2023 in AI, with Nathan Benaich

2023 in AI, with Nathan Benaich

Author: Daniel Bashir December 28, 2023 Duration: 1:35:37

In episode 104 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Nathan Benaich.

Nathan is Founder and General Partner at Air Street Capital, a VC firm focused on investing in AI-first technology and life sciences companies. Nathan runs a number of communities focused on AI including the Research and Applied AI Summit and leads Spinout.fyi to improve the creation of university spinouts. Nathan co-authors the State of AI Report.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (02:00) Updates in Nathan World — Air Street’s second fund, spinouts,

* (07:30) Events: Research and Applied AI Summit, State of AI Report launches

* (09:50) The State of AI: main messages, the increasing role of subject matter experts

* Research

* (14:13) Open and closed-source

* (17:55) Benchmarking and evaluation, small/large models and industry verticals

* (21:10) “Vibes” in LLM evaluation

* (24:00) Codegen models, personalized AI, curriculum learning

* (26:20) The exhaustion of human-generated data, lukewarm content, synthetic data

* (29:50) Opportunities for AI applications in the natural sciences

* (35:15) Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback and alternatives

* (38:30) Industry

* (39:00) ChatGPT and productivity

* (42:37) General app wars, ChatGPT competitors

* (45:50) Compute—demand, supply, competition

* (50:55) Export controls and geopolitics

* (54:45) Startup funding and compute spend

* (59:15) Politics

* (59:40) Calls for regulation, regulatory divergence

* (1:04:40) AI safety

* (1:07:30) Nathan’s perspective on regulatory approaches

* (1:12:30) The UK’s early access to frontier models, standards setting, regulation difficulties

* (1:17:20) Jailbreaking, constitutional AI, robustness

* (1:20:50) Predictions!

* (1:25:00) Generative AI misuse in elections and politics (and, this prediction coming true in Bangladesh)

* (1:26:50) Progress on AI governance

* (1:30:30) European dynamism

* (1:35:08) Outro

Links:

* Nathan’s homepage and Twitter

* The 2023 State of AI Report

* Bringing Dynamism to European Defense

* A prediction coming true: How AI is disrupting Bangladesh’s election

* Air Street Capital is hiring a full-time Community Lead!



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Hosted by Daniel Bashir, The Gradient: Perspectives on AI moves beyond surface-level headlines to explore the intricate machinery and human ideas shaping artificial intelligence. Each episode is built on a foundation of deep research, leading to conversations that are both technically substantive and broadly accessible. You'll hear from researchers, engineers, and philosophers who are actively building and critiquing our technological future, discussing not just how AI systems work, but the larger implications of their integration into society. This isn't about speculative hype; it's a grounded examination of real progress, persistent challenges, and ethical considerations from those on the front lines. The discussions peel back layers on topics like model architecture, policy, and the fundamental science behind the algorithms becoming part of our daily lives. For anyone curious about the substance behind the buzz-whether you have a technical background or are simply keen to understand a defining technology of our age-this podcast offers a crucial and thoughtful resource. Tune in for a consistently detailed and nuanced take that treats artificial intelligence with the complexity it deserves.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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