The Cognitive Revolution: How AI Changes Everything
Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
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A weekly podcast where hosts Erik Torenberg and Nathan Labenz interview the builders on the edge of AI and explore the dramatic shift it will unlock in the coming years.
Available episodes
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4 days ago
E8: GPT4 - AI Unleashed on ChinaTalk Podcast
How will GPT4 change the world? How will US-China 'racing dynamics' play out and what are the implications for AI safety? Nathan Labenz was invited to record a special "emergency" episode of ChinaTalk podcast this week to discuss the implications GPT4 will have for policy, economics, and society. Thanks to Jordan Schneider of ChinaTalk, and fellow "AI justice league" guests Zvi Mowshowitz of 'Don't Worry About the Vase' and Matthew Mittelsteadt of Mercatus.
(0:00) Intro
(2:09) GPT-4 emergency podcast
(9:26) GPT-4 use cases
(22:51) What GPT-4 can and can’t do
(35:50) AI safety
(45:38) OpenAI v. Anthropic
(48:54) Governments’ role in AI
(55:50) AI will improve physical health and healthcare the most
(59:19) Facebook’s LLaMA model
(01:05:55) VR/AR
(01:08:59) Concerns with GPT4
(01:15:26) GPT-5 and GPT-6
(01:18:45) Optimism in the AI revolution
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@labenz (Nathan)
@jordanschnyc (Jordan)
Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
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Mar 14, 2023
E7: In Search of Truth with Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity AI
We talked to Aravind Srinivas about competing with the tech giants, Perplexity's product philosophy and obsession with maximizing value delivered to the user per unit time, and the features that makes Perplexity unique.
(0:00) Preview
(1:31) Introduction & Context
(08:06) Aravind’s vision for Perplexity as the world’s most truth-centric company
(9:29) Raising the average IQ of the world
(12:00) Aravind’s favorite tech entrepreneur
(15:12) “Anthropics” - Building your own model vs user experience
(33:00) Why is perplexity free
(43:00) Talking shop: Perplexity’s tech stack and speed
(1:06:00) Perplexity’s stance on guardrails on search
(1:19:48) Forecasting weakly general AGI: The four criteria
(1:28:00) Aravind’s perspective on OpenAI and the future of AGI
(1:39:00) The Cognitive Revolution’s rapid fire questions: Neuralink implant? Most used AI tools? AI hopes and fears?
Twitter handles:
@CogRev_Podcast
@AravSrinivas (Aravind)
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
Join 1000's of subscribers of our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/
References & Shownotes:
Flamingo: https://www.deepmind.com/blog/tackling-multiple-tasks-with-a-single-visual-language-model
Decision Transformer Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.01345
Aravind on TalkRL Podcast: https://www.talkrl.com/episodes/aravind-srinivas-2
Weakly General AGI Criteria: https://www.metaculus.com/questions/3479/date-weakly-general-ai-is-publicly-known/
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Mar 9, 2023
E6: The Computer Vision Revolution with Junnan Li and Dongxu Li of BLIP and BLIP2
As recently as January 2021, the challenge of "interpreting what is going on in a photograph" was considered "nowhere near solved." Today's guests Junnan Li and Dongxu Li changed that with their publication and open-sourcing of BLIP, which delivered state-of-the-art performance on image captioning and other vision-language tasks.
BLIP became the #18 most-cited AI paper of 2022, and now Junnan and Dongxu are back with BLIP-2, this time showing how small models can harness the power of existing foundation models to do multi-modal tasks.
We talked to Junnan and Dongxu about their research and how they see the trend toward connector models shaping the future.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Preview
(01:17) Sponsor
(01:35) Intro
(05:50) Convergence of AI techniques
(07:33) Evolution of BLIP to BLIP-2
(08:12) How BLIP-2 unlocked multimodal functionality
(12:43) The size, training dynamics, and optimization function of BLIP
(20:15) Practical/Business applications of BLIP
(29:43) Efficiency of BLIP-2 compared to other models
(41:52) Two-stage pre-training
(47:11) Architecture of Blip-2’s connector model
(58:52) Language models as the executive function of the brain
(01:07:32) Vision for an ultimate multimodal system and democratized pre-training for models
(01:12:59) Useful AI tools in these researchers’ day-to-day
(01:14:56) Upcoming projects
*Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@LiJunnan0409 (Junnan Li)
@DongxuLi_(Dongxu Li)
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
Join 1000's of subscribers of our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com
Websites:
Episode transcript at Cognitivervolution.ai
huggingface.co/spaces/Salesforce/BLIP
huggingface.co/spaces/Salesforce/BLIP2
Show Notes:
- Original BLIP demo
- BLIP 2 demo
- BLIP is the #18 most highly-cited paper in AI
- Image captioning comparison tool
- Understanding images with AI - for use in language models and image generation
- Image Aesthetics - Product & Model Reviews
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Mar 2, 2023
E5: The Embedding Revolution: Anton Troynikov on Chroma, Stable Attribution, and future of AI
(0:00) Preview
(1:17) Sponsor
(4:00) Anton breaks down the advantages of vector databases
(4:45) How embeddings have created an AI-native way to represent data
(11:50) Anton identifies the watershed moment and step changes in AI
(12:55) Open AI’s pricing
(18:50) How chroma works
(33:04) Stable Attribution and systematic bias
(36:48) How latent diffusion models work
(51:26) How AI is like the early days of aviation
(56:01) How Disney inspired the release of Stable Attribution
(59:53):Why noise can lead to generalization
(1:01:04) Nathan’s KPI for The Cognitive Revolution
(1:01:59) Other use cases for embedding
(1:03: 19) Anton touches on the applications for biotech
(1:04:35) Anton on doomerism hysteria and what actually worries him
(1:11:43) - Nathan sums up a plausible doomer scenario
(1:20:17)What AI tools does Anton use and why?
(1:22:55) Anton’s hopes
*Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. _Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off._
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@atroyn (Anton)
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
Join 1000's of subscribers of our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/
Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
trychroma.com/
omneky.com
Show Notes & references:
-https://same.energy/ (Beta)
-Wright Brothers Bio (https://www.amazon.com/Wright-Brothers-David-McCullough/dp/1476728755)
-Ajeya Cotra article in Less Wrong (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pRkFkzwKZ2zfa3R6H/without-specific-countermeasures-the-easiest-path-to)
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Feb 23, 2023
E4: The AI Moment with Amjad Masad, Flo Crivello, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez
(0:00) Preview of the debate
(2:23) Sponsor
(3:10) Flo’s take on the AI moment and AGI
(5:45) Amjad’s take on the AI moment
(8:03) Antonio's skepticism about transhumanism
(9:10) Human tendencies color the debate about agency
(11:25) The inflection point is a jump in generality
(13:14) AI's effect on coding
(16:57) Weakness in current models
(19:18) Bounties and the future of work
(21:48) Antonio's skepticism around bounties
(25:00) Who will capture value, incumbents or startups?
(27:26) "All knowledge work will be automated in 20 years"
(30:10) Who will be the biggest beneficiaries of this shift?
(31:50) What AI companies should VCs invest in?
(32:26) Sponsor
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@amasad (Amjad)
@antoniogm (Antonio)
@altimor (Flo)
@dwr (Dan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@labenz (Nathan)
Subscribe to our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/
Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
replit.com
teamflowhq.com
omneky.com
Show Notes & references:
Eliezer Yudkowsky: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FKNtgZrGYwgsz3nHT/bankless-podcast-159-we-re-all-gonna-die-with-eliezer
Paul Christiano: https://paulfchristiano.com/
AI Feedback: https://www.anthropic.com/constitutional.pdf
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Feb 17, 2023
E3: The Empathy Revolution with Eugenia Kuyda of Replika
(01:08) Sponsor
(01:37) Introducing Eugenia
(03:25) Replika’s controversial choice to limit erotic roleplay functionality
(04:25) Eugenia's vision for Replika
(05:58) Augmented Reality is the Ultimate Modality
(07:52) Using Replika
(13:11) Profound stories about virtual assistants
(15:55) Eugenia on why Replika is more than just a painkiller or vitamin
(28:50) Replika's business model and profitability
(34:12) Users want their Replika to surprise them
(36:12) Why ChatGPT is not a conversational model
(49:26) Eugenia's prediction for the "next Iphone of personal AI"
(1:03:00) Eugenia’s AI tools/stack
(1:15:00) Eugenia comes back to discuss Erotic Roleplay controversy
(1:18:00) Replika’s first reaction to users ERP
(1: 22:00) How the product evolved from 90% scripts & retrieval models
(1:24:00) The definitive focus for Replika to stay in a PG13 zone
(1:26:00) “Normal” evolution given sci-fi depictions of AI romances
(1:30:00) Current AI ethics on sexuality
(1:37:07) Response to journalists misportrayal
(1:40:29) Sponsor
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@labenz (Nathan)
@ekuyda (Eugenia)
Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
https://replika.ai/
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Feb 10, 2023
E2: Why AI Will Cause a Cognitive Revolution with Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg
00:00 Coming Up
01:00 The Cognitive Revolution
01:20 Sponsor
01:39 Intro
02:09 Nathan’s path to AI
04:27 Founding Waymark
06:56 The future of AI is just starting
10:00 AI dramatically enhances human capabilities
10:50 Why we started The Cognitive Revolution and what to expect
14:55 Which guests will appear on the show and topics that will be discussed
18:59 Being replaced by an AI host
20:42 Unpacking the future of AI with “no new breakthroughs”
32:21 What’s underhyped and overhyped
43:46 The dangers of AI
44:51 Applying AI safely
52:19 Losing faith in technology
53:38 A new AI ecology
55:14 Facebook, Google and Open AI
58:00 Upside and downside case for AI
58:18 Sam Altman’s case for AI
01:09:25 Starting an AI company
01:18:22 Closing
01:18:46 Sponsor
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@labenz (Nathan)
Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
waymark.com
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Feb 3, 2023
E1: The Pixel Revolution with Playground AI 's Suhail Doshi
00:00 Intro
00:30: Image technology breakthroughs
00:45 The Cognitive Revolution
03:10 Intro to Suhail
03:43 Sponsor
07:04 Suhail’s path to AI
12:57 Suhail’s vision for Playground
17:58 Suhail’s cancellation on Twitter
19:06 AI artists are artists
20:25 Non-AI artists feel threatened by AI
26:47 Suhail on defensibility at AI companies
30:30 Playground’s product roadmap
33:01 Suhail on good design
35:55 Latent space
44:04 Building Playground with lessons learned from Mighty
53:55 Monitoring led to 2x improvement in the product
55:53 How people use Playground
1:03:48 AI is having it’s mobile moment
01:15:12 Finding, investing and building durable AI companies
01:22:06 Suhail’s kid’s best friends may be AI characters
01:23:20 AI religion
01:24:16 Conclusion
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.
Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@suhail (Suhail)
@labenz (Nathan)
Websites:
playgroundai.com
mixpanel.com
waymark.com
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