October 14, 2024
SHARE
CANADALAND
#1038 Even A.I.’s Creators don’t Understand how it Works
“Artificial intelligence was considered the realm of lunatics and wackos and eccentrics. So they couldn't get hired at really elite universities in the United States. [The] University of Toronto hired them, and then it turned out they were really right and all the elite people were really wrong.” - Stephen Marche, author of “Was Linguistic A.I. Created by Accident?”
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
max collins
Director of Audio

It’s all about the T.

“T” as in the T at the end of ChatGPT. That T stands for Transformer. And it’s already transforming many aspects of your life. Novelist and essayist Stephen Marche recently investigated that T for the New Yorker magazine. He came away from the experience saying that it is the most important story he’s ever written.  His piece details what he calls the Manhattan Project of our time. He also calls it, simply, magic, and he then goes on to define  magic as “the word we use for things that are hugely powerful but we don’t understand why.”

Marche joins Jesse Brown to tackle the questions: why was Toronto a hotbed for A.I. (as marked by last week’s awarding of the Nobel Prize to U of T prof Geoffrey Hinton for his pioneering work in the field)? Why is the Japanese punk band Transformer at the very heart of this whole story? And why exactly does Marche equate T with magic?

 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Production Manager), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher), Caleb Thompson (additional production assistance)

Featured guests: Stephen Marche

Additional music by Audio Network

 

Further reading:

 

Sponsors: 

CAMH: CAMH is building better mental health care for everyone to ensure no one is left behind. This Mental Illness Awareness Week, your donation to CAMH will be matched. Visit https://camh.ca/canadaland to double your impact.

Oxio: Canadaland listeners get their first month of internet free at https://canadaland.oxio.ca, use the promo code “Canadaland”

PolicyMe: Head over to https://policyme.com and secure your Health and Dental coverage in just 5 minutes – no medical questions needed! 

Squarespace: Check out https://squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

 

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

More from this series
We take a dumpster dive to look at all the legislation that got thrown out when Trudeau prorogued Parliament. Jesse tests the theory that one person’s trash is another’s treasure.
March 10, 2025
The CBC: Defund or UnF*ck? The choice is yours as we open up the phone lines to hear what you have to say about the possible futures of the CBC.
March 3, 2025
How to tell real populism from bullshit trolling.
February 24, 2025
Russian propaganda or Canadian censorship? What happened when Russians at War came to TIFF?
February 17, 2025
What does Gavin McInnes, founder of registered terrorist entity the Proud Boys, have in common with Jonathan Goldstein, creator of the heartbreaking and hilarious podcast Heavyweight?
February 10, 2025
Hitting America where it hurts: right in the dongle.
February 3, 2025
Traitors! Treason! Why are these slurs suddenly part of the Canadian political landscape?
January 27, 2025
Is Canada a country that let a mass murderer walk free and go on to indoctrinate young minds in a university classroom? Or is Canada a country complicit in the relentless persecution of an innocent man for the last 17 years?
January 20, 2025
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND