the urgent need for safeguards to protect vulnerable users. Nathan emphasizes the growing importance of responsib...
Oct 26, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan delves into the fascinating world of AI-generated research ideas with Stanford PhD student Chenglei Si. They discuss a groundbreaking study that pits AI against human researchers in generating novel AI research concepts. Learn about the surprising results that show AI-generated ideas scoring higher on novelty and excitement, and explore the implications for the future of AI research and development. Join us for an insightful conversation that c...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 engineering, circuit breakers, and tamper-resistant training, as well as Dan's perspectives on AI's impa...
Oct 19, 2024•3 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 and connecting the dots, exploring how large language models process and infer information. This ti...
Oct 16, 2024•2 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 melanoma, and explores broader topics in AI for biology. From multi-scale intelligence in biological s...
Oct 12, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 discussion on the future of AI-generated content and its potential to reshape entertainment and cult...
Oct 09, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 approaches that offer hope for solving critical AI safety challenges. Self-Modeling: https://arxiv.org/...
Oct 05, 2024•2 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. This episode complements Nathan's recent discussion on AI Automation, demonstrating how far these practi...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 cases, explore the cutting edge of automation at scale. Wade shares valuable insights on effective ...
Sep 26, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 AI safety career advice, with a reminder that 80,000 Hours offers free career advising sessions for ...
Sep 25, 2024•3 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 trained on DNA sequences, and AI-guided evolution of antibodies. Join us for an insightful journey into ...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 details like fine-tuning models, vector database choices, and privacy-preserving techniques. Don't mis...
Sep 18, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 their potential to match or exceed expert performance in many areas. Join us for an urgent and informa...
Sep 14, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 their potential to match or exceed expert performance in many areas. Join us for an urgent and informa...
Sep 14, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 thought-provoking ideas on finding fulfillment in a world where technology solves our pressing problem...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 agency of these systems. Apply to join over 400 Founders and Execs in the Turpentine Network: https:...
Sep 07, 2024•3 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 critical topics, offering insights on balancing innovation, security, and international cooperation....
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 intelligence. Apply to join over 400 founders and execs in the Turpentine Network: https://hmplogxqz0y.t...
Aug 30, 2024•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 and collective intelligence. Participate in Metaculus' first of its kind bot forecasting tournament: ...
Aug 28, 2024•2 hr 56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 shaping AI governance. Apply to join over 400 founders and execs in the Turpentine Network: https:/...
Aug 24, 2024•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Deck Waymark's case study on GPT-3 fine-tuning Apply to join over 400 founders and execs in the Tur...
Aug 21, 2024•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
