Thinking about Thinking
What is the role of human intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence? This six-episode podcast series, recorded at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, examines the concept of intelligence through science, history, politics, and economics — and what AI reveals about the society we've built.
Our host is Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, leading thinker and developer of safe, secure and responsible AI. You can learn more about her at www.rummanchowdhury.com
We also have a companion substack, also called Thinking about Thinking. Find us at https://substack.com/@rummanchowdhury1
Thinking about Thinking
Latest Episodes
Episode 6: Artificial General Intelligence
We've mapped how intelligence has been used. Now: what do we actually want from AI?What is it about "AGI" that's captured the imagination? Through the course of this series we've uncovered uncomfortable truths. Now: the ELIZA effect, the...
Episode 5: Intelligence as an Economic Construct
When productivity becomes the measure of a mind, who gets left behind?What is AGI? How has the definition evolved across researchers and corporations? This episode tracks OpenAI's fully economic definition — "all tasks of economic value"...
Episode 4: Intelligence as a Political Construct
Intelligence has always been weaponized. What happens when AI enters that lineage?Intelligence as a history of exclusion — used to exclude women, justify slavery, and deny citizenship. AI is the first time we are facing an intelligence o...
Episode 3: Intelligence as a Social Construct
Who decides what counts as intelligent — and who gets rights because of it?The fraught history of defining human intelligence — and how we conflate intelligence with sentience. Edge cases: end-of-life care, infant cognition, fitness for ...
Episode 2: Rethinking Intelligence Through Animals, Swarms & Sentience
From chimps to ant colonies: what non-human intelligence tells us about AI.How have other fields studied intelligence in non-humans — from chimps to lobsters to ant colonies? And what does swarm intelligence tell us about AI's scaling am...