Generally Intelligent #0: A podcast for deep learning researchers

December 6, 2020
Over the past few years, we’ve been a part of countless conversations with various deep learning researchers about the hunches and processes that inform their work. These conversations happen as part of informal paper reading groups, lab discussions, or casual chats with friends, and they have proved critical to our own research.

The intimacy and informality of these environments lends itself to stimulating conversations. Yet it often felt like a shame that the deeper understandings and hard-earned lessons from research failures were shared with just a select few, when so many others could use this knowledge to advance the frontier.

That’s why, today, we’re launching “Generally Intelligent,” a publicly available podcast made by deep learning researchers, for deep learning researchers.

In launching this project, we want to open up private conversations and delve deeper than would be possible in a normal paper or talk — not just into the ideas, opinions, and intuitions behind the work of our favorite researchers, but also their research process itself.

Parts of these conversations will get pretty in the weeds. But we are doing this intentionally — having a large, general audience is an explicit non-goal for us, and we’d rather assume some background knowledge in order to unlock deeper insights for researchers.

Our hope is that other researchers can gain both tactical advice and inspiration from these conversations, and that we can collectively help the field gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of learning and intelligence.

We chose the name “Generally Intelligent” as a reminder that we all make mistakes, and that in the research process, those mistakes should be celebrated. We care deeply about learning and growing and understanding, and while the topic can be serious, we want to remember to stay humble and joyful in our pursuit of knowledge.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey to understand the nature of learning and intelligence, and that you enjoy listening to these episodes as much as we’ve enjoyed creating them!

You can check out our first episode, and follow @imbue_ai on Twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed to get notified of future ones.