
"The Cognitive Revolution"
"AI Scout" Nathan Labenz studies AI from all angles. Subscribe for interviews with startup founders, CEOs, ML researchers, safety & policy analysts – plus periodic "scouting reports" that go deep on critical topics.
Latest episodes

Mar 20, 2024 • 1h 43min
Interfacing with AI, with Linus Lee of Notion AI
Linus Lee from Notion AI discusses innovative interfaces for text and image manipulation, the future of AI reasoning capabilities, and the importance of failure analysis and model merging in AI development. The podcast explores practical AI tools like PyTorch, advancements in language models, and the societal implications of AI advancements.

Mar 15, 2024 • 1h 20min
Robotics Research Update, with Keerthana Gopalakrishnan and Ted Xiao of Google Deepmind
In this podcast, they discuss breakthroughs in robotics research such as internet-scale vision-language for robots, training robots with a single human demonstration, and using language models for ethical oversight. They also cover challenges in robotics models, safety concerns, and advancements in vision-language generalization for robots.

8 snips
Mar 13, 2024 • 1h 23min
The AI Email Assistant I've Been Waiting for, with Andrew Lee of Shortwave
The podcast discusses the innovative AI technology behind Shortwave, focusing on the AI assistant for efficient email management. They dive into the challenges and solutions in PG vector databases, optimizing AI email assistants, enhancing model security, and future interaction methods. The conversation also explores startup strategy and the benefits of AI email assistants for boosting productivity.

Mar 11, 2024 • 2h 35min
The State of AI, from the 80,000 Hours Podcast
Today, for our first full episode on the new Cognitive Revolution feed, I'm pleased to share part 2 of my recent appearance on the 80,000 Hours podcast, which presents "In-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them"It's my view, and the premise of this show, that the pace of change in AI is making it nearly impossible for leaders, both in society at large and even in the field itself, to keep up with all the latest developments, and that the growing disconnect between what exists and what people understand represents an increasingly pressing problem, which if not effectively addressed, will likely lead to increasingly dysfunctional discourse, and ultimately major blunders by key decision makers.In this episode, we cover:- what AI systems can and can't do, as of late 2023, across language and visual models, medicine, scientific research, self-driving cars, robotics, and weapons;- what the next big breakthroughs could be,- the state of AI discourse and the need for positions which combine the best of accelerationist and safety-focused perspectives,- the chance that irresponsible development provokes a societal backlash and/or heavy-handed regulation,- a bunch of shout outs to the folks I follow and trust to help me keep up with everything that's going on,- and more along the wayI definitely encourage you to subscribe to the 80,000 hours podcast feed, where you can find part 1 of this conversation, which centered on OpenAI's leadership drama and safety record, among many other conversations with inspiring difference-makers. As always, but especially right now as we're establishing the new feed, I would ask that you take a moment to share the Cognitive Revolution with your friends – I've got a number of great pieces on tap, which will only be available on this feed, and I want to make sure my amazing guests get the attention they deserve, so I'll very much appreciate your help in spreading the word.For now, I hope you enjoy this wide-angle scouting report, from my appearance on the 80,000 Hours podcast with Rob Wiblin!https://80000hours.org/podcast/

Mar 9, 2024 • 8min
The Evolution of the Revolution
The podcast explores the evolution of AI scouting, future research directions, new content formats, and collaborations in AI and biology. Expect deeper dives into AI topics and collaborations with other AI scouting talents.
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