The Retort AI Podcast

Tom leaves stealth: Hortus AI

An exciting week for Tom, who tells Nate about his company Hortus AI, whose mission is to make AI accountable to local communities. We cover a lot of classic Retort themes as Tom makes a case for what's missing from AI development, and how models could be more healthily integrated into everyday people's lives. Press release: https://hortus.ai/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hortus-AI-Press-Release_Feb25.pdf [https://hortus.ai/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hortus-AI-Press-Release_Feb25.pdf] Company website: https://hortus.ai/ [https://hortus.ai/] Link to whitepaper: https://www.newamerica.org/rethinkai/policy-papers/a-sustainable-path-for-ai-development/ [https://www.newamerica.org/rethinkai/policy-papers/a-sustainable-path-for-ai-development/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com [https://www.retortai.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

We ask again: Is AI a science?

Tom and Nate sit down for a classic discussion of the role of AI in the modern philosophy of science. Much of this discussion is based on Thomas Samuel Kuhn's influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. We ask -- is AI a science in the Kuhn'ian sense? Will the "paradigm" worldview apply to other sciences post AI? How will scientific institutions manage the addition of AI? We promised an AI for science reading list, so here it is: * [Dario interview with Lex] [https://youtu.be/ugvHCXCOmm4?si=1hnlvue8M4pV2TqC] https://youtu.be/ugvHCXCOmm4?si=1hnlvue8M4pV2TqC [https://youtu.be/ugvHCXCOmm4?si=1hnlvue8M4pV2TqC] * Levers for biological progress [https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/levers?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios] https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/levers?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios [https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/levers?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios] * X thread on theories of change in scienceshttps://x.com/AdamMarblestone/status/1845158919523664019 [https://x.com/AdamMarblestone/status/1845158919523664019] * whitepaper linked by seb krier * Dwarkesh physics pod https://open.substack.com/pub/dwarkesh/p/adam-brown?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios [https://open.substack.com/pub/dwarkesh/p/adam-brown?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios] — Nobel in physics went to ai * Ai policy perspectives piece A new golden age of discoveryhttps://www.aipolicyperspectives.com/p/a-new-golden-age-of-discovery [https://www.aipolicyperspectives.com/p/a-new-golden-age-of-discovery] * Owl posting checking recent NeurIPS papers https://www.owlposting.com/p/can-o1-preview-find-major-mistakes [https://www.owlposting.com/p/can-o1-preview-find-major-mistakes] based on idea from Ethan Mollick https://x.com/emollick/status/1868329599438037491 [https://x.com/emollick/status/1868329599438037491] * also another post on the subject https://open.substack.com/pub/amistrongeryet/p/the-black-spatula-project?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios [https://open.substack.com/pub/amistrongeryet/p/the-black-spatula-project?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios] * Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions * intrinsic perspective https://open.substack.com/pub/erikhoel/p/great-scientists-follow-intuition?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios [https://open.substack.com/pub/erikhoel/p/great-scientists-follow-intuition?r=68gy5&utm_medium=ios] Get The Retort (https://retortai.com/)… [https://retortai.com/)…] … on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast] … on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee [https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee] … on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190] … Follow Interconnects: https://www.interconnects.ai/ [https://www.interconnects.ai/] … email us: mail@retortai.com [mail@retortai.com] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com [https://www.retortai.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Retort's biggest AI stories of 2024

We're back! Tom and Nate catch up after the Thanksgiving holiday. Our main question was -- what were the biggest AI stories of the year? We touch on the core themes of the show: infrastructure, AI realities, and and antitrust. The power buildout to scale out AI is going to have very real long-term impacts. Some links this week: * Ben Thompson's, The End of the Beginning: https://stratechery.com/2020/the-end-of-the-beginning/ [https://stratechery.com/2020/the-end-of-the-beginning/] * Miles Brundage's Substack: https://milesbrundage.substack.com/p/why-im-leaving-openai-and-what-im [https://milesbrundage.substack.com/p/why-im-leaving-openai-and-what-im] * Stochastic Parrots paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922 [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922] Thanks for listening!  Get The Retort (https://retortai.com/)… [https://retortai.com/)…] … on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast] … on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee [https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDjH8ujv7p8ELZGkBvrfv?si=fa17a4d408f245ee] … on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retort-ai-podcast/id1706223190] … Follow Interconnects: https://www.interconnects.ai/ [https://www.interconnects.ai/] … email us: mail@retortai.com [mail@retortai.com] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com [https://www.retortai.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Nobel Albatross

Tom and Nate catch up on the happenings in AI. Of course, we're focused on the biggest awards available to us as esteemed scientists (or something close enough) -- the Nobel Prizes! What does it mean in the trajectory of AI for Hinton and Hassabis to carry added scientific weight. Honestly, feels like a sinking ship.  Some links: * Schmidhuber tweet: https://x.com/SchmidhuberAI/status/1844022724328394780 [https://x.com/SchmidhuberAI/status/1844022724328394780] * Hinton "I'm proud my student fired Sam": https://x.com/Grady_Booch/status/1844145422824243290 [https://x.com/Grady_Booch/status/1844145422824243290] 00:00 Introduction 04:43 Criticism of AI-related Nobel Prize awards 09:06 Geoffrey Hinton's comments on winning the Nobel Prize 18:14 Debate on who should be credited for current AI advancements 25:53 Changes in the nature of scientific research and recognition 34:44 Changes in AI safety culture and company dynamics 37:27 Discussion on AI scaling and its impact on the industry 42:21 Reflection on the ongoing AI hype cycle Retort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetortAIPodcast] Retort on Twitter: https://x.com/retortai [https://x.com/retortai] Retort website: https://retortai.com/ [https://retortai.com/] Retort email: mail at retortai dot com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com [https://www.retortai.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Claude Needs a Constitutional Convention

Tom and Nate catch up on recent events (before the OpenAI o1 release) and opportunities in transparency/policy. We recap the legendary scam of Matt from IT department, why disclosing the outcomes of process is not enough, and more. This is a great episode on understanding why the process technology was birthed from is just as important as the outcome! Some links: * Nathan's post on Model Specs for regulation https://www.interconnects.ai/p/a-post-training-approach-to-ai-regulation [https://www.interconnects.ai/p/a-post-training-approach-to-ai-regulation] * Nathan's post on inference spend https://www.interconnects.ai/p/openai-strawberry-and-inference-scaling-laws [https://www.interconnects.ai/p/openai-strawberry-and-inference-scaling-laws] Send your questions to mail at retortai dot com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.retortai.com [https://www.retortai.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]