AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Daniel Kahneman's podcast episode explores the concept of the two modes of thought: system one and system two. System one is fast, instinctive, and emotional, while system two is slower, more deliberate, and logical. He discusses how these modes of thinking influence decision-making and cognitive biases.
Kahneman reflects on the shocking capacity for cruelty demonstrated during World War II and the Holocaust. He suggests that dehumanizing others and the power dynamics at play can lead to people treating others as less than human and committing acts of cruelty. He emphasizes that this is a fundamental aspect of human nature, present in all cultures.
Kahneman discusses the current state of artificial intelligence (AI) and the challenges it faces in replicating human intelligence. He highlights the importance of grounding AI in perceptual systems and meaningful interactions with the world to overcome the limitations of deep learning and pattern matching. He also emphasizes the need for AI systems to understand causality and reasoning to achieve more comprehensive and meaningful intelligence.
Kahneman delves into the complex relationship between happiness and memory. He explores how the remembering self, which constructs memories and stories of experiences, often guides decision-making and shapes our perception of happiness. He also touches on the role of social media in magnifying and shaping our memories, and how our intuitions about happiness can sometimes contradict our actual experiences.
Kahneman addresses the replication crisis in psychological research, acknowledging the issues surrounding replicability and generalizability of findings. He emphasizes the need for pre-registered experiments, larger sample sizes, and increased statistical power to ensure robustness and reliability in psychological research.
Daniel Kahneman is winner of the Nobel Prize in economics for his integration of economic science with the psychology of human behavior, judgment and decision-making. He is the author of the popular book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” that summarizes in an accessible way his research of several decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky, on cognitive biases, prospect theory, and happiness. The central thesis of this work is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: “System 1” is fast, instinctive and emotional; “System 2” is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The book delineates cognitive biases associated with each type of thinking.
This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon.
This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”.
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 – Introduction
02:36 – Lessons about human behavior from WWII
08:19 – System 1 and system 2: thinking fast and slow
15:17 – Deep learning
30:01 – How hard is autonomous driving?
35:59 – Explainability in AI and humans
40:08 – Experiencing self and the remembering self
51:58 – Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
54:46 – How much of human behavior can we study in the lab?
57:57 – Collaboration
1:01:09 – Replication crisis in psychology
1:09:28 – Disagreements and controversies in psychology
1:13:01 – Test for AGI
1:16:17 – Meaning of life
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode