Language v. Thought in Animals, AI, and Humans - Dr. Gašper Beguš, UC Berkeley Linguistics, #317

Dr. Gašper Beguš is a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics who
studies the interface between human, machine, and animal
language. We head into the conversation with a question - is
there something fundamentally different about the way that humans
learn and the way that machines like LLMs learn? Vector
embeddings of the relatedness of language and the map that we
carry in our heads of abstract concepts don’t seem
that different at the end of the day. This leads us into a
discussion of the ways in which humans acquire language, how
language evolves, evidence for abstract thought in animals, where
the bright line of consciousness can be drawn, and if taking a
different approach to training computers to think can generate a
machine that can match us in drive and curiosity. 





Don't miss the historic cosmology summit in Portugal this
summer!!! DEMYSTICON 2025 ANNUAL MEETING June 12-16:
https://demystifysci.com/demysticon-2025





PATREON: get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat
https://bit.ly/3lcAasB MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear :
https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/all AMAZON: Do your
shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98 SUBSTACK:
https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci





(00:00) Go! (00:07:55) Language, Thought, and AI Models
(00:13:25) Animal Communication and Intelligence (00:25:02)
Recursion and Human Language (00:37:51) AI, Consciousness, and
Human Cognition (00:49:02) The Role of Human Curiosity in the
Future of AI (00:58:13) Bridging Human-Like Learning in AI Models
(01:08:07) Exploring Human-Like Structures in AI Models
(01:17:19) Evolution and Brain Capacity (01:26:31) Language
Structure and Differences (01:37:11) Evolution of Language and
Its Universality (01:46:17) Social Identity and Linguistic
Diversity (01:59:08) Thought and Language: The Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis (02:09:18) Language Evolution and Human History
(02:16:02) Cognitive Development and Language (02:24:39) Ancient
Human Cooperation (02:35:04) Cultural and Cognitive Evolution
(02:42:27) AI’s Role in Scientific Discovery #Linguistics, #AI,
#AnimalCommunication, #ArtificialIntelligence, #Language,
#Cognition, #AnimalIntelligence, #Recursion, #ThoughtAndLanguage,
#AnimalBehavior, #AnimalLearning, #AIModels, #CognitiveScience,
#AnimalCognition, #EvolutionOfLanguage, #LanguageStructure,
#LanguageEvolution, #philosophypodcast, #sciencepodcast,
#longformpodcast Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience AND our material
science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics
https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list
https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD
studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking
to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time
painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also
did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of
molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring
sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various
universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS:
https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate:
https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: -
Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay:
https://g.co/kgs/oty671