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Jay McClelland: Neural Networks and the Emergence of Cognition | Lex Fridman Podcast #222

Jay McClelland is a cognitive scientist at Stanford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit - Skiff: https://skiff.org/lex to get early access - Uprising Food: https://uprisingfood.com/lex to get $10 off 1st starter bundle - Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Jay's Website: https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/ 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 0:43 - Beauty in neural networks 5:02 - Darwin and evolution 10:47 - The origin of intelligence 17:29 - Explorations in cognition 23:33 - Learning representations by back-propagating errors 29:58 - Dave Rumelhart and cognitive modeling 43:01 - Connectionism 1:05:54 - Geoffrey Hinton 1:07:49 - Learning in a neural network 1:24:42 - Mathematics & reality 1:31:50 - Modeling intelligence 1:42:28 - Noam Chomsky and linguistic cognition 1:56:49 - Advice for young people 2:07:56 - Psychiatry and exploring the mind 2:20:35 - Legacy 2:26:24 - Meaning of life SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Lex FridmanhostJay McClellandguest
Sep 20, 20212h 31mWatch on YouTube ↗

Episode Details

EPISODE INFO

Released
September 20, 2021
Duration
2h 31m
Channel
Lex Fridman Podcast
Watch on YouTube
▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Jay McClelland is a cognitive scientist at Stanford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

EPISODE LINKS: Jay's Website: https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/ 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 0:43 - Beauty in neural networks 5:02 - Darwin and evolution 10:47 - The origin of intelligence 17:29 - Explorations in cognition 23:33 - Learning representations by back-propagating errors 29:58 - Dave Rumelhart and cognitive modeling 43:01 - Connectionism 1:05:54 - Geoffrey Hinton 1:07:49 - Learning in a neural network 1:24:42 - Mathematics & reality 1:31:50 - Modeling intelligence 1:42:28 - Noam Chomsky and linguistic cognition 1:56:49 - Advice for young people 2:07:56 - Psychiatry and exploring the mind 2:20:35 - Legacy 2:26:24 - Meaning of life SOCIAL:

SPEAKERS

  • Lex Fridman

    host
  • Jay McClelland

    guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Jay McClelland, Jay McClelland: Neural Networks and the Emergence of Cognition | Lex Fridman Podcast #222 explores neural Networks, Emergent Mind, and the Limits of Human Understanding Jay McClelland traces how neural networks bridge biology and cognition, arguing that thought and meaning emerge from massively parallel, connectionist systems rather than explicit symbolic rules. He recounts the early days of connectionism with Rumelhart and Hinton, including the birth of backpropagation and interactive activation models, and how these reshaped cognitive science and AI.

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