Episode
Tomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
1:20:29
Published: Sat Jan 19 2019
Description
Tomaso Poggio is a professor at MIT and is the director of the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines. Cited over 100,000 times, his work has had a profound impact on our understanding of the nature of intelligence, in both biological neural networks and artificial ones. He has been an advisor to many highly-impactful researchers and entrepreneurs in AI, including Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, Amnon Shashua of MobileEye, and Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Video version is available on YouTube. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations.
Chapters
This podcast episode discusses how Einstein's thought experiment on communication with lights between a stationary observer and somebody on a train was able to contribute greatly to the understanding of how time depends on space and speed.
00:00 - 03:52 (03:52)
Summary
This podcast episode discusses how Einstein's thought experiment on communication with lights between a stationary observer and somebody on a train was able to contribute greatly to the understanding of how time depends on space and speed. The host also explores the question of whether the ability to imagine and visualize like great physicists is innate in all of us or if it is unique to certain individuals.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The problem of human intelligence has become a focus of research for scientists, including the need for deep learning techniques to have a lot of labeled examples.
03:54 - 20:10 (16:16)
Summary
The problem of human intelligence has become a focus of research for scientists, including the need for deep learning techniques to have a lot of labeled examples. The question remains whether understanding the biological workings of the human brain is necessary to create advanced intelligence systems.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Despite knowing a lot about the details and top-level questions of the brain, there are still basic questions about general neuroscience that remain unanswered, such as why we sleep.
20:12 - 36:16 (16:03)
Summary
Despite knowing a lot about the details and top-level questions of the brain, there are still basic questions about general neuroscience that remain unanswered, such as why we sleep. The understanding of the algorithms and computations in the brain circuits is intertwined with each other unlike in hardware and software systems.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The limitations of the brain's short range connectivity, paired with the limited number of long range connectivity, result in the construction of deep convolutional networks.
36:17 - 44:57 (08:39)
Summary
The limitations of the brain's short range connectivity, paired with the limited number of long range connectivity, result in the construction of deep convolutional networks. Stochastic gradient descent is what artificial neural networks use to learn and solve the problems presented, however, for images and other physical compositions, more data is needed than the amount of parameters used.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
GANs have the potential to not only improve computer graphics but also assist in unsupervised learning, including reducing the number of labeled examples needed.
44:57 - 55:44 (10:47)
Summary
GANs have the potential to not only improve computer graphics but also assist in unsupervised learning, including reducing the number of labeled examples needed. They can also help with automatic segmentation of objects from the background in scenarios involving motion boundaries.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker believes that while it is important to consider safety measures against AI, comments made by individuals such as Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom can be misleading.
55:44 - 1:02:30 (06:45)
Summary
The speaker believes that while it is important to consider safety measures against AI, comments made by individuals such as Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom can be misleading. They suggest that we are currently in a golden age for low-level vision and speech recognition applications, and that it will likely be 100 years before we develop a general intelligence system on par with a human being.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The conversation explores the connections between neuroscience, ethics, consciousness, and mortality, pondering whether our finite existence is a necessary component for consciousness and intelligence.
1:02:30 - 1:12:40 (10:10)
Summary
The conversation explores the connections between neuroscience, ethics, consciousness, and mortality, pondering whether our finite existence is a necessary component for consciousness and intelligence.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker emphasizes the importance of discovering something with other intelligent and curious people and encourages asking insightful questions when given the opportunity to seek an answer from an oracle.
1:12:40 - 1:18:44 (06:04)
Summary
The speaker emphasizes the importance of discovering something with other intelligent and curious people and encourages asking insightful questions when given the opportunity to seek an answer from an oracle.
EpisodeTomaso Poggio: Brains, Minds, and Machines
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this podcast, the host and guest discuss whether intelligence is a gift or curse from the perspective of happiness and the meaning of life.
1:18:44 - 1:20:17 (01:32)
Summary
In this podcast, the host and guest discuss whether intelligence is a gift or curse from the perspective of happiness and the meaning of life. While the guest is unsure, he hopes that one can be intelligent and happy, but also acknowledges that cluelessness can also lead to happiness.