14 - Alison Gopnik: How Can Understanding Childhood Help Us Build Better AI?

In this episode, Anjie chats with Alison Gopnik, Professor at the Department of Psychology and Affiliate Professor at Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Alison is not only a great cognitive scientist and philosopher who has made many groundbreaking contributions to the field, but also a great science communicator. Alison authored multiple bestselling books, including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, The Gardener, and the Carpenter. She also writes widely about cognitive science and psychology for multiple national outlets including the NYT, the Atlantic, and so on. In this episode, we discussed one of her recent review pieces on the role of childhood in solving the explore-exploit dilemma, a challenge to contemporary artificial intelligence.   

Article: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0502
To learn more about Alison's research or her writings, you can visit her personal website or her lab's website.  You can also follow Alison on Twitter (@AlisonGopnik).