Peering Into A.I.’s Black Box + Who’s The Real Techno-Optimist? + Reading Ancient Scrolls With A.I.

A.I. models are black boxes. You input a prompt and the model outputs nearly anything: a sonnet, an image or a legal brief riddled with lies. Today, a look at three ways that researchers are unlocking that black box in hopes of bringing transparency to A.I.

Then, Marc Andreessen’s techno-optimist manifesto has left us asking, Is he OK?!

Plus: decoding a 2,000-year-old ancient scroll with the help of A.I.

Today’s Guest:

• Brent Seales is a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky.

Additional Information:

• Kevin Roose on learning more about how A.I. works.
• Marc Andreessen’s 5,000-word manifesto
• Using A.I. to decode a scroll that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

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