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Babbage from The Economist
Babbage: The science that built the AI revolution—part one
What is intelligence? In the middle of the 20th century, the inner workings of the human brain inspired computer scientists to build the first “thinking machines”. But how does human intelligence actually relate to the artificial kind?
This is the first episode in a four-part series on the evolution of modern generative AI. What were the scientific and technological developments that took the very first, clunky artificial neurons and ended up with the astonishingly powerful large language models that power apps such as ChatGPT?
Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Ainslie Johnstone, The Economist’s data journalist and science correspondent; Dawood Dassu and Steve Garratt of UK Biobank; Daniel Glaser, a neuroscientist at London’s Institute of Philosophy; Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montréal, who is known as one of the “godfathers” of modern AI.
On Thursday April 4th, we’re hosting a live event where we’ll answer as many of your questions on AI as possible, following this Babbage series. If you’re a subscriber, you can submit your question and find out more at economist.com/aievent.
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Ruff translation, part two: could AI decode animal communication?
39:34|Translation is tricky business—not least when your subject belongs to a different species. But as evidence mounts that many animals are capable of rich, complex communication, scientists are trying to bridge the inter-species gap. Already, artificial intelligence has proved a valuable tool. But one ambitious technologist is trying to take these models even further. Could his new initiative one day allow humans to speak to their fellow animals? And what else might people learn in the process?Host: Kenneth Cukier, The Economist’s deputy executive editor. Contributors: Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project; Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Earth Species Project, and The Economist’s Abby Bertics.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.Ruff translation, part one: do animals have language?
44:17|Talking to animals has long been a human fantasy. But what is the nature of animal communication—and how does chirping and barking differ from human language? This is the first episode in a two-part series about animal communication and whether it could be translated in the age of AI. We meet a researcher who is leading the largest animal communication study ever attempted, and we ask whether language is a cognitive ability that’s unique to humans, or just one of many modes of communication dotted across the tree of life. Host: Kenneth Cukier, The Economist’s deputy executive editor. Contributors: Robert Berwick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Federico Rossano of the University of California, San Diego; and The Economist’s Abby Bertics.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.Trailer: Scam Inc
03:47|A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful. The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped?Available now.To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.Yann LeCun: the godfather of machine learning is building “a new revolution in AI”
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37:35|Data has transformed sport in recent decades—from identifying the best place to shoot from in basketball and football, to helping recruit the perfect baseball player. The new age of AI, which can utilise vast amounts of data on players, promises even deeper insights. Teams are experimenting with AI tools that can help pick the best players and prepare the best tactics for individual matches. Perhaps one day these models may even be able to predict injuries. AI models could transform sport—and the experiments with games could also inform the future of AI itself.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: The Economist’s Abby Bertics; James Tozer of Prospect Sporting Insights; Patrick Lucey of Stats Perform; Petar Veličković of Google DeepMind.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.Chromosome 21: the surprising link between Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s
39:43|Since the 1980s, the average life expectancy of a person with Down’s syndrome has more than doubled, from less than 30 to well into their 60s. Living longer, though, has revealed a tragic twist—the vast majority of people with Down’s will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease by the age of 65. That’s because people with Down's syndrome, who have an extra copy of chromosome 21, produce increased amounts of beta-amyloid, a protein that is implicated as a possible cause of Alzheimer’s. To make things worse, people with Down’s syndrome often cannot access the dementia drugs that might help them—doctors are reluctant to prescribe them because people with Down’s haven't been allowed to take part in the clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs. People with Down’s think that should change. In doing so, could scientists unlock the mystery of Alzheimer’s itself?Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor and Emilie Steinmark, our science correspondent, follow the story of Kate Olmstead, who has Down’s syndrome, and her mother, Amy. Emilie also interviews John Hardy, a neuroscientist at University College London who proposed the amyloid hypothesis for Alzheimer’s in the 1990s. Thanks also to Frank Stephens of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.Gary Marcus: a sceptical take on AI in 2025
36:53|From the release of AI agents to claims that artificial general intelligence has (finally!) been achieved, 2025 will probably be another blockbuster year for AI. That sense of continuous progress is not shared by everyone, however. Generative AI, based on large language models (LLMs), struggles with reasoning, reliability and truthfulness. While progress has been made in those domains, sceptics argue that the limitations of LLMs will fundamentally restrict the future of AI.In this episode, Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, interviews Gary Marcus, one of modern AI’s most energetic critics. They discuss what to expect in 2025 and why Gary is pushing for researchers to work on a much wider range of scientific ideas (in other words, beyond deep learning) to enable AI to reach its full potential. Gary Marcus is a professor emeritus in cognitive science at New York University and the author of “Taming Silicon Valley”, a book advocating for a more responsible approach to the development of AI. For more on this topic, check out our series on the science that built the AI revolution, as well as our episodes on AGI.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.New year, new you: are your resolutions backed by science?
35:04|It wouldn’t be January without new year’s resolutions. Pledges to get in shape or cut back on vices are often guided by a plethora of wellness trends doing the rounds on social media and elsewhere. But what does science have to say about all those good intentions you might have?This week, we examine the evidence behind three popular ideas: does intermittent fasting work? Will melatonin fight your post-holiday jet lag? And can you breathe your stress away?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: The Economist’s science correspondents Tim Cross, Emilie Steinmark and Ainslie Johnstone.For more guides to health and wellness like these, check out “Well informed”, a new weekly series in The Economist’s science and technology section.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.Turning the phage: viruses that can kill superbugs (revisited)
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