Babbage: The science that built the AI revolution—part one

Economist Podcasts

The Economist

News, News & Politics

4.3 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+

If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, this episode of Babbage is available to listen for free, but if you want to listen every week,
0:06.0	you'll need to become an economist subscriber. For full details, click the link in the show notes,
0:10.9	or search online for Economist podcasts. In a world of seismic change, will your business shape the future or be shaped by it?
0:22.6	How will we capture the imagination of tomorrow's consumers?
0:27.6	Overcome operational constraints to focus on future growth.
0:32.6	And unlock economic and social prosperity through environmental responsibility.
0:39.1	With EY's full spectrum of services across sectors, we're all in to shape the future with confidence.
0:45.4	Start your transformation journey at EY.com slash transformation. The Economist
0:57.0	So we've just arrived and an industrial estate outside of Manchester.
1:07.0	We're looking at a sort of low grey industrial building with some huge tanks outside.
1:14.5	Looks very unassuming from the outside, but there's something pretty special going on inside.
1:19.8	Ainsley Johnston is a data journalist and science correspondent for the economist.
1:24.1	Hello.
1:24.7	Hello, Aisley. I'm Downwood.
1:26.6	Nice to meet you. Hi, very nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Steve.
1:28.3	Hi, I'm Steve.
1:29.3	Welcome to the UK Biobank Imaging Center.
1:32.3	She recently went to visit a brain imaging lab in the north of England.
1:36.3	The UK Biobank Imaging Study we end up with each participant contributing about 9,000 images.
1:43.3	Dawood Dasu is the head of imaging operations at UK Biobank.
1:47.5	These are things that tell you about the size, volume, the structure of the brain,
1:53.6	but also tells you about brain function as well.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.