Mind Cast
Welcome to Mind Cast, the podcast that explores the intricate and often surprising intersections of technology, cognition, and society. Join us as we dive deep into the unseen forces and complex dynamics shaping our world.
Ever wondered about the hidden costs of cutting-edge innovation, or how human factors can inadvertently undermine even the most robust systems? We unpack critical lessons from large-scale technological endeavours, examining how seemingly minor flaws can escalate into systemic risks, and how anticipating these challenges is key to building a more resilient future.
Then, we shift our focus to the fascinating world of artificial intelligence, peering into the emergent capabilities of tomorrow's most advanced systems. We explore provocative questions about the nature of intelligence itself, analysing how complex behaviours arise and what they mean for the future of human-AI collaboration. From the mechanisms of learning and self-improvement to the ethical considerations of autonomous systems, we dissect the profound implications of AI's rapid evolution.
We also examine the foundational elements of digital information, exploring how data is created, refined, and potentially corrupted in an increasingly interconnected world. We’ll discuss the strategic imperatives for maintaining data integrity and the innovative approaches being developed to ensure the authenticity and reliability of our information ecosystems.
Mind Cast is your intellectual compass for navigating the complexities of our technologically advanced era. We offer a rigorous yet accessible exploration of the challenges and opportunities ahead, providing insights into how we can thoughtfully design, understand, and interact with the powerful systems that are reshaping our lives. Join us to unravel the mysteries of emergent phenomena and gain a clearer vision of the future.
Mind Cast
Weights and Biases Fully Connected 2025
The Weights and Biases (WandB) Fully Connected Conference 2025, held in London, was a two-day event focusing on machine learning experiments and AI development. The first day included two learning tracks. I attended the track on building agentic AI applications.
Day one featured a workshop on agent development, demonstrating WandB's tools for programmatically building agents. A notable aspect was the use of "tools" or callback functions to guide Large Language Models (LLMs), even without direct output, to encourage planning and critical review of findings. This approach was characterized as "perception as a function," enabling LLM-based systems to move beyond simple request-response. However, this architecture introduces vulnerabilities like indirect prompt injection and challenges in state management due to the LLM's finite context window. The future of this design is seen in "turnless," asynchronous, multi-agent architectures.
Day two consisted of keynote speeches and talks, starting with updates from WandB, its acquisition by CoreWeave, and other acquisitions to expand its offerings. Robin Bordoli, VP of revenue, highlighted AI advancements since 2023 and predicted future trends, citing examples like 'Open Evidence' for medical research and "Harvey" for legal research. A key challenge identified was the limited context window of models. Robin also mentioned the release of Deepseek as an example of Jevons Paradox in AI adoption. Lukas Beiweld discussed WandB's rapid release cycle post-acquisition, performance improvements (2x reduction in long-running queries), and enhanced support for video, audio, and image analysis. He also introduced Weave, a tool for agent builders offering explainability, guardrails against hallucinations, bias, and toxicity, and Open Telemetry support.