108. Last Week In AI — 2021: The (full) year in review

108. Last Week In AI — 2021: The (full) year in review

Author: The TDS team January 5, 2022 Duration: 50:21

2021 has been a wild ride in many ways, but its wildest features might actually be AI-related. We’ve seen major advances in everything from language modeling to multi-modal learning, open-ended learning and even AI alignment.

So, we thought, what better way to take stock of the big AI-related milestones we’ve reached in 2021 than a cross-over episode with our friends over at the Last Week In AI podcast.

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Intro music:

- Artist: Ron Gelinas

- Track Title: Daybreak Chill Blend (original mix)

- Link to Track: https://youtu.be/d8Y2sKIgFWc

***

Chapters:

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 2:15 Rise of multi-modal models
  • 7:40 Growth of hardware and compute
  • 13:20 Reinforcement learning
  • 20:45 Open-ended learning
  • 26:15 Power seeking paper
  • 32:30 Safety and assumptions
  • 35:20 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
  • 42:00 Mapping natural language
  • 46:20 Timnit Gebru’s research institute
  • 49:20 Wrap-up

While the active production of Towards Data Science has concluded, its archive remains a vital resource. Created by The TDS team, this collection captures a specific moment in the rapid evolution of data science and artificial intelligence. Each conversation pulls you directly into the room with leading researchers and practitioners who were shaping the tools and theories of their time. The discussions are not abstract lectures; they are grounded explorations of real-world problems, ethical dilemmas, and technical challenges that defined the field's trajectory. You'll hear experts dissect the implications of their work, from algorithmic fairness to the practicalities of deploying models at scale. This podcast served as a forum for nuanced debate, where complex ideas were unpacked with clarity and depth. Listening now offers a unique historical perspective, a chance to understand the foundational conversations that continue to influence where technology is headed next. The archive of Towards Data Science stands as a substantive record of insight, preserving the voices and questions from the forefront of a digital revolution.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Towards Data Science
Podcast Episodes
87. Evan Hubinger - The Inner Alignment Problem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:32
How can you know that a super-intelligent AI is trying to do what you asked it to do? The answer, it turns out, is: not easily. And unfortunately, an increasing number of AI safety researchers are warning that this is a…
86. Andy Jones - AI Safety and the Scaling Hypothesis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:44
When OpenAI announced the release of their GPT-3 API last year, the tech world was shocked. Here was a language model, trained only to perform a simple autocomplete task, which turned out to be capable of language transl…
85. Brian Christian - The Alignment Problem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:19
In 2016, OpenAI published a blog describing the results of one of their AI safety experiments. In it, they describe how an AI that was trained to maximize its score in a boat racing game ended up discovering a strange ha…
83. Rosie Campbell - Should all AI research be published? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:37
When OpenAI developed its GPT-2 language model in early 2019, they initially chose not to publish the algorithm, owing to concerns over its potential for malicious use, as well as the need for the AI industry to experime…
82. Jakob Foerster - The high cost of automated weapons [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:07
Automated weapons mean fewer casualties, faster reaction times, and more precise strikes. They’re a clear win for any country that deploys them. You can see the appeal. But they’re also a classic prisoner’s dilemma. Once…
81. Nicolas Miailhe - AI risk is a global problem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:03
In December 1938, a frustrated nuclear physicist named Leo Szilard wrote a letter to the British Admiralty telling them that he had given up on his greatest invention — the nuclear chain reaction. "The idea of a nuclear…