Artificial intelligence

While some fret about technology’s social impacts, Raj Reddy still believes in the power of artificial intelligence to improve lives.

How do we know if a large language model is lying? Letting AI systems argue with each other may help expose the truth.

With lots of data, a strong model and statistical thinking, scientists can make predictions about all sorts of complex phenomena. Today, this practice is evolving to harness the power of machine learning and massive datasets. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with statistician Emmanuel Candès about black boxes, uncertainty and the power of inductive reasoning.

To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical materials.

Machines work with words by embedding their relationships with other words in a string of numbers.

By tapping into a decades-old mathematical principle, researchers are hoping that Kolmogorov-Arnold networks will facilitate scientific discovery.

Today’s AI largely lives in computers, but acting and reacting in the real world — that’s the realm of robots. In this week’s episode, co-host Steven Strogatz talks with pioneering roboticist Daniela Rus about creativity, collaboration, and the unusual forms robots of the future might take.

Common sense has been viewed as one of the hardest challenges in AI. That said, ChatGPT4 has acquired what some believe is an impressive sense of humanity. How is this possible? Listen to this week’s “The Joy of Why” with co-host Steven Strogatz.

Neural networks and other forms of machine learning ultimately learn by trial and error, one improvement at a time.