#22 – Machine Minds with Dr. Matt McCormick
In Algo Podcast Episode 22, Dr. Matt McCormick and Amjad Hussain discuss Machine Minds.
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0:00 Episode Preview
0:24 Introduction
3:14 Philosophy Jokes
4:40 Conscious Machines from a Philosophy Perspective
5:26 How much of what we learn is from experience?
8:55 Shift in modern computer science to parallel distributed processing
10:50 Self Driving Cars & Theory of Mind
14:32 Minds emerge at the complex systems level
15:41 Connectome
17:26 Artificial Neural Networks
19:32 Training Blank Networks vs. A Priori Structuring
20:58 Frostbite Challenge
23:34 Humans bringing more to the table when they have world encounters
24:52 Board Games & Monte Carlo Research
29:19 A priori knowledge
32:15 Early Infant Milestones
35:08 Evolution & how babies learn
38:41 Evolution & highly organized design of human bodies
43:49 A priori vs. a posteriori
44:58 Innate Mind Frameworks
47:00 AI struggles without intuitive physics
48:34 Language of Thought
55:22 Philosophy of AI
56:04 Secret key to Conscious AI
59:23 Subverbal
1:02:44 Robots with facial expressions
1:07:43 R2-D2
1:08:57 C2: Modeling minds for humans
1:11:08 The Intentional Stance
1:15:51 Human Mind Map
1:17:17 AI Mind Map
1:18:48 AI Medical Research
1:23:22 Why do some scientists think we are living in a simulation?
1:28:45 How to use AI to resemble human capabilities
1:30:31 AI systems are too simple to have feelings
1:37:51 Power switch of consciousness
1:40:12 You need to be alive to have a subjective experience
1:43:33 Consciousness at neural systems level
1:47:28 Subjective phenomenal experiences
1:49:35 Turing tests
1:53:27 Humans discounting AI capabilities
1:56:42 Advanced fMRI Machines
1:58:55 Conscious experiences for patients in vegetative states
2:07:06 When will AI pass the Turing test?
2:08:37 Closing Thoughts
About the host

Amjad Hussain
Amjad Hussain is an entrepreneur at heart. He founded Algo where he is the CEO during the day and AI lego blocks designer at night. He has built an intrinsically motivated global team of deep business domain experts, AI architects, computer scientists and software engineers. Algo is an always on full stack platform with deep learning, augmented reality and workflow automation woven at its core. The platform has a conversational virtual business analyst persona as its primary user interface. The company is enjoying sustainable growth creating tremendous net new value for its customers world-wide.
Amjad completed his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering with Honors from UET Lahore. He earned his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from UMIST, in the United Kingdom and an Advanced Analytics MBA from MIT. He has completed general management programs at Harvard and Stanford business schools. Amjad deeply cares about ethical issues surrounding AI and its societal impact.