272 - Guest: Megan Peters, Computational Cognitive Scientist, part 1

272 - Guest: Megan Peters, Computational Cognitive Scientist, part 1

Author: aiandyou September 1, 2025 Duration: 40:31
This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Have you ever thought about thinking? That’s called metacognition, and Megan Peters thinks about that, a lot. She is an Associate Professor in the UC Irvine Department of Cognitive Sciences, researching how the brain represents and uses uncertainty, focusing on how these abilities support metacognitive evaluations of the quality of our decisions. She’s a Fellow in the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the UCI Center for Theoretical Behavioral Sciences, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Brain Mind & Consciousness program. She’s also President and Co-founder of Neuromatch, an educational platform serving over 30,000 students in over 120 countries across computational neurosciences, deep learning, computational climate science, and neuroAI. We get really meta here: talking about thinking about thinking,  how we build models of the world, how language shapes our thinking, whether AI is doing metacognition in its chains of thought, statistical learning in AIs and humans, consciousness in humans and animals and AIs, and theories of consciousness. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.            

The conversation around artificial intelligence is often filled with either breathless hype or dire warnings, leaving little room for grounded, practical understanding. Artificial Intelligence and You cuts through that noise. This isn't a lecture series from a distant ivory tower; it's a guided exploration meant for anyone curious about how these tools are reshaping the everyday. Each episode takes a focused look at a single facet of AI, from the algorithms curating your social media feed to the software that might change how you work. We break down complex concepts into clear, relatable terms, asking the questions that actually matter for your decisions and your future. You'll hear straightforward explanations of how different AI systems function, alongside thoughtful discussions about their real-world implications-the ethical dilemmas, the economic shifts, and the personal impacts that rarely make the headlines. The goal of this podcast is to replace confusion with clarity and anxiety with informed perspective. Whether you're a professional navigating new tools, a student planning a career, or simply a person living in an increasingly digital world, these conversations provide the context you need to form your own opinions. Join us as we move beyond the abstract to examine what AI genuinely means for your life, your community, and the kind of world we're all building together, one line of code at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Artificial Intelligence and You
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