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PODCAST

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz

A biweekly podcast where hosts Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg interview the builders on the edge of AI and explore the dramatic shift it will unlock in the coming years. The Cognitive Revolution is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co

technology entrepreneurship

All Episodes

84:02

The Decade of May 15-22, 2025: Google's 50X AI Growth...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/06/12

Logan Kilpatrick from Google DeepMind returns for his fifth appearance to discuss Google’s transformation from "sleeping giant" to AI powerhouse, sharing insights from his year at the company as AI usage grew 50 times to 500 trillion tokens per month. He examines Google’s strengths, including superior compute infrastructure, frontier models like Gemini 2.5 Pro, viral products like NotebookLM, and the deepest AI research talent in the industry. The conversation covers whether leading AI companies

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63:40

a16z on Protecting Little Tech: The Techno-Optimist...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/06/09

In this episode, Matt Perault, Head of AI Policy at a16z, discusses their approach to AI regulation focused on protecting "little tech" startups from regulatory capture that could entrench big tech incumbents. The conversation covers a16z's core principle of regulating harmful AI use rather than the development process, exploring key policy initiatives like the Raise Act and California's SB 813. Perault addresses critical challenges including setting appropriate regulatory thresholds, transparency

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123:21

Don't Make Mirror Life: Synthetic Biologist Kate...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/06/07

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, University of Minnesota Professor of Genetics and Synthetic Biologist, Kate Adamala, offers insights into synthetic biology and its potential implications for humanity. The discussion begins with an overview of synthetic biology and its goal to expand the chemical repertoire of life. Adamala delves into 'mirror life'—biological systems made of mirror-image molecules—and the significant risks they pose. She highlights parallels to AI safety concerns and

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74:14

What did Google's AI Co-Scientist "Discover"? The...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/06/04

We're following up on our recent episode on Google's AI Co-Scientist with a special crossover episode from the Podovirus podcast. Hosts Dr Jessica Sacher and Dr Joe Campbell speak with José Penadés and Tiago Costa, scientists at Imperial College London who made a surprising discovery that Google's AI Co-Scientist later put forward as a hypothesis entirely on its own.The episode explores the fascinating world of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) and phage-inducible chromosomal islands

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112:52

Mechanistic Interpretability: Philosophy, Practice &...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/29

In this episode, Daniel Balsam and Tom McGrath, at Goodfire, discuss the future of mechanistic interpretability in AI models. They explore the fundamental inputs like models, compute, and algorithms, and emphasize the importance of a rich empirical approach to understanding how models work. Balsam and McGrath provide insights into ongoing projects and breakthroughs, particularly in scientific domains and creative applications, as they aim to push the frontiers of AI interpretability. They also

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61:16

The Perfect Substrate for AGI, with Replit CEO Amjad...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/22

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Amjad Masad , founder and CEO of Replit, discusses the fast-paced growth of Replit, the concept of 'vibe coding', and the challenges and opportunities in the rapidly evolving AI-assisted coding space. He shares insights into Replit's competitive advantages, known as 'moats', and how they maintain their lead through innovation and excellence in execution. The conversation delves into the architectural complexities of building AI agents, their autonomy, and

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103:36

The RAISE Act: Minimum Standards for Frontier AI...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/20

In this episode, New York State Assembly Member Alex Bores discusses the RAISE Act, a proposed bill aimed at regulating frontier AI models with basic safety protocols. He explains his background in technology, his motivations for the bill, and the legislative process. He emphasizes the importance of having clear safety protocols, third-party audits, and whistleblower protections for AI developers. He explains the intricacies of the bill, including its focus on large developers and frontier models,

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107:38

Gemini Robotics – AI for the Physical World, with...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/17

In this engaging episode of the Cognitive Revolution, host Nathan Labenz welcomes guests Keerthana Gopalakrishnan and Ted Xiao to revisit significant advancements in robotics over the past year. Key themes discussed include the proliferation of new robotics companies, the emergence of humanoid robots, and the development of sophisticated foundation models. The conversation highlights the transformative potential of imitation learning, the evolution from simple lab-based tasks to complex, real-world

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131:25

Titans: Neural Long-Term Memory for LLMs, with author...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/15

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Ali Behrouz, a PhD student at Cornell University, delves into his research on enhancing memory mechanisms in large language models through his latest paper titled Titans. Behrouz discusses the limitations of current models in maintaining long-term coherence and introduces the concept of a neural network as a memory module. Highlighting architectures such as memory as context and memory as gate, he explains how these innovative approaches can significantly

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79:32

Luma Labs' Diffusion Revolution: from Dream Machine...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/11

In this episode of the Cognitive Revolution podcast, the host Nathan Labenz welcomes Amit Jain, CEO and Jiaming Song, Chief Scientist at Luma Labs, alongside co-host Stephen Parker. The conversation delves into the latest advancements and products from Luma Labs, makers of the Dream Machine, including cutting-edge models and features like camera motion and creative video generation tools. They explore technical aspects like pre-training for diffusion models and the development of concepts to improve

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123:13

OpenAI's Identity Crisis: History, Culture &...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/08

In this episode, former OpenAI research scientist Steven Adler discusses his insights on OpenAI's transition through various phases, including its growth, internal culture shifts, and the contentious move from nonprofit to for-profit. The conversation delves into the initial days of OpenAI's development of GPT-3 and GPT-4, the cultural and ethical disagreements within the organization, and the recent amicus brief addressing the Elon versus OpenAI lawsuit. Steven Adler also explores the broader

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149:21

AI Control: Using Untrusted Systems Safely with Buck...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/04

In this episode, we share a fascinating conversation from the 80,000 Hours Podcast between Rob Wiblin and Buck Shlegeris, CEO of Redwood Research. Buck dives deep into the emerging field of AI Control strategies for safely working with powerful AIs even if they’re not fully aligned. They explore innovative techniques like always-on auditing, honeypotting, re-sampling, and factored cognition to monitor and manage AI behaviors. This discussion highlights both the promise and challenges of controlling

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122:05

Blueprint for AI Armageddon: Josh Clymer Imagines AI...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/05/01

In this episode of the Cognitive Revolution, an AI-narrated version of Joshua Clymer's story on how AI might take over in two years is presented. The episode is based on Josh's appearance on the Audio Tokens podcast with Lukas Peterson. Joshua Clymer, a technical AI safety researcher at Redwood Research, shares a fictional yet plausible AI scenario grounded in current industry realities and trends. The story highlights potential misalignment risks, competitive pressures among AI labs, and the

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103:05

Fiverr Goes All-In on AI: Empowering Creators, Not...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/26

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, host Nathan Labenz speaks with Micha Kaufman, founder and CEO of Fiverr, about the company's new AI suite called Fiverr Go. Kaufman shares his unique values-based approach to AI implementation, which aims to empower human creators rather than replace them in the freelance marketplace. The conversation explores how Fiverr is attempting to build an AI-human hybrid model that maintains the incentives for human creativity while providing freelancers with

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129:51

Securing Superintelligence: National Security,...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/23

In this thought-provoking episode of The Cognitive Revolution, host Nathan Labenz speaks with Jeremy and Edouard Harris, founders of Gladstone AI and authors of "America's Superintelligence Project." The conversation explores a critical dilemma facing US policymakers: balancing the race to develop advanced AI ahead of China against the risks of losing control of increasingly powerful systems. Drawing from their extensive research with intelligence officials and technical experts, the Harris brothers

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188:19

Is OpenAI's o3 AGI? Zvi Mowshowitz on Early AI...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/21

In this episode of the Cognitive Revolution podcast, the host Nathan Labenz is joined for the record 9th time by Zvi Mowshowitz to discuss the state of AI advancements, focusing on recent developments such as OpenAI's O3 model and its implications for AGI and recursive self-improvement. They delve into the capabilities and limitations of current AI models in various domains, including coding, deep research, and practical utilities. The discussion also covers the strategic and ethical considerations

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149:35

AI News Crossover: A Candid Chat with Liron Shapira...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/19

In this crossover episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan Labenz joins Liron Shapira of Doom Debates, for a wide-ranging news and analysis discussion about recent AI developments. The conversation covers significant topics including GPT-4o image generation's implications for designers and businesses like Waymark, debates around learning to code, entrepreneurship versus job security, and the validity of OpenAI's $300 billion valuation. Nathan and Leron also explore AI safety organizations,

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89:35

Helen Toner: OpenAI Reflections, Adaptation Buffers,...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/16

In this thought-provoking conversation, Helen Toner, Director of Strategy at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), discusses her perspectives on AI development, regulation, and international competition. Toner shares insights from her time on OpenAI's board, clarifying that reports about a "Q*" breakthrough influencing the board's decision were "totally false." She introduces her concept of "adaptation buffers"—critical windows of time between when AI capabilities are first

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99:16

Is a US-China Thucydides Trap Unavoidable? With David...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/13

In this crossover episode from the China Talk podcast, Nathan Labenz shares a thought-provoking conversation between Jordan Schneider, Ilari Michaela, and Professor David C. Kang that challenges conventional Western perspectives on East Asian international relations. Professor Kang argues that studying East Asian history on its own terms reveals a remarkably stable geopolitical system spanning nearly a millennium, where China maintained regional dominance without conquest through compatible cultures

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87:57

New in Nature: Google Agents Beat Human Doctors, Make...

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders,... ·

2025/04/10

In this episode, Nathan Labenz speaks with Vivek Natarajan and Anil Palepu from Google DeepMind about their groundbreaking work on AMIE (Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer) and Co-Scientist. The conversation reveals how these AI systems are already outperforming human physicians in diagnostic accuracy and treatment recommendations, with AMIE now entering clinical trials at a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. Even more remarkably, the Co-Scientist system demonstrates genuine scientific

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313 results

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