Punching Cards

Asifa Majid, a cognitive science professor at the University of Oxford, joins forces with neurocognitive psychologist Rasha Abdel Rahman for a captivating discussion. They tackle the complexities of human intelligence and the impact of culture on cognition. The duo critiques the Western bias in psychological research, advocating for a broader view of intelligence that incorporates language and cultural nuances. They reveal how native languages shape sensory perceptions and cognitive strategies, urging a celebration of diversity in understanding human experience.

For this episode, we invited Katja Liebal, director of the LeipzigLab at the University of Leipzig, and Alex Kacelnik, head of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group at the University of Oxford, to join us in a conversation about strategies to deal with research biases linked to anthropomorphism (the tendency in science to ascribe human charateristcs to non-human entities) as well as comparative psychology and behavioural biology more broadly.

Sepp Hochreiter, a pioneer behind the LSTM model, and Alan Akbik, an expert in NLP, dive into the fascinating world of large language models. They discuss the evolution of language models and the promising potential of XLSTMs in AI coding. The conversation highlights the advantages of LSTMs versus transformers and introduces XLCMs, emphasizing their role in generative AI. They also touch on the cultural barriers to applying AI innovations in Europe, and the balance needed between AI use and traditional academic practices.

In this season, Master Students take the reins, diving deep into the intriguing world of intelligence. They explore how different species, including humans and artificial entities, express their cognitive abilities. The discussions shed light on groundbreaking research and the importance of experimental design in understanding problem-solving. Expect to gain new insights into the fascinating nature of intelligence!

Plants, cells, and other organisms do very impressive things, but we tend not to call them intelligent. Is that a mistake? In the final episode of this season, we ask: What are the boundaries of intelligence?With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Nicolas Roth, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Paco Calvo and Michael Levin.

Where does intelligence come from? Where is it going? In this episode, we talk about the biological and cultural aspects that may be behind the evolution of intelligence.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Olga Shurygina, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Cecilia Heyes and Ali Boyle.

What’s more intelligent, the ant or the ant colony? How do beehives and flocks of birds display their incredibly complex behaviors? And do those count as intelligent? In this episode we will find out how intelligence may emerge from collections of individuals, from ants to humans.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Aravind Battaje, Solveig Steinhardt.Special Guests: Guy Theraulaz and Jens Krause.

Now that we kind of know what we mean by intelligence, can we actually build it? What do we need in order to do that? In this episode, we discuss computers, robots, and a surprising paradox in Artificial Intelligence.With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Nicolas Roth, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: Lisa Miracchi and Oliver Brock.

In this episode, we are impressed by the craftsmanship of cockatoos, discuss whether apes use language, and learn about the pitfalls of testing animal intelligence.With Nicolas Roth, Benjamin Lang, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: Richard Moore and Alice von Auersperg.

When we talk about intelligence, we often mean human intelligence. But what is that? How can we study it? In this episode, we spoke to John-Dylan Haynes and Matthias Ziegler to try and understand and define human intelligence. Does it even exist? Prepare to be puzzled and question everything you've known about your own intelligence in order to figure out how it works. With Dimitri Coelho Mollo, Aravind Battaje, and Olga Shurygina.Special Guests: John-Dylan Haynes and Matthias Ziegler.