Search a title or topic

Over 20 million podcasts, powered by 

Player FM logo
Artwork

Content provided by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.
Player FM - Podcast App
Go offline with the Player FM app!

AI’s D&C Cycles Accelerate: Harmonizing Agents and The Big 'O’rientation with Mahault Albarracin, PhD

1:06:41
 
Share
 

Manage episode 508421809 series 3692002
Content provided by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Send us a text

What if we've been thinking about AI all wrong? What if endless scaling isn't the answer, but instead we need systems that understand context, embody knowledge, and grasp causal relationships like living organisms do?

In this mind-expanding conversation with Mahault Albarracin, PhD, VERSES AI Director of Research Strategy – recorded on the 49th anniversary of John Boyd's seminal paper "Destruction and Creation" – we journey through the fascinating landscape where neuroscience meets artificial intelligence. Mahault shares how her background in social sciences led her to active inference, a framework that models intelligence after natural cognitive systems rather than linear engineering approaches, echoing Boyd's emphasis on breaking down outdated mental models to create adaptive new ones.

The parallels between Karl Friston's active inference and Boyd's OODA loop emerge vividly, as both frameworks highlight prediction, orientation in complex environments, and harmonizing changing tactical actions with evolving strategic intentions. We explore why current AI systems struggle with tasks humans find intuitive – they lack embodiment within spatial-temporal reality and fail to grasp how context shifts meaning, much like the limitations Boyd critiqued in rigid, backwards-planning strategies.

Perhaps most provocatively, we challenge the dominant AI doom narratives, tracing them to biases rooted in defense funding, colonial hierarchies, and adversarial worldviews. Could our fears of malevolent artificial intelligence simply reflect our own projections? What if, instead of building systems expecting friction, we created AI capable of empathy, resonance, and connection? As Mahault suggests, "The condition for AI alignment is to give it the ability to love us, to have empathy, to see us as kin rather than just objectives."

The conversation ranges from the technical details of the spatial web (creating interoperable standards for meaningful, privacy-respecting data connectivity) to philosophical questions about consciousness, harmony in multi-agent systems, and

NWO Intro with Boyd

March 25, 2025

Flow Learning Lab

Find us on X. @NoWayOutcast
Substack: The Whirl of ReOrientation
Want to develop your organization’s capacity for free and independent action (Organic Success)? Learn more and follow us at:
https://www.aglx.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@AGLXConsulting
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aglx-consulting-llc/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandrivera
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markjmcgrath1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemccrone
Stay in the Loop. Don't have time to listen to the podcast? Want to make some snowmobiles? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive deeper insights on current and past episodes.
Recent podcasts where you’ll also find Mark and Ponch:

The No Bell Podcast Episode 24
...

  continue reading

Chapters

1. Introduction and Context Setting (00:00:00)

2. Mahault' Journey Into AI Research (00:04:08)

3. Problems With Current AI Scaling (00:08:26)

4. Active Inference and Embodied Cognition (00:15:06)

5. Agent Dynamics and Consciousness (00:23:12)

6. The Spatial Web and Contextual AI (00:30:33)

7. Standards and Protocols for Agent Interaction (00:38:10)

8. Ethics and AI Alignment Through Trust (00:44:26)

9. Boyd's Dynamic Agent Concept (00:56:38)

10. Harmony, Resonance and Love in AI (01:00:16)

11. Addressing AI Doom Perspectives (01:05:28)

127 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 508421809 series 3692002
Content provided by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera, Mark McGrath, and Brian "Ponch" Rivera or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Send us a text

What if we've been thinking about AI all wrong? What if endless scaling isn't the answer, but instead we need systems that understand context, embody knowledge, and grasp causal relationships like living organisms do?

In this mind-expanding conversation with Mahault Albarracin, PhD, VERSES AI Director of Research Strategy – recorded on the 49th anniversary of John Boyd's seminal paper "Destruction and Creation" – we journey through the fascinating landscape where neuroscience meets artificial intelligence. Mahault shares how her background in social sciences led her to active inference, a framework that models intelligence after natural cognitive systems rather than linear engineering approaches, echoing Boyd's emphasis on breaking down outdated mental models to create adaptive new ones.

The parallels between Karl Friston's active inference and Boyd's OODA loop emerge vividly, as both frameworks highlight prediction, orientation in complex environments, and harmonizing changing tactical actions with evolving strategic intentions. We explore why current AI systems struggle with tasks humans find intuitive – they lack embodiment within spatial-temporal reality and fail to grasp how context shifts meaning, much like the limitations Boyd critiqued in rigid, backwards-planning strategies.

Perhaps most provocatively, we challenge the dominant AI doom narratives, tracing them to biases rooted in defense funding, colonial hierarchies, and adversarial worldviews. Could our fears of malevolent artificial intelligence simply reflect our own projections? What if, instead of building systems expecting friction, we created AI capable of empathy, resonance, and connection? As Mahault suggests, "The condition for AI alignment is to give it the ability to love us, to have empathy, to see us as kin rather than just objectives."

The conversation ranges from the technical details of the spatial web (creating interoperable standards for meaningful, privacy-respecting data connectivity) to philosophical questions about consciousness, harmony in multi-agent systems, and

NWO Intro with Boyd

March 25, 2025

Flow Learning Lab

Find us on X. @NoWayOutcast
Substack: The Whirl of ReOrientation
Want to develop your organization’s capacity for free and independent action (Organic Success)? Learn more and follow us at:
https://www.aglx.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@AGLXConsulting
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aglx-consulting-llc/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandrivera
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markjmcgrath1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemccrone
Stay in the Loop. Don't have time to listen to the podcast? Want to make some snowmobiles? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive deeper insights on current and past episodes.
Recent podcasts where you’ll also find Mark and Ponch:

The No Bell Podcast Episode 24
...

  continue reading

Chapters

1. Introduction and Context Setting (00:00:00)

2. Mahault' Journey Into AI Research (00:04:08)

3. Problems With Current AI Scaling (00:08:26)

4. Active Inference and Embodied Cognition (00:15:06)

5. Agent Dynamics and Consciousness (00:23:12)

6. The Spatial Web and Contextual AI (00:30:33)

7. Standards and Protocols for Agent Interaction (00:38:10)

8. Ethics and AI Alignment Through Trust (00:44:26)

9. Boyd's Dynamic Agent Concept (00:56:38)

10. Harmony, Resonance and Love in AI (01:00:16)

11. Addressing AI Doom Perspectives (01:05:28)

127 episodes

All episodes

×
 
Loading …

Welcome to Player FM!

Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.

 

Copyright 2025 | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | | Copyright
Listen to this show while you explore
Play