Kanjun Qiu and Josh Albrecht: Generally Intelligent

Kanjun Qiu and Josh Albrecht: Generally Intelligent

Author: Daniel Bashir November 17, 2022 Duration: 47:21

In episode 49 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Kanjun Qiu and Josh Albrecht.

Kanjun and Josh are CEO and CTO of Generally Intelligent, an AI startup aiming to develop general-purpose agents with human-like intelligence that can be safely deployed in the real world. Kanjun and Josh have played these roles together in the past as CEO and CTO of AI recruiting startup Sourceress. Kanjun is also involved with building the SF Neighborhood, and together with Josh invests in early-stage founders at Outset Capital.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (02:00) Kanjun’s and Josh’s intros to AI

* (06:45) How Kanjun and Josh met and started working together

* (08:40) Sourceress and AI in hiring, looking for unusual candidates

* (11:30) Generally Intelligent: origins and motivations

* (14:55) How Kanjun and Josh think about understanding the fundamentals of intelligence

* (17:20) AGI companies and long-term goals

* (19:20) How Kanjun and Josh think about intelligence + Generally Intelligent’s approach-agnosticism

* (22:30) Skill-acquisition efficiency

* (25:18) The Avalon Environment/Benchmark

* (27:40) Tasks with shared substrate

* (29:00) Blending of different approaches, baseline tuning

* (31:15) Approach to safety

* (33:33) Issues with interpretability + ML academic practices, ablations

* (36:30) Lessons about working with people, company culture

* (40:00) Human focus and diversity in companies, tech environment

* (44:10) Advice for potential (AI) founders

* (47:05) Outro

Links:

* Generally Intelligent

* Avalon: A Benchmark for RL Generalization

* Kanjun’s homepage

* Josh’s homepage



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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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