What if we could cure loneliness? Philosophy, dopamine, and more with Mark Ungless

Artificial neural networks were designed to emulate the human brain - and their insane performance on a wide range of tasks is pretty good evidence to support the comparison.Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, at least according to my guest Mark Ungless, former neuroscience lecturer at Imperial and Oxford and current Director of AI at the UK's Mental Health Innovations. Mark and I have collaborated on research for 5+ years, and I've long enjoyed his thoughts on the biology of the brain, the philosophy of the mind, and how AI is changing (and being changed) by our understanding of both. In our latest conversation, we touch on...His groundbreaking research on the biological root of lonelinessHow understanding neuroscience helps you understand humansHow well neural networks represent our own minds (and whether it matters at all!)AI’s ability to do therapyWhat it means to have free will in a world where we understand more about our brains every dayFor more conversations like this, be sure to follow our Youtube channel (@ThinkingMachinesPodcast) and subscribe to our show in your favorite podcast player.