Do Robots Dream of Turing Machines?
Something about my birthday last week hit differently this year.
Being on the downslope of my final half-century sparked thoughts on aging and mortality, and it led me to consider Bronnie Ware’s regrets of dying and how I might structure my life to avoid such laments.
The core themes emerge: living authentically, balancing professional pursuits with personal fulfillment, expressing emotions openly, nurturing relationships, and actively choosing happiness. But simultaneously, one must be open to change and be resilient.
In academia, the evolution of teaching methods over my two decades as a Professor reveals the importance of adaptability. Twenty years ago, as a newbie Professor, I was all “chalk and talk”. Now, I’m navigating AI assistants, Zoom fatigue, and virtual TA chatbots, constantly trying to leverage new tools to enhance learning.
Explosive progress in AI’s capabilities in mathematics highlights a crucial distinction. While AI like ChatGPT’s Strawberry — see below — may excel in math competitions, actual mathematical creation — pursued in PhD programs — involves venturing into the unknown, often without certainty that a solution exists. This underscores the unique value of human creativity and perseverance in academic pursuits. Only a human can feel the thrill of a discovery.
For a birthday present, a wonderful conversation with my friend and mentor of nearly 30 years, Max Tegmark, MIT Professor, physicist, and AI researcher, brought levity around these topics, allaying my fears.
Max and I chuckled about ours being the real “second oldest profession,” professors have been teaching in very similar circumstances for nearly 1000 years. I couldn’t help but marvel at the irony. Here we were, two tenured professors, joking about job security while the very foundations of academia trembled beneath our feet. We’re playing academic musical chairs, and AI is about to yank away half the seats.
But then I think of past guests Richard Dawkins and Roger Penrose, intellectual giants still blazing trails at 30 and 40 years my senior! They’re not just surviving in academia but thriving, proving that the human mind can still outpace silicon for the race; as Ecclesiastes said some 30 centuries ago, it belongs “not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
So, as the smoke from my recently extinguished birthday candles dissipates for another year, I do not wish for job security or protection from AI. Instead, I’m hoping for the passion of Dawkins, the insight of Penrose, and just a smidgen of their longevity. After all, in the grand lecture hall of life, it’s not about avoiding obsolescence — it’s about making sure we’ve got something to say that even the smartest AI would pay tuition to hear.
Here’s to hoping that when I’m 93, I’ll be less worried about AI taking my job and more concerned with whether my holographic lectures are in focus. Cheers to the future of education, whatever form it may take!
Until next time, have a M.A.G.I.C. Week,
Brian
Appearance
My Intro to Cosmology course is now appearing exclusively at Peterson Academy.
Join me on the 9-hour captivating journey through the cosmos, exploring its vastness, the tools used to unravel it’s mysteries, and the groundbreaking discoveries that have shaped our understanding of the universe.
We examine the evidence for an expanding universe, the forces driving its evolution, and the cosmic fossils that shed light on its distant past and future. The course also delves into the enigmatic concepts of dark matter and energy, their roles in the universe’s structure and fate, and their ongoing efforts to unravel these cosmic mysteries.
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Genius
This week saw many revolutionary announcements in AI. Apple released their newest line of AI native phones, promising to save the richest 100 million people in the world 3 seconds in their quest to read a Yelp review.
My friend Peter Thiel claimed the Turing test had been passed by ChatGPT and the parent company of ChatGPT — OpenAI — released their highly-touted o1 Strawberry model this week amid claims that it is capable of “PhD level reasoning”. I’m skeptical.
AI presents both incredible promises and significant threats to the academic profession. AI has the potential to revolutionize education by personalizing learning experiences, automating administrative tasks, and providing innovative tools that enhance both teaching and learning.
Imagine AI-driven platforms that tailor coursework to each student’s strengths and weaknesses or intelligent tutors offering real-time feedback and support. But to claim it’s already at a PhD level is presumptive. Strawberry can score highly on ‘math olympiad’ type competitions to be sure. And while excelling in a math competition is impressive, it’s not the same as mathematical creation. Math competitions have known solutions. As a PhD student, you might think solving math problems is just doing more challenging homework. However, for real grad school math problems, often no one, not even your advisor, knows for sure if an answer even exists. That is the mindset shift you must grasp in order to thrive as a graduate student.
Image
One of the best parts of thinking in public, as I often do, is meeting amazing public intellectuals and artists like Rolli.
Rolli is a cartoonist with a heroic addiction and tolerance for both satire and coffee. He often consumes two dozen cups of black bean juice per day — 12 times my intake; his work is frequently featured in the Wall Street Journal and has a newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. And you can buy him a coffee, of course, as I often do! I found this cartoon entirely appropriate for many situations I found myself in this week…
Conversation
Does life exist beyond Earth, or is our planet genuinely unique? Can we recreate the origins of life in a lab? And what role does Mars play in the quest for cosmic life?
I had the extraordinary honor of discussing this with two outstanding scientists, Mario Livio and Jack Szostak. Mario and Jack just released their new book, Is Earth Exceptional?, which seeks to answer whether life is a freak accident or a chemical inevitability.
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Settle in for an unforgettable evening with Richard Dawkins, the world-renowned evolutionary biologist, author, and public intellectual, as he comes to Vancouver Canada on a highly anticipated tour.
Renowned for his unapologetic advocacy of science and reason, Dawkins is celebrated for groundbreaking work such as Unweaving The Rainbow, The Selfish Gene, and The God Delusion, which has captivated millions with his passion for scientific inquiry.
Dawkins aims to connect with audiences in unscripted conversations touching on topics from science to religion, life on earth, and beyond. With his trademark honesty and wit, Dawkins promises an evening filled with wisdom and insight.
I’m honored to be hosting him.
Let me know if you are attending so we can meet up!
Upcoming Episodes
- Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó joins me in studio this week to discuss her new book, Breaking Through, and her prizewinning research for her discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
