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PODCAST

The AI Fundamentalists

Dr. Andrew Clark & Sid Mangalik

A podcast about the fundamentals of safe and resilient modeling systems behind the AI that impacts our lives and our businesses.

technology tech news

All Episodes

40:16

Why validity beats scale when building multi‑step AI...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2026/01/06

In this episode, Dr. Sebastian (Seb) Benthall joins us to discuss research from his and Andrew's paper entitled “Validity Is What You Need” for agentic AI that actually works in the real world. Our discussion connects systems engineering, mechanism design, and requirements to multi‑step AI that creates enterprise impact to achieve measurable outcomes. Defining agentic AI beyond LLM hypeLimits of scale and the need for multi‑step controlTool use, compounding errors, and guardrailsSystems...

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42:06

2025 AI review: Why LLMs stalled and the outlook for...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/12/22

Here it is! We review the year where scaling large AI models hit its ceiling, Google reclaimed momentum with efficient vertical integration, and the market shifted from hype to viability. Join us as we talk about why human-in-the-loop is failing, why generative AI agents validating other agents compounds errors, and how small expert data quietly beat the big models. • Google’s resurgence with Gemini 3.0 and TPU-driven efficiency • Monetization pressures and ads in co-pilot assistants •...

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49:48

Big data, small data, and AI oversight with David...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/12/09

In this episode, we look at the actuarial principles that make models safer: parallel modeling, small data with provenance, and real-time human supervision. To help us, long-time insurtech and startup advisor David Sandberg, FSA, MAAA, CERA, joins us to share more about his actuarial expertise in data management and AI. We also challenge the hype around AI by reframing it as a prediction machine and putting human judgment at the beginning, middle, and end. By the end, you might think about ...

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38:04

Metaphysics and modern AI: What is space and time?

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/11/11

We explore how space and time form a single fabric, testing our daily beliefs through questions about free-fall, black holes, speed, and momentum to reveal what models get right and where they break. To help us, we’re excited to have our friend David Theriault, a science and sci-fi afficionado; and our resident astrophysicist, Rachel Losacco, to talk about practical exploration in space and time. They'll even unpack a few concerns they have about how space and time were depicted in the ...

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38:32

Metaphysics and modern AI: What is reality?

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/10/27

In the first episode of our series on metaphysics, Michael Herman joins us from Episode #14 on “What is consciousness?” to discuss reality. More specifically, the question of objects in reality. The team explores Plato’s forms, Aristotle’s realism, emergence, and embodiment to determine whether AI models can approximate from what humans uniquely experience. Defining objects via properties, perception, and persistenceBanana and circle examples for identity and idealsPlato versus Aristo...

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16:19

Metaphysics and modern AI: What is thinking? - Series...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/10/07

This episode is the intro to a special project by The AI Fundamentalists’ hosts and friends. We hope you're ready for a metaphysics mini‑series to explore what thinking and reasoning really mean and how those definitions should shape AI research. Join us for thought-provoking discussions as we tackle basic questions: What is metaphysics and its relevance to AI? What constitutes reality? What defines thinking? How do we understand time? And perhaps most importantly, should AI systems att...

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35:11

AI in practice: Guardrails and security for LLMs

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/09/30

In this episode, we talk about practical guardrails for LLMs with data scientist Nicholas Brathwaite. We focus on how to stop PII leaks, retrieve data, and evaluate safety with real limits. We weigh managed solutions like AWS Bedrock against open-source approaches and discuss when to skip LLMs altogether. • Why guardrails matter for PII, secrets, and access control • Where to place controls across prompt, training, and output • Prompt injection, jailbreaks, and adversarial handling • RAG des...

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42:28

AI in practice: LLMs, psychology research, and mental...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/09/04

We’re excited to have Adi Ganesan, a PhD researcher at Stony Brook University, Penn University, and Vanderbilt, on the show. We’ll talk about how large language models LLMs) are being tested and used in psychology, citing examples from mental health research. Fun fact: Adi was Sid's research partner during his Ph.D. program. Discussion highlights Language models struggle with certain aspects of therapy including being over-eager to solve problems rather than building understandingCurrent mode...

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22:42

LLM scaling: Is GPT-5 near the end of exponential...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/08/19

The release of OpenAI GPT-5 marks a significant turning point in AI development, but maybe not the one most enthusiasts had envisioned. The latest version seems to reveal the natural ceiling of current language model capabilities with incremental rather than revolutionary improvements over GPT-4. Sid and Andrew call back to some of the model-building basics that have led to this point to give their assessment of the early days of the GPT-5 release. • AI's version of Moore's Law is slow...

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37:25

AI governance: Building smarter AI agents from the...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/07/22

Sid Mangalik and Andrew Clark explore the unique governance challenges of agentic AI systems, highlighting the compounding error rates, security risks, and hidden costs that organizations must address when implementing multi-step AI processes. Show notes: • Agentic AI systems require governance at every step: perception, reasoning, action, and learning • Error rates compound dramatically in multi-step processes - a 90% accurate model per step becomes only 65% accurate over four steps •...

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29:46

Linear programming: Building smarter AI agents from...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/07/08

We continue with our series about building agentic AI systems from the ground up and for desired accuracy. In this episode, we explore linear programming and optimization methods that enable reliable decision-making within constraints. Show notes: Linear programming allows us to solve problems with multiple constraints, like finding optimal flights that meet budget requirementsThe Lagrange multiplier method helps find optimal solutions within constraints by reformulating utility f...

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41:36

Utility functions: Building smarter AI agents from...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/06/12

The hosts look at utility functions as the mathematical basis for making AI systems. They use the example of a travel agent that doesn’t get tired and can be increased indefinitely to meet increasing customer demand. They also discuss the difference between this structured, economic-based approach with the problems of using large language models for multi-step tasks. This episode is part 2 of our series about building smarter AI agents from the fundamentals. Listen to Part 1 about mechanism ...

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37:06

Mechanism design: Building smarter AI agents from the...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/05/20

What if we've been approaching AI agents all wrong? While the tech world obsesses over larger language models (LLMs) and prompt engineering, there'a a foundational approach that could revolutionize how we build trustworthy AI systems: mechanism design. This episode kicks off an exciting series where we're building AI agents "the hard way"—using principles from game theory and microeconomics to create systems with predictable, governable behavior. Rather than hoping an LLM can magically handl...

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46:26

Principles, agents, and the chain of accountability...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/05/08

Dr. Michael Zargham provides a systems engineering perspective on AI agents, emphasizing accountability structures and the relationship between principals who deploy agents and the agents themselves. In this episode, he brings clarity to the often misunderstood concept of agents in AI by grounding them in established engineering principles rather than treating them as mysterious or elusive entities. Show highlights • Agents should be understood through the lens of the principal-agent relatio...

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41:58

Supervised machine learning for science with...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/03/27

Part 2 of this series could have easily been renamed "AI for science: The expert’s guide to practical machine learning.” We continue our discussion with Christoph Molnar and Timo Freiesleben to look at how scientists can apply supervised machine learning techniques from the previous episode into their research. Introduction to supervised ML for science (0:00) Welcome back to Christoph Molnar and Timo Freiesleben, co-authors of “Supervised Machine Learning for Science: How to Stop Worryi...

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27:29

Supervised machine learning for science with...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/03/25

Machine learning is transforming scientific research across disciplines, but many scientists remain skeptical about using approaches that focus on prediction over causal understanding. That’s why we are excited to have Christoph Molnar return to the podcast with Timo Freiesleben. They are co-authors of "Supervised Machine Learning for Science: How to Stop Worrying and Love your Black Box." We will talk about the perceived problems with automation in certain sciences and find out how sci...

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33:42

The future of AI: Exploring modeling paradigms

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/02/25

Unlock the secrets to AI's modeling paradigms. We emphasize the importance of modeling practices, how they interact, and how they should be considered in relation to each other before you act. Using the right tool for the right job is key. We hope you enjoy these examples of where the greatest AI and machine learning techniques exist in your routine today. More AI agent disruptors (0:56) Proxy from London start-up Convergence AIAnother hit to OpenAI, this product is available for free, unli...

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30:21

Agentic AI: Here we go again

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/02/01

Agentic AI it the latest foray into big-bet promises for businesses and society at large. While promising autonomy and efficiency, AI agents raise fundamental questions about their accuracy, governance, and the potential pitfalls of over-reliance on automation. Does this story sound vaguely familiar? Hold that thought. This discussion about the over-under of certain promises is for you. Show Notes The economics of LLMs and DeepSeek R1 (00:00:03) Reviewing recent developments in AI techn...

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32:32

Contextual integrity and differential privacy: Theory...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2025/01/07

What if privacy could be as dynamic and socially aware as the communities it aims to protect? Sebastian Benthall, a senior research fellow from NYU’s Information Law Institute, shows us how privacy is complex. He uses Helen Nissenbaum’s work with contextual integrity and concepts in differential privacy to explain the complexity of privacy. Our talk explains how privacy is not just about protecting data but also about following social rules in different situations, from healthcare to edu...

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27:43

Model documentation: Beyond model cards and system...

The AI Fundamentalists ·

2024/11/09

What if the secret to successful AI governance lies in understanding the evolution of model documentation? In this episode, our hosts challenge the common belief that model cards marked the start of documentation in AI. We explore model documentation practices, from their crucial beginnings in fields like finance to their adaptation in Silicon Valley. Our discussion also highlights the important role of early modelers and statisticians in advocating for a complete approach that includes the e...

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44 results

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