
Ep147 "Can we engineer human thought?" with Tom Griffiths
From Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman by iHeartPodcasts
March 30, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 147
About this episode
The episode explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and human thought with cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths.
Can the mind be captured with math? Modern AI seems to have burst out of the gate recently, but is it actually the latest chapter in a 300-year project to turn thought into something we can model? Why does current AI need petabytes of data, but a child can learn from just a few examples? Why does AI have 'jagged' intelligence – meaning it looks brilliant in one moment and then does something that seems nonsensical? In physics we have various laws (gravity, motion, etc), and today we’re joined by cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths to ask whether we're moving towards laws of thought.
People in this episode
Host: David Eagleman
Guest: Tom Griffiths
Topics covered
- human thought
- artificial intelligence
- cognitive science
- modeling thought
- learning from examples
Keywords
- AI
- human thought
- cognitive science
- learning
- data
- intelligence
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: AI
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