We answer your most pressing questions about Chicago’s controversial winter tradition.
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe - The Skeptics Guide #753 – Dec 14 2019
Live from New Zealand Skeptics Conference; News Items: Place With No Life, Superhydrophobicity, Insect on Mars, Political Anti-science, Does Adversity Increase Resilience, Climate Tipping Points, Oldest Dog, Pathway to Conspiracy Theories; Science or Fiction
Lex Fridman Podcast - Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI
Rohit Prasad is the vice president and head scientist of Amazon Alexa and one of its original creators.
This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.
This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”.
The episode is also supported by ZipRecruiter. Try it: http://ziprecruiter.com/lexpod
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 – Introduction
04:34 – Her
06:31 – Human-like aspects of smart assistants
08:39 – Test of intelligence
13:04 – Alexa prize
21:35 – What does it take to win the Alexa prize?
27:24 – Embodiment and the essence of Alexa
34:35 – Personality
36:23 – Personalization
38:49 – Alexa’s backstory from her perspective
40:35 – Trust in Human-AI relations
44:00 – Privacy
47:45 – Is Alexa listening?
53:51 – How Alexa started
54:51 – Solving far-field speech recognition and intent understanding
1:11:51 – Alexa main categories of skills
1:13:19 – Conversation intent modeling
1:17:47 – Alexa memory and long-term learning
1:22:50 – Making Alexa sound more natural
1:27:16 – Open problems for Alexa and conversational AI
1:29:26 – Emotion recognition from audio and video
1:30:53 – Deep learning and reasoning
1:36:26 – Future of Alexa
1:41:47 – The big picture of conversational AI
Cato Daily Podcast - Protecting Liberty with State Constitutions
State constitutions continue to serve as powerful and underappreciated protectors against overweening government. Rick Esenberg of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty comments.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Gist - The Kakistocracy Depends on the Cacophony
On the Gist, birds and Debird.
In the interview, Mike talks to journalist and CNN correspondent Peter Bergen about Trump’s national security team, the internal feuds, and why the key players of this team have all left, three years later. His new book is Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.
In the spiel, the Republicans need all the noise to continue.
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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - Reset’s Friday News Roundup For Dec. 13, 2019
Daily Line’s Heather Cherone, Chicago Sun Times and ABC 7’s Laura Washington, and WTTW’s Paris Schutz dive into the biggest stories in and around Chicago this week.
Motley Fool Money - Retail, Video Games, and Scaling Up Excellence
Costco slips on earnings and a website glitch. GameStop tumbles on flagging same-store sales growth. Adobe hits an all-time high. And Stitch Fix surprises Wall Street. Motley Fool analysts Aaron Bush, Andy Cross, and Jason Moser discuss those stories, dig into the latest from Lululemon, and take stock in an aging opportunity. They also share why they’re keeping an eye on Bill.com, Monster Beverage, and Trimble. Plus, Stanford professor Bob Sutton shares insights from his best-selling book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less.
Get the first $50 off at www.LinkedIn.com/Fool.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
the memory palace - Episode 154: Dotting I’s
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
This episode was commissioned by the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
MUSIC
Amalgamation Waltz 1839 by Joep Beveng
Now by Goldmund
Wander On from Joel P West's score to Band of Robbers.
Tomato Day by Kelpe.
the memory palace - Episode 154: Dotting I’s
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.
Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today. Make your mark at Radiotopia.fm/donate
This episode was commissioned by the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts
A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
MUSIC
Amalgamation Waltz 1839 by Joep Beveng
Now by Goldmund
Wander On from Joel P West's score to Band of Robbers.
Tomato Day by Kelpe.
CrowdScience - Can I save the insects?
Buzzing insects that sting and fall into your food can be annoying. But perhaps we should think twice before taking aim with the fly swatter because bug populations around the world are in rapid decline. This worries CrowdScience listener Daria; she wants to know what will happen to our food production without the help from our tiny friends – the pollinators? And what can she do, as a city-dweller, to help the bugs?
The dollar value of agricultural services that insects supply – for free – is estimated to be 350 billion dollars worldwide. For scientists, a major challenge is the lack of long-term studies of insects on a global scale – in fact – entomologists worry that species are dying out faster than we can document their existence. The culprits, they believe, are climate change, invasive species, land-use and pesticides.
CrowdScience speaks to the scientists who want to save the bugs; one project capitalises on the chemical signals that attract certain species of pollinators while others are building ‘bee hotels’ to encourage native bees back into our cities.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Produced by Louisa Field for BBC World Service. (Photo: Hoverfly on Yellow Dandelion Flower. Credit: Getty Images)