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Machine Learning Street Talk / episode intelligence

Bayesian Brain, Scientific Method, and Models [Dr. Jeff Beck]

31 Dec 2025 20 published claims 2 attributable people

Speakers in the public record

Claim mix

belief 7evaluation 5commitment 3preference 3recommendation 1prediction 1

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Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

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The useful parts, with receipts.

20 published records

05 / belief

Yeah. But I think that's, I mean, those systems are very interesting because it is remarkable that really dumb simple rules, right, can lead to like really interesting sophisticated behavior.

“Yeah. But I think that's, I mean, those systems are very interesting because it is remarkable that really dumb simple rules, right, can lead to like really interesting sophisticated behavior.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

07 / commitment

What I will say instead is that is that the the additional constraint that we're imposing, it's not just about objects, it's also about their relationships.

“What I will say instead is that is that the the additional constraint that we're imposing, it's not just about objects, it's also about their relationships.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

08 / belief

Some of the programs which are learned are just really complicated. They had examples of like I think drawing towers and drawing graphs and stuff like that.

“Some of the programs which are learned are just really complicated. They had examples of like I think drawing towers and drawing graphs and stuff like that.”
Speaker
Tim Scarfe
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

09 / belief

You can apply, you know, and just sort of, and and, know, wrote a series. This is 1 of the reasons I think he's so prolific is because he's basically, you know, written variations on the same paper, right, but just applied in different domains.

“You can apply, you know, and just sort of, and and, know, wrote a series. This is 1 of the reasons I think he's so prolific is because he's basically, you know, written variations on the same paper, right, but just applied in different domains.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

11 / evaluation

You've 1 of the things that's critical a critical aspect of the way we think about the world and the way we learn about the world is is that it's continual and it's interactivist.

“You've 1 of the things that's critical a critical aspect of the way we think about the world and the way we learn about the world is is that it's continual and it's interactivist.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

12 / evaluation

It's being used to track these sort of low level statistics that that we sometimes need, but don't always need. And so this is why I say that that, like, you know, when we say context matters, you know, you can think of that in terms of, we were able to flexibly switch between tasks, which means having a lot of resources and having a lot, you know, maintained and having them still be in good working order just in case we need them.

“It's being used to track these sort of low level statistics that that we sometimes need, but don't always need. And so this is why I say that that, like, you know, when we say context matters, you know, you can think of that in terms of, we were able to flexibly switch between tasks, which means having a lot of resources and having a lot, you know, maintained and having them still be in good working order just in case we need them.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

13 / preference

There's the work, you know, I mean, I've been using I've been using like natural gradient methods for a very long time, which allow you to like massively speed up gradient inference and in some situations completely eliminate the need to do gradient inference and instead like, you know, do coordinate descent and allowing you to take massive jumps in parameter space and not actually lose the the ability to do learning of sophisticated model in in a sophisticated modeling scenario.

“There's the work, you know, I mean, I've been using I've been using like natural gradient methods for a very long time, which allow you to like massively speed up gradient inference and in some situations completely eliminate the need to do gradient inference and instead like, you know, do coordinate descent and allowing you to take massive jumps in parameter space and not actually lose the the ability to do learning of sophisticated model in in a sophisticated modeling scenario.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

14 / recommendation

They have this sparse causal macroscopic structure to it. And so should our models and so should and and and the only way to do that is not just to like put a robot in the real world, but to put a robot with a model that is structured in that fashion into the real world.

“They have this sparse causal macroscopic structure to it. And so should our models and so should and and and the only way to do that is not just to like put a robot in the real world, but to put a robot with a model that is structured in that fashion into the real world.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

16 / preference

The more tightly linked your actions or your affordances are to the things that causally impact the world, the more effective those actions are with respect to your model, but hopefully also with respect to reality. And so we prefer causal models, you know, in part because they are relative, you know, relatively speaking simpler to execute, right, in in in a simulation form, but also because they they point directly to, well, where should I intervene?

“The more tightly linked your actions or your affordances are to the things that causally impact the world, the more effective those actions are with respect to your model, but hopefully also with respect to reality. And so we prefer causal models, you know, in part because they are relative, you know, relatively speaking simpler to execute, right, in in in a simulation form, but also because they they point directly to, well, where should I intervene?”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

17 / prediction

I actually the reason why I say transformer comes with an asterisk is because a lot of the things that transformers have been that that people believe that the transformer enabled, I think really resulted more from scaling.

“I actually the reason why I say transformer comes with an asterisk is because a lot of the things that transformers have been that that people believe that the transformer enabled, I think really resulted more from scaling.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

18 / commitment

Is we wanna is is we're focused on building cognitively inspired models that are based on our understand on on the way the world in which we live actually works because we believe intelligence must be embodied.

“Is we wanna is is we're focused on building cognitively inspired models that are based on our understand on on the way the world in which we live actually works because we believe intelligence must be embodied.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

19 / evaluation

Now we have to like be super careful with our words. They're relatively optimal because they're not actually using a 100% of the information that the computer like your the visual information that you use, you don't use a 100% of the information that the computer provided you.

“Now we have to like be super careful with our words. They're relatively optimal because they're not actually using a 100% of the information that the computer like your the visual information that you use, you don't use a 100% of the information that the computer provided you.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk

20 / evaluation

Certainly if you wanna have models that think the way we think. And that that got lost in the shuffle, and we're starting to see, you know, as as as we're starting to see the limitations and the faults and flaws of of of these approaches, and starting to see them not living up to the hype, which I think is like now it's standard that like like AGI is no longer I don't know if you read the other day, at least according to, you know, the experts in the field at the top of the best companies in the business, like AGI is no longer, like, a huge priority.

“Certainly if you wanna have models that think the way we think. And that that got lost in the shuffle, and we're starting to see, you know, as as as we're starting to see the limitations and the faults and flaws of of of these approaches, and starting to see them not living up to the hype, which I think is like now it's standard that like like AGI is no longer I don't know if you read the other day, at least according to, you know, the experts in the field at the top of the best companies in the business, like AGI is no longer, like, a huge priority.”
Speaker
Jeff Beck
Publisher
Machine Learning Street Talk
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