About this episode

The episode explores how AI influences our understanding of the human mind through discussions with cognitive scientists.

Everyone is talking about AI these days. Often these conversations are about how AI might upend education, or work, or social life, or maybe civilization itself. But among cognitive scientists and psychologists the conversation inevitably drifts toward other questions. What does this latest generation of AI tell us about the human mind? Is it putting old ideas and theories to rest? Is it ushering in new ones? Will AI—in other words—also upend cognitive science? My guests today are Dr. Mike Frank and Dr. Gary Lupyan . Mike is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, where his lab focuses on language learning and cognition in children. Gary is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where his lab studies language and its role in augmenting human cognition. Both Gary and Mike have more recently been thinking a lot about AI and how it is challenging and deepening our understanding of the human mind. In this conversation, we talk about being interested in AI as cognitive scientists—while also being concerned about the technology as people. We discuss the linguistic abilities of frontier LLMs compared to the linguistic abilities of adult humans. We…

More episodes of Many Minds

• From the archive: Philosophers on psychedelics · July 17, 2026 · 1h 41m
• The origins of Darwin's ideas · July 3, 2026 · 1h 19m
• The sparkling deep · June 19, 2026 · 1h 20m
• Is Man the Hunter just a myth? · June 5, 2026 · 1h 32m
• Babies, dogs, and the riddles of word learning · May 22, 2026 · 1h 19m
• The inner life of the hand · May 7, 2026 · 1h 10m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Many Minds podcast page.