Cristos Goodrow: YouTube Algorithm | Lex Fridman Podcast #68

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

January 25, 2020

Duration

1h 30m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Cristos Goodrow is VP of Engineering at Google and head of Search and Discovery at YouTube (aka YouTube Algorithm). This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it & use code "LexPodcast": Cash App (App Store): https://apple.co/2sPrUHe Cash App (Google Play): https://bit.ly/2MlvP5w PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 3:26 - Life-long trajectory through YouTube 7:30 - Discovering new ideas on YouTube 13:33 - Managing healthy conversation 23:02 - YouTube Algorithm 38:00 - Analyzing the content of video itself 44:38 - Clickbait thumbnails and titles 47:50 - Feeling like I'm helping the YouTube algorithm get smarter 50:14 - Personalization 51:44 - What does success look like for the algorithm? 54:32 - Effect of YouTube on society 57:24 - Creators 59:33 - Burnout 1:03:27 - YouTube algorithm: heuristics, machine learning, human behavior 1:08:36 - How to make a viral video? 1:10:27 - Veritasium: Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir? 1:13:20 - Making clips from long-form podcasts 1:18:07 - Moment-by-moment signal of viewer interest 1:20:04 - Why is video understanding such a difficult AI problem? 1:21:54 - Self-supervised learning on video 1:25:44 - What does YouTube look like 10, 20, 30 years from now? CONNECT:

• Subscribe to this YouTube channel
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LexFridmanPage
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
• Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
• Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Cristos Goodrow

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Cristos Goodrow, Cristos Goodrow: YouTube Algorithm | Lex Fridman Podcast #68 explores inside YouTube’s Algorithm: Personalization, Responsibility, and Creator Well‑Being Lex Fridman interviews Christos Goodrow, YouTube’s VP of Engineering for Search and Discovery, about how the recommendation and search systems work at massive scale. They discuss the technical foundations of YouTube’s algorithm, especially collaborative filtering, embeddings, and user feedback signals such as watch time, likes, and satisfaction surveys. A major portion of the conversation focuses on YouTube’s societal responsibilities around politics, misinformation, bias, and toxicity, and how human policy, human reviewers, and machine learning interact. They also explore creator-related issues like discoverability, burnout, clickbait, and the long‑term goal of making every recommended video both personally enriching and socially responsible.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

Keoki Jackson: Lockheed Martin | Lex Fridman Podcast #33

Elon Musk: Neuralink, AI, Autopilot, and the Pale Blue Dot | Lex Fridman Podcast #49

Grant Sanderson: 3Blue1Brown and the Beauty of Mathematics | Lex Fridman Podcast #64

Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #57

Gary Marcus: Toward a Hybrid of Deep Learning and Symbolic AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #43

Christof Koch: Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #2