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Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means - Prof. Christopher Summerfield

Jun 17, 2025 · 1h 8m

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About this episode

We interview Professor Christopher Summerfield from Oxford University about his new book "These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It". AI learned to understand the world just by reading text - something scientists thought was impossible. You don't need to see a cat to know what one is; you can learn everything from words alone. This is "the most astonishing scientific discovery of the 21st century."People are split: some refuse to call what AI does "thinking" even when it outperforms humans, while others believe if it acts intelligent, it is intelligent. Summerfield takes the middle ground - AI does something genuinely like human reasoning, but that doesn't make it…