Josh Bongard is the Veinott Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont and director of the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory. His work involves automated design and manufacture of soft-, evolved-, and crowdsourced robots, as well as computer-designed organisms. A PECASE, TR35, and Cozzarelli Prize recipient, he has received funding from NSF, NASA, DARPA, ARO and the Sloan Foundation. He is the co-author of the book How The Body Shapes the Way we Think, the instructor of a reddit-based evolutionary robotics MOOC, and director of the robotics outreach program Twitch Plays Robotics.

Summary

Josh Bongard, a professor and roboticist, discusses the intersection of artificial intelligence and biology, particularly through the development of Xenobots. He describes embodied intelligence and the the emergence of physical intelligence in machines, as well as the ethical implications of AI and robotics. Bongard emphasizes the importance of understanding intelligence as a collective experience rather than an individual one, and he shares insights on the future of autonomous machines and the role of curiosity in AI development.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Josh Bongard and His Work

02:37 The Evolution of Robotics and Biological Systems

05:41 Embodied Intelligence: A Body-Centric Perspective

08:42 Emergence of Intelligence in Living Systems

11:36 Xenobots: The Intersection of AI and Biology

14:57 Ethics and Safety in Biological Robotics

17:45 Potential Applications of Xenobots

20:50 The Future of Living Machines

23:41 Challenges and Misunderstandings in AI Development

26:44 The Role of Physical Intelligence in AI

32:27 The Limitations of AI Creativity

35:45 Trusting Autonomous Vehicles

37:33 The Role of Robotics in Disaster Response

38:36 Physical Intelligence in Robotics

42:09 Building Machines with Experience

45:02 The Debate on Brain-Centric Intelligence

46:28 Understanding Embodiment and Collective Intelligence

51:00 AI and the Nature of Curiosity

56:16 Empathy Towards AI

59:50 Reflections on Transhumanism

01:00:51 The Future of AI and Robotics

01:04:43 Parting Thoughts on Collective Identity

01:06:09 Podcast exit terence

Josh Bongard

https://jbongard.github.io/

https://aiforgood.itu.int/speaker/joshua-bongard/

Keywords

Music for every episode

Intro and exit music used: Strange the dreamer by Savfk - www.youtube.com/@savfkmusic

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AI, robotics, Xenobots, intelligence, ethics, safety, physical intelligence, transhumanism, curiosity, collective intelligence, embodied intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Transhuman, Biophysics, Morphology, Robotics, Future of humanity, Embodied minds, Quantum Biology