Understanding the Elegant Math Behind Modern Machine Learning

Feb 27, 2025

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Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves?

Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI.

Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying mathematical concepts that power modern machine learning, to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives–even if your last math class was in high school.

Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency?

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Links:

Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749

Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing

https://anilananthaswamy.com/

Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence

https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy

Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research

https://ksj.mit.edu/

Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron

Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance

https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0

(00:00) - The Future of AI: Agency and Exponential Growth
(01:03) - Introduction to Machine Learning and AI Concepts
(04:50) - The Journey of Writing 'Why Machines Learn'
(10:07) - Understanding the Perceptron and Its Significance
(13:40) - The Evolution of Neural Networks and AI Winters
(19:35) - Backpropagation: The Game Changer in Neural Networks
(29:51) - Convolutional Neural Networks: Advancements in Image Recognition
(35:20) - The Impact of Large Datasets on Machine Learning
(38:12) - Understanding Perceptrons and SVMs
(41:39) - The Impact of ImageNet on Machine Learning
(44:44) - The Evolution of GPUs in AI
(48:09) - Transformers: A New Era in Neural Networks
(54:21) - The Exponential Growth of AI Models
(01:01:21) - Diverging Views on AGI: Hinton vs. LeCun
(01:05:08) - The Common Thread in Anil's Work
(01:09:40) - Future Disruptions in AI and Machine Learning