The CEO Retort Prize-winning mathematician: AI has no intelligence! It needs people and maths to exist
I sat down with the Leslie Fox Prize-winning mathematician, my mentor and friend, Professor Jeremy Levesley, questioning whether mathematical prowess equates to true intelligence and exploring how AI might bridge or widen societal divides.
Jeremy is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leicester for over 30 years, and served as the Head of the Department of Mathematics for 10 years.
His research in applied mathematics has focused on topics including radial basis functions, their applications in finance, and forensic applications like fingerprint analysis.
- This conversation was recorded in 2024, before I decided to launch the podcast. Yet the talking points are so relevant to today's hype-driven AI world that I felt the episode needed to be revived and included in the CEOR debates. It also demonstrates the reality that AI has not really changed much. It's my counterparts behind the technology who keep on moving the goalposts.
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) – Preview
(00:03:37) – Despite being the son of a successful inventor and entrepreneur, Jeremy chose maths
(00:07:43) – Jeremy's fascinating journey into maths and his education critique
(00:16:52) – The power, beauty and universality of maths and the meaning of intelligence
(00:27:21) – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and our limited understanding of human intelligence
(00:34:55) – How humans construct their own intelligence through their own constructed realities
(00:52:10) – Critique of the education system's draconian definition of students' intelligence
(01:00:45) – The value of failure in learning at school, work and life
(01:30:33) – AI's real potential to bridge knowledge gaps and break cognitive bias
(01:38:45) – Modern capitalism's negative impact on innovation
(01:47:52) – The urgent need for responsible capitalism and the role of regulations
(01:57:47) – The role of government in facilitating innovation
(02:04:02) – How to solve the technology sector's people problem!
Episode Notes & Citations:
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