My guest today is John Yang. He is a 16 year old currently building 小K.AI, a friendly chatbot that helps to create high-quality learning environments for left-behind children in rural China at scale. We discussed a wide variety of topics, including why John believes we will attain AGI in 5-10    years, his learning process, and building a non-profit AI bot by himself. Please enjoy the show.

• [2:00] John’s self-introduction
• [3:33] Forming a tribe of peers who inspire ourselves
• [8:51] Self-directed learning and meta-learning skills
• [20:25] Growing up in multiple cities, formative childhood experiences and maturing
• [29:27] Finding a balance between creativity and effectiveness
• [34:55] Validating macro frameworks
• [38:17] The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin （三體系列-劉慈欣）
• [46:50] John's argument for why AGI will be here in the next 5-10 years
• [1:08:20] What is artificial intelligence?
• [1:17:10] AI ethics and safety
• [1:20:08] 小K, and its business and technical aspects (data, model architecture)
• [1:38:00] Advice for people who want to build real skills
• [1:44:28] Managing both building and selling in day-to-day life

• 小K.AI
• The Knowledge Society

If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.

• Shades of Spring by Kevin MacLeod
• Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4342-shades-of-spring
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

My guest today is Elena Hill-Artamonova. She is currently a PhD candidate for psychology at The Manchester Metropolitan University, and has Master of Science in Psychology from University of London and Master of Arts in Political Science from The University of Manchester. As a dyslexic herself, Elena is also passionate about helping other dyslexics excel academically. Please enjoy the show.

• [0:39] Elena’s self-introduction
• [1:20] Why did Elena choose to go to UK from Russia?
• [3:17] Elena’s struggles with expressing herself back in Russia
• [7:00] Our cultural background’s influence on our thinking and encouraging children to be independent thinker
• [15:42] Is the English or Russian language more beautiful?
• [16:57] How does Russia’s rich cultural history permeate through her citizens’ thinking?
• [27:55] Three cultural synthesis of Russia
• [31:25] Current state of events in Russia, view on China and geopolitics
• [43:58] The American Dream and outsiders succeeding in traditional systems
• [53:36] How did formal training in disciplines like anthropology and political science influenced Elena’s way of thinking? What was interacting with shamans like?
• [1:09:44] Elena’s experience with dyslexia and managing it to excel academically
• [1:18:04] Elena’s audio presentation of her research on dark triads and big five personality variables

If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.

• Shades of Spring by Kevin MacLeod
• Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4342-shades-of-spring
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

My guest today is Yair Zick. He is an assistant professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing. He was also a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University from 2014 to 2016, and completed his PhD at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Please enjoy the show. 

• [1:43] Brouwer fixed-point theorem and its relevance to game theory
• [5:13] What is algorithmic mechanism design?
• [12:28] What are constraints that make division of goods really hard to solve?
• [24:57] Utilitarianism, egalitarianism and Nash bargaining solution
• [32:40] Pre-requisites for certain conditions in algorithmic mechanism design (e.g. fairness) to hold
• [37:30] Why is National University of Singapore’s former module allocation system overly complicated?
• [48:52] What is Yair’s research process like? What is sub-modular property in allocation of goods?
• [1:01:40] Optimising schedule for productivity
• [1:06:30] Current readings
• [1:14:14] Thoughts on love and marriage
• [1:19:31] Aspirations for his children and parenting philosophy

Brouwer fixed-point theorem

If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.

• Shades of Spring by Kevin MacLeod
• Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4342-shades-of-spring
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/