Approximately Correct: An AI Podcast from Amii (Amii - Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute)

At the end of May, thousands of AI researchers, enthusiasts and industry leaders will meet in Edmonton for Amii’s annual Upper Bound conference. It’s an event built on collaboration and sharing the latest in artificial intelligence. In this episode, Scott talks to Amii CEO Cam Linke and Amii’s Director of Academic Relations Rosa Ellithorpe about why openness is an important part of the field and how AI is pushing exciting advancements in many parts of society.

Upper Bound 2024 is on May 21-24, 2024. You can learn more about how to be a part of it at https://www.upperbound.ai

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

Artificial intelligence has been a part of video games for decades. But new advances in machine learning and generative AI could radically change how we make — and play — games. In this episode, Andrew Butcher, co-founder of Artificial Agency, talks about how the company is creating technology to make games more playful, intelligent, and fun. Tune in to discover how AI is changing game development and what that means for developers and players alike.

With generative AI becoming more and more powerful, seeing is no longer believing. Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair James Wright joins hosts Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwall to tell the truth about telling lies. Wright talks about his work on disinformation, how artificial intelligence is affecting how we view information online, and why it’s much more complicated than just a technical question. He also shares his experience in behavioural economics and how studying humans leads to advancing AI. 

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

Medicine is built on data. Clinical studies, patient charts, test results, X-rays - data helps diagnose us when we’re unhealthy and understand how to treat us. Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Ross Mitchell explores how machine learning can use this data, pulling out insights to help medical professionals work better and provide better patient outcomes.

In this Sidebar episode, we present a conversation between Mitchell and machine learning scientist Jubair Sheik about AI's massive potential in medicine and the increasing accuracy of medical AI models.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, 

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

In this episode, we’ve got a chat with legendary engineer, innovator and video game developer John Carmack Carmack sat down for a fireside chat with Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Micheal Bowling to discuss the future of artificial general intelligence, the importance of an open-source philosophy while working on ground-breaking ideas, and a look back at how Carmack’s work on Wolfenstein and Doom changed videogames forever.

Carmack was at Amii HQ to announce his latest partnership with Amii Scientific Advisor Rich Sutton to advance artificial general intelligence. 

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

How do we get the best results when AI and human beings work together? In this episode of Approximately Correct, we’re looking into Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) AI with Matt Taylor.

The Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair talks about the importance of human input in AI decision making, the need to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of both natural and artificial intelligence, and how he thinks HITL will be vital if people are to trust AI in their lives.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, 

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

Welcome to Approximately Correct! This brand-new podcast from Amii explores everything artificial intelligence: what’s happening now, and how it will change our future. We’re getting ready to release our first episodes featuring conversations with leaders in the field of AI.

But until then, here’s a sneak peek from hosts Alone Fyshe and Scott Lilwall, where they share why you need to know more about AI, what you can expect to hear — and what the name Approximately Correct means.

Main Theme: Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh⁠

It started as an idea on a beach in Barbados, and now it’s one of the ways that researchers around the world evaluate AI. On this week’s episode, Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Mike Bowling tells us the story behind the Atari benchmark and how video games from the 1980s can be used to test leading-edge AI. It’s a story of how a simple scientific curiosity can turn into something with a big impact.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

Theme from Moon Patrol on the Atari 2600

Death Theme from Pitfall on the Atari 2600

Reinforcement learning is being used to make water treatment more efficient. On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Martha White to talk about co-founding RL Core Technologies, which is exploring how RL can be used in to increase efficiency in water treatment plants and other industrial control systems. Find out more about how AI is being used in the real world and its potential large-scale impact.

Back in late 2022, Alona Fyshe was working on a TED Talk about how we evaluate the performance of Large Language Models. Little did she know, there was something big on the horizon.

In this episode, Alona tells co-host Scott Lilwall about how the release of ChatGPT shook the field of Natural Language Processing (and made her rethink her entire talk.)It’s a story about how we test machine learning models and a tremendous shift in the public’s expectations of what AI can do.

You can see the final version of Alona’s talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/alona_fyshe_does_ai_actually_understand_us

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, Keely Booth - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

In this Sidebar episode, we explore what draws AI researchers to the work that they do. Amii Fellow Bailey Kacsmar talks with Amii's Director of Scientific Operations Adam White about her research into human-centred privacy, why it’s more important than ever to think about how we protect data in AI and what the paradox privacy is.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits:

Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

Dialogues have been a way of exploring complex philosophical and moral questions since the time of Plato. And now, they might offer new ways of exploring intelligence in the age of powerful large language models.

Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Geoffrey Rockwell joins hosts Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwall to talk about where philosophy and artificial intelligence intersect, and how learning more about non-human intelligence can teach us more about ourselves.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

This week’s episode of Approximately Correct looks at how the work of Marlos C. Machado is taking reinforcement learning to new heights.

Marlos sits down with hosts Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwall to share the insights from his work using AI to control balloons in Earth's stratosphere, and what it teaches us about how reinforcement learning works in the real world.

Production Credits: Lynda Vang - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

A team of Amii researchers recently  published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature investigating a mysterious problem in deep learning that can hinder long-term continual learning. In this Sidebar episode, we talk to two of the co-authors about the problem of Loss of Plasticity, what their findings mean for advanced AI, and the journey from idea to Nature.

Read more about Loss of Plasticity: https://www.amii.ca/latest-from-amii/amii-researchers-investigate-ai-mystery-new-nature-paper-loss-plasticity/

Artificial intelligence is already proving to be a powerful tool for the classroom. But it can be much more than that. Hosts Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwall explore the ways that AI might change the way that we teach — and change the way that we think. 

They’re joined by K-12 Education Advisor Jill Kowalchuk and Director of Scientific Operations Adam White to discuss AI literacy in the classroom. What do high school and postsecondary students need to learn about AI to be prepared for the future, and how can it become a collaborator in the classroom?

Check out an extended version of this interview on our YouTube page: youtube.com/@amiithinks

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, Keely Booth - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh

In this Sidebar episode, we hear from Amii Fellow Xingyu Li about her work in using AI to highlight vital information in medical data.

Xingyu shares insights into her work on visual anomaly detection and navigating the complexities of AI in healthcare while safeguarding patient privacy. She talks with Adam White, Amii’s Director of Scientific Operations about how to do more with scarce data, and the future of AI-driven medicine.

We’re gearing up for Amii’s world-class Upper Bound AI conference at the end of May, and we wanted to share one of last year’s most popular sessions. Enjoy this taste of AI researcher Finbarr Timbers’ fantastic talk on the origins of  ChatGPT, how it has evolved and the huge impact when it was released at the end of 2022.

You can see Finbarr’s full presentation here. He’ll be back again for another riveting session at Upper Bound 2024 (May 21-24), and we've got an entire track dedicated to Generative AI this year!.

You can learn more about how to be a part of it at https://www.upperbound.ai

Production Credits: Lynda Vang, Keely Booth - Producer, Chris Onciul - Video Production, Jen Tomski - Social Media

Music Credits: Main Theme - Brooklyn Bridge by Lunareh