Lateral with Tom Scott 168: Removing the roof
8 snips
Dec 26, 2025 Michelle Wong is a science communicator behind Lab Muffin Beauty Science, delving into the science of skincare. Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland co-create Escape This Podcast, bringing in their expertise on audio escape rooms. They explore the fascinating history of the 1270 papal election, where a roof was removed to prompt a decision. The panel also discusses an AI that mistakenly flagged images with rulers as cancerous. Plus, they decode Dima Yaranovsky's art installation about unread terms—mixing humor with insights on beauty and gaming!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Roof Removal To End A Deadlock
- In 1270 Viterbo locals removed parts of the Episcopal Palace roof to force stalled papal electors out of seclusion.
- The tactic worked: after two years and ten months Pope Gregory X was elected and he formalised the conclave process.
Control Contextual Cues In Medical Datasets
- When training diagnostic AI, remove or control contextual cues like rulers and measurement markers.
- Validate models on images without procedural artefacts to ensure they learn medically relevant features.
Models Learn Proxies Not Pathology
- An AI trained on clinical photos performed well until researchers found it learned proxies rather than disease features.
- Models can latch onto correlated markers like rulers or markers in images instead of true pathology.
