Augmented Mind Podcast

AI used to be a distant promise; now it permeates our lives. AI is getting better, but is it making us better? We are promised that AI will augment our minds, but how?

We--@EchoShao8899, @shannonzshen, and @michaelryan207--are excited to launch the Augmented Mind Podcast (The AM Podcast), a podcast about technical human-centered AI work. We'll share compelling research, infrastructure, and systems through monthly episodes, featuring interviews with the pioneering minds behind them.

We release EP0 today to share who we are, why we started this podcast, and what we're looking forward to.

0:00 - Prelude: the problems we care about
1:48 - Host introduction
2:03 - Why we started the AM Podcast
2:31 - Hot takes on human-centered AI
10:45 - Format of our podcast
11:28 - Unique technical challenges in human-centered AI
16:45 - Let the journey begin!

“I should have my choice. How much automation do I want helping me? But also, how much control do I want?”

“You have to struggle whether it’s lifting weights or whether it’s mental exercise. You’ve got to actually do the work yourself.”

For EP8, “After Data and Compute, What’s the Next Frontier in AI,” we welcome Peter Norvig, co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach and former director of research at Google. Peter is now a Distinguished Education Fellow at Stanford HAI and a researcher at Recursive, working on self-improving AI.

As AI takes on more of our work, how do we make sure it makes us more capable? Peter explores what’s still worth learning in AI and programming, why learning still requires struggle, how more automation can coexist with more human control, and why getting AI’s objectives right remains one of the field’s biggest challenges.

Outline:
0:00 - Introduction
2:32 - What Has (and Hasn’t) Changed Throughout Peter’s Career?
7:03 - How Peter Makes Career Pivots
11:17 - Is This AI Moment Different From Previous Cycles?
15:32 - What’s Still Worth Learning in AI and Programming?
19:55 - How Will AI Transform Higher Education?
24:10 - Main Bottlenecks to Building Human-Centered AI
35:10 - Reward Hacking vs. Creativity
41:51 - Continual Learning Remains an Unsolved Challenge
44:16 - Open Source AI Models
46:32 - AI, Inequality, and Winner-Take-All Markets

EP8 of the AM Podcast drops tomorrow!

We’re getting better at making AI achieve its goals. How do we make sure those are the goals we actually want?

We sat down with Peter Norvig, co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach and former director of research at Google, to explore why higher scores don’t always mean better AI, how we decide what these systems should optimize for, and what it takes to build AI that makes people more capable.

Here’s a preview 👀

We were fortunate to chat with Jeremy earlier this year. Many of the topics we discussed feel even more relevant given many recent news in AI & Math.
augmented-mind.github.io/episodes/ep05

“When I say understanding is the new bottleneck, what I mean is that I need to keep a clear understanding of what’s going on in my head to advance the project and be a full creative participant in that project.”
"Coding agents make coding more lonely. Can we open up that process to make it inherently collaborative?"

For EP7, “Software With Taste,” we welcome @geoffreylitt, design engineer at @NotionHQ, whose work explores malleable software and designing environments for thinking.

AI speeds up our work, but is our understanding keeping up? Geoffrey explains the risks of optimizing for speed at the expense of human understanding, why he uses AI to quiz himself during code reviews, and how to develop taste and build tools that help us stay creative, think deeply, and work together.

0:00 - Introduction
0:47 - Design Is More Than Better Animation
3:32 - Malleable Software and Coding Agents
9:06 - Human-Software Interaction is a Full-Stack Problem
12:43 - Getting Users On Board and Deeper
15:53 - The Trap of Just Building More
20:27 - Primitive Design Is a Taste Problem
22:20 - Understanding Is the New Bottleneck
27:22 - How To Develop Taste?
34:49 - Productivity vs. Speed
38:10 - Will Better AI Hurt Human-Human Collaboration?
44:34 - Advice for Designing Better Products