The bacterial world inside New Zealand's 'living fossil'

Our Changing World

MP3•Pagina principale dell'episodio

1:14:43

Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying mathematical concepts that power modern machine learning, to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives–even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…

circa un anno fa 26:31

Cam Hoffbeck, PhD candidate, Taylor lab, University of Auckland
Chye-Mei Huang, Ectotherm ranger, Auckland Zoo

Learn more:

Read the article that accompanies this episode.
Hear from another researcher who has been exploring the viruses found in tuatara.
Cam has also spoken to Emile Donovan on Nights about her research.
In 2014 Alison Ballance visited Orokonui Ecosanctuary to learn about the tuatara who had recently made the move to the cold climes of Dunedin.
Our own microbiome may affect our brain, moods and behaviour, and changes across our lives.

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

649 episodi

#Changing World #New Zealand #RNZ #Environment #Science

The bacterial world inside New Zealand's 'living fossil'

Our Changing World

305 subscribers

published circa un anno fa

MP3•Pagina principale dell'episodio

Guests:

Cam Hoffbeck, PhD candidate, Taylor lab, University of Auckland
Chye-Mei Huang, Ectotherm ranger, Auckland Zoo

Learn more:

Read the article that accompanies this episode.
Hear from another researcher who has been exploring the viruses found in tuatara.
Cam has also spoken to Emile Donovan on Nights about her research.
In 2014 Alison Ballance visited Orokonui Ecosanctuary to learn about the tuatara who had recently made the move to the cold climes of Dunedin.
Our own microbiome may affect our brain, moods and behaviour, and changes across our lives.

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

649 episodi

#Changing World #New Zealand #RNZ #Environment #Science

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New Zealand’s tuatara are the last remaining species of an order of reptile that was alive alongside the dinosaurs 240 million years ago. The rest died out about 65 million years ago, but in Aotearoa the tuatara live on, found on 32 offshore islands and in a small number of ecosanctuaries and zoos on the mainland. Now one researcher is investigating the microbial community that lives inside their gut. Are there also bacterial ‘living fossils’ to be found? And has their gut microbiome changed as a result of living in captivity on the mainland? Guests: Cam Hoffbeck, PhD candidate, Taylor lab, University of Auckland Chye-Mei Huang, Ectotherm ranger, Auckland Zoo Learn more: Read the article that accompanies this episode . Hear from another researcher who has been exploring the viruses found in tuatara . Cam has also spoken to Emile Donovan on Nights about her research. In 2014 Alison Ballance visited Orokonui Ecosanctuary to learn about the tuatara who had recently made the move to the cold climes of Dunedin . Our own microbiome may affect our brain, moods and behaviour , and changes across our lives . Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details…

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