Azeem Azhar: The Exponential View

Azeem Azhar: The Exponential View

Author: Daniel Bashir May 9, 2024 Duration: 1:46:25

Episode 122

I spoke with Azeem Azhar about:

* The speed of progress in AI

* Historical context for some of the terminology we use and how we think about technology

* What we might want our future to look like

Azeem is an entrepreneur, investor, and adviser. He is the creator of Exponential View, a global platform for in-depth technology analysis, and the host of the Bloomberg Original series Exponentially.

Reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.

Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on Twitter

Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (00:32) Ad read — MLOps conference

* (01:05) Problematizing the term “exponential”

* (07:35) Moore’s Law as social contract, speed of technological growth and impedances

* (14:45) Academic incentives, interdisciplinary work, rational agents and historical context

* (21:24) Monolithic scaling

* (26:38) Investment in scaling

* (31:22) On Sam Altman

* (36:25) Uses of “AGI,” “intelligence”

* (41:32) Historical context for terminology

* (48:58) AI and teaching

* (53:51) On the technology-human divide

* (1:06:26) New technologies and the futures we want

* (1:10:50) Inevitability narratives

* (1:17:01) Rationality and objectivity

* (1:21:13) Cultural affordances and intellectual history

* (1:26:15) Centralized and decentralized AI systems

* (1:32:54) Instruction tuning and helpful/honest/harmless

* (1:39:18) Azeem’s future outlook

* (1:46:15) Outro

Links:

* Azeem’s website and Twitter

* Exponential View



Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe

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

The Gradient: Perspectives on AI
Podcast Episodes
Terry Winograd: AI, HCI, Language, and Cognition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:21
In episode 87 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Professor Terry Winograd. Professor Winograd is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research focuses on human-computer interac…
Gil Strang: Linear Algebra and Deep Learning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:36
In episode 86 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Professor Gil Strang. Professor Strang is one of the world’s foremost mathematics educators and a mathematician with contributions to finite element theory,…
Anant Agarwal: AI for Education [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:40
In episode 85 of The Gradient Podcast, Andrey Kurenkov speaks to Anant AgarwalAnant Agarwal is the chief platform officer of 2U, and founder of edX. Anant taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT,…
Peli Grietzer: A Mathematized Philosophy of Literature [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:33:33
In episode 83 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Peli Grietzer. Peli is a scholar whose work borrows mathematical ideas from machine learning theory to think through “ambient” and ineffable phenomena like m…
Ryan Drapeau: Battling Fraud with ML at Stripe [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:31
In episode 82 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Ryan Drapeau.Ryan is a Staff Software Engineer at Stripe and technical lead for Stripe’s Payment Fraud organization, which uses machine learning to help prev…
Shiv Rao: Enabling Better Patient Care with AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:51
In episode 81 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Shiv Rao.Shiv Rao, MD is the co-founder and CEO of Abridge, a healthcare conversation company that uses cutting-edge NLP and generative AI to bring context a…
Hugo Larochelle: Deep Learning as Science [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:48:28
In episode 80 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Professor Hugo Larochelle. Professor Larochelle leads the Montreal Google DeepMind team and is adjunct professor at Université de Montréal and a Canada CIFAR…
Jeremie Harris: Realistic Alignment and AI Policy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:35
In episode 79 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Jeremie Harris.Jeremie is co-founder of Gladstone AI, author of the book Quantum Physics Made Me Do It, and co-host of the Last Week in AI Podcast. Jeremy pr…
Antoine Blondeau: Alpha Intelligence Capital and Investing in AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:34
In episode 78 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Antoine Blondeau.Antoine is a serial AI entrepreneur and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Alpha Intelligence Capital. He was chief executive at Dejima when…