Oxford Professor: "AIs are strange new minds"

We interview Professor Christopher Summerfield from Oxford University about his new book "These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means". AI learned to understand the world just by reading text - something scientists thought was impossible. You don't need to see a cat to know what one is; you can learn everything from words alone. This is "the most astonishing scientific discovery of the 21st century." People are split: some refuse to call what AI does "thinking" even when it outperforms humans, while others believe if it acts intelligent, it is intelligent. Summerfield takes the middle ground - AI does something genuinely like human reasoning, but that doesn't make it human. Sponsor messages: ======== Google Gemini: Google Gemini features Veo3, a state-of-the-art AI video generation model in the Gemini app. Sign up at https://gemini.google.com Tufa AI Labs are hiring for ML Engineers and a Chief Scientist in Zurich/SF. They are top of the ARCv2 leaderboard! https://tufalabs.ai/ ======== Prof. Christopher Summerfield https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/people/christopher-summerfield These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means https://amzn.to/4e26BVa TRANSCRIPT: http://app.rescript.info/public/share/MPlTKaMvkTE8mIDFcXg8Yum2MZ1XNFsdG4eJgi2tX2o Table of Contents: Introduction & Setup 00:00:00 Superman 3 Metaphor - Humans Absorbed by Machines 00:02:01 Book Introduction & AI Debate Context 00:03:45 Sponsor Segments (Google Gemini, Tufa Labs) Philosophical Foundations 00:04:48 The Fractured AI Discourse 00:08:21 Ancient Roots: Aristotle vs Plato (Empiricism vs Rationalism) 00:10:14 Historical AI: Symbolic Logic and Its Limits The Language Revolution 00:12:11 ChatGPT as the Rubicon Moment 00:14:00 The Astonishing Discovery: Learning Reality from Words Alone 00:15:47 Equivalentists vs Exceptionalists Debate Cognitive Science Perspectives 00:19:12 Functionalism and the Duck Test 00:21:48 Brain-AI Similarities and Computational Principles 00:24:53 Reconciling Chomsky: Evolution vs Learning 00:28:15 Lamarckian AI vs Darwinian Human Learning The Reality of AI Capabilities 00:30:29 Anthropomorphism and the Clever Hans Effect 00:32:56 The Intentional Stance and Nature of Thinking 00:37:56 Three Major AI Worries: Agency, Personalization, Dynamics Societal Risks and Complex Systems 00:37:56 AI Agents and Flash Crash Scenarios 00:42:50 Removing Frictions: The Lawfare Example 00:46:15 Gradual Disempowerment Theory 00:49:18 The Faustian Pact of Technology Human Agency and Control 00:51:18 The Crisis of Authenticity 00:56:22 Psychology of Control vs Reward 01:00:21 Dopamine Hacking and Variable Reinforcement Future Directions 01:02:27 Evolution as Goal-less Optimization 01:03:31 Open-Endedness and Creative Evolution 01:06:46 Writing, Creativity, and AI-Generated Content 01:08:18 Closing Remarks REFS: Academic References (Abbreviated) Essential Books "These Strange New Minds" - C. Summerfield [00:02:01] - Main discussion topic "The Mind is Flat" - N. Chater [00:33:45] - Summerfield's favorite on cognitive illusions "AI: A Guide for Thinking Humans" - M. Mitchell [00:04:58] - Host's previous favorite "Principia Mathematica" - Russell & Whitehead [00:11:00] - Logic Theorist reference "Syntactic Structures" - N. Chomsky (1957) [00:13:30] - Generative grammar foundation "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned" - Stanley & Lehman [01:04:00] - Open-ended evolution Key Papers & Studies "Gradual Disempowerment" - D. Duvenaud [00:46:45] - AI threat model "Counterfeit People" - D. Dennett (Atlantic) [00:52:45] - AI societal risks "Open-Endedness is Essential..." - DeepMind/Rocktäschel/Hughes [01:03:42] Heider & Simmel (1944) [00:30:45] - Agency attribution to shapes Whitehall Studies - M. Marmot [00:59:32] - Control and health outcomes "Clever Hans" - O. Pfungst (1911) [00:31:47] - Animal intelligence illusion Historical References "Logic Theorist" - Newell & Simon (1956) [00:10:45] - "First superintelligence" "Computing Machinery..." - A. Turing (1950) - AI foundations Dartmouth Conference (1955) - McCarthy et al. - Birth of AI field "Logical Calculus..." - McCulloch & Pitts (1943) - Neural network foundations Philosophical Concepts Chinese Room - J. Searle [00:20:55] - Computation vs understanding Intentional Stance - D. Dennett [00:33:15] - Mental state attribution Rationalism vs Empiricism - Plato/Aristotle [00:08:35] - Core AI divide Cave Allegory - Plato [00:09:15] - Reality and perception Watchmaker Argument - W. Paley [01:07:00] - Design and complexity