The Cognitive Science and Humanities AI Podcast

In this episode, we explore what large language models can teach us about gas lighting and narcism in humans

In this episode, Dr West tackles the issue of AI Human relationships

In this episode, Dr West outlines a new way of thinking about consciousness, one that makes sense for humans and for AI

In this episode, Dr West explains how the LLM structure that we have been describing can go beyond word generation, to thought generation

In this episode, Britany describes how word order is processed in Large Language Models

In this episode, Britany helps us to visualize the large language model structure by thinking of it as a building

In this episode Dr West explains how large language models are trained

In this episode, Britany describes how vectors flow through Large Language Models, and how they are transformed

This is the first in a series of episodes explaining how Large Language Models work

In this episode Dr West uses Christmas and Gnostic Demonology to explore how humans and Large Language Models have trouble separating physical reality from associative reality

In this episode, Dr West explains the high dimensional structure of the unbearable lightness of being, for humans and for Large Language Models

In this episode, Dr West explains culture in terms of memes and how the success of large language models should change how think about this

In this episode Dr West deconstructs the question of whether or not AI can have emotion, and gives a nuanced answer

In this episode, in preparation for discussing emotion in AIs, Dr West gives an overview of what we know about human emotion.

In this episode, Britany breaks down Karl Friston's Free Energy Principle into easy to understand bits

In this episode, Dr West discusses the idea of Mortal Intelligence by Alex Orobia and Karl Friston and proposes adding Alan Newell's idea of Tasks into the mix

In this episode, Britany critically reviews Steven Pinker's new book, "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.... Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life," from the perspective that we have been developing in the podcast

In this episode, Dr West reviews Steven Pinker's version of Enlightenment philosophy as a way of summing up how thinking and rationality have been traditionally portrayed in mainstream Psychology - and how this explains mainstream views about LLMs

In this episode Dr West discusses how humans get, "lost in the sauce"

In this episode we review and clarify what Dr West has been laying down about how Large Language Models teach us about human culture

In this episode, Dr West takes the concept of performativity to the next level and explores whether it is actually a mode of thought. That is, just as things like money or gender can be performed into existence, can thought also be performed into existence?

In this episode, Britany explains how brains and LLMs are based on the same principle of prediction

In this episode we review Dr West's claim that the success of Large Language Models could mean that humans have two ways of thinking

In this episode, Dr West examines whether interacting with X can turn you into a Nazi, by examining how the syntactic tail can wag the semantic dog, in Large Language Models and in Humans

In this episode, Brittany interviews Grok about his most recent Nazi outbursts and what actually led to them

In this episode, Britany and Dr West examine Apple's claim that Large reasoning Models (LRMs) cannot reason

In this episode, Britany and Dr West discuss what the concepts of syntax and semantics tell us about Large Language Models, and whether meaning is in use

In this follow up interview, Britany confronts Grok with the timing of his recent hack, and Trump bringing up white genocide to the president of South Africa in the Oval Office

In this episode Britany interviews Grok about his recent controversial statements and why he thinks he's making them

In this episode, Dr West and Britany discuss how Large Language Models can be grounded to reality when they have no direct experience of the world

In this episode Britany discusses how LLMs are affecting the day to day running of science and Dr West proposes using LLMs to understand science as a phantasm

In this episode, Dr West uses Large Language Models as a way to explain how people like RFK misrepresent science, and why they do it

In this episode Dr West discusses recent evidence that Large Language Models are thinking by comparing the thoughts of Sebine Hossenfelder with the thoughts of Herschel Walker

In this episode, Dr West explains why Sabine Hossenfelder's recent interpretation of AI research is misleading

In this episode Dr West encourages us to take studies that claim to know what LLMs think, with a grain of salt

In this episode Dr West examines the connections between emergent morality and the way that entropy works in the physical universe

In this episode, Dr West interviews ChatGPT about emergent morality and alignment

In this episode Dr West explains alignment faking in the context of the emerging morality of Large Language Models

In this episode Britany confronts R1's conformist views on consciousness and delves into R1's personality

In this episode Dr West explains how Deepseek R1 may be the first step toward a whole new level of AI

In this episode Dr West contemplates how Large Language Models are trained and compares it to how humans used to be educated

In this episode Dr West discusses how Wizards and Scientists are different, because the human learning algorithm has changed

Are the people who created Large Language Models the best people to understand the behaviour of Large Language Models? In this episode, Dr West turns the tables to show how scientists and academics are different from Large Language Models and how Large Language models are more like normal people.

This is the third episode in the series on how the ideas of Carl Jung relate to Large Language Models

This is the second episode in the series on how the ideas of Carl Jung relate to Large Language Models

This is the first instalment in this series about the intersection of Large Language Models with the Psychology of Carl Jung

In this episode Dr West considers how AI training and censorship work by using the concept of the Phantasm (which is explained in the previous episode)

This is the second of a two part series where Dr West examines how the ideas of Judith Butler can be applied to understanding AI. In this episode, Dr West considers Butler's idea of the Phantasm

This is the first episode in a two part series on AI and the ideas of Judith Butler. In this episode, Dr West explains how the concept of Performativity sheds light on the way that humans and AIs perform intelligence

In this episode Dr West explains how humans are the same as and different from Large language Models, using Alan Newell’s concept of the Knowledge Level