Language v. Thought in Animals, AI, and Humans - Dr. Gašper Beguš, UC Berkeley Linguistics, #317

Dr. Gašper Beguš is a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics who studies the interface between human, machine, and animal language. We head into the conversation with a question - is there something fundamentally different about the way that humans learn and the way that machines like LLMs learn? Vector embeddings of the relatedness of language and the map that we carry in our heads of abstract concepts don’t seem that different at the end of the day. This leads us into a discussion of the ways in which humans acquire language, how language evolves, evidence for abstract thought in animals, where the bright line of consciousness can be drawn, and if taking a different approach to training computers to think can generate a machine that can match us in drive and curiosity. 

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(00:00) Go! (00:07:55) Language, Thought, and AI Models (00:13:25) Animal Communication and Intelligence (00:25:02) Recursion and Human Language (00:37:51) AI, Consciousness, and Human Cognition (00:49:02) The Role of Human Curiosity in the Future of AI (00:58:13) Bridging Human-Like Learning in AI Models (01:08:07) Exploring Human-Like Structures in AI Models (01:17:19) Evolution and Brain Capacity (01:26:31) Language Structure and Differences (01:37:11) Evolution of Language and Its Universality (01:46:17) Social Identity and Linguistic Diversity (01:59:08) Thought and Language: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (02:09:18) Language Evolution and Human History (02:16:02) Cognitive Development and Language (02:24:39) Ancient Human Cooperation (02:35:04) Cultural and Cognitive Evolution (02:42:27) AI’s Role in Scientific Discovery #Linguistics, #AI, #AnimalCommunication, #ArtificialIntelligence, #Language, #Cognition, #AnimalIntelligence, #Recursion, #ThoughtAndLanguage, #AnimalBehavior, #AnimalLearning, #AIModels, #CognitiveScience, #AnimalCognition, #EvolutionOfLanguage, #LanguageStructure, #LanguageEvolution, #philosophypodcast, #sciencepodcast, #longformpodcast Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci: https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience AND our material science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671