Dwarkesh Podcast

Adam Marblestone on Dwarkesh Patel: Why AI Uses Blunt Losses

Evolution-encoded cost functions give the amygdala a steering role; it labels cortex neurons with a per-stage curriculum that LLMs have no equivalent for.

DPDwarkesh PatelhostAMAdam Marblestoneguest

Dec 30, 2025·1h 49m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1
   0:00 – 22:20

   The brain’s secret sauce is the reward functions, not the architecture

2. 2
   22:20 – 42:42

   What the genome actually encodes

3. 3
   42:42 – 50:31

   What kind of RL is the brain doing?

4. 4
   50:31 – 1:03:59

   Is biological hardware a limitation or an advantage?

5. 5
   1:03:59 – 1:23:28

   Why we need to map the human brain

6. 6
   1:23:28 – 1:38:18

   What value will automating math have?

7. 7
   1:38:18 – 1:49:53

   Architecture of the brain