Understanding Competence and Comprehension in Learning

Guests: 

• Alison Gopnik, SFI External Faculty; Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley; Member of Berkeley AI Research Group
• John Krakauer, SFI External Faculty; John C. Malone Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University

Hosts: Abha Eli Phoboo & Melanie Mitchell

Producer: Katherine Moncure

Podcast theme music by: Mitch Mignano

Podcast logo by Nicholas Graham

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More info:

Complexity Explorer: 

Tutorial: Fundamentals of Machine Learning

Lecture: Artificial Intelligence

SFI programs: Education

Books: 

• Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell
• Words, Thoughts and Theories by Alison Gopnik and Andrew N. Meltzoff
• The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn by Alison Gopnik, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Patricia K. Kuhl
• The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life by Alison Gopnik
• The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik

Talks: 

• The Future of Artificial Intelligence by Melanie Mitchell
• Imitation Versus Innovation: What Children Can Do That Large Langauge Models’ Can’t by Alison Gopnik
• The Minds of Children by Alison Gopnik
• What Understanding Adds to Cambrian Intelligence: A Taxonomy by John Krakauer

Papers & Articles:

• “Why you can’t make a computer that feels pain,” by Daniel C. Dennett
• “Transmission versus truth, imitation versus innovation: What children can do that Large Language and Language-and-Vision models cannot (yet),” in Perspectives on Psychological Science  (October 26, 2023), doi.org/10.1177/17456916231201401
• “Empowerment as Causal Learning, Causal Learning as Empowerment: A bridge between Bayesian causal hypothesis testing and reinforcement learning,” by Alison Gopnik
• “What can AI Learn from Human Exploration? Intrinsically-Motivated Humans and Agents in Open-World Exploration” by Yuqing Du et al, for Workshop: Agent Learning in Open-Endedness Workshop, NeurIPS 2024 conference
• “Two views on the cognitive brain,” by David L. Barack & John W. Krakauer, Perspectives in Nature Reviews Neuroscience Vol 22 (April 15, 2021)
• “The intelligent reflex,” by John W. Krakauer, Philosophical Psychology (May 23, 2019), doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2019.1607281
• “Representation in Cognitive Science by Nicholas Shea: But Is It Thinking? The Philosophy of Representation Meets Systems Neuroscience” by John W. Krakauer