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What you must know before AGI arrives | Carnegie Mellon University Po-Shen Loh

EO26:51Added Aug 31, 2026

Po-Shen Loh returns with a complete compilation of his two-part lecture series on education in the AI era. This video brings together his most critical insig...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00For many many years, [music] humans were
  3. 00:03the top species, the most capable things
  4. 00:06on this planet. Soon, it will not be
  5. 00:08that case. The creativity [music]
  6. 00:10in the AI can probably surpass what we
  7. 00:14can do, too. The AI is advancing so fast
  8. 00:17with my own kids. I have three kids. I'm
  9. 00:19a math professor at Carnegie Melon
  10. 00:21University. I'm not even sure what's
  11. 00:23going to happen to university. In fact,
  12. 00:25actually, I'm going to say as a parent,
  13. 00:27I don't really even care too [music]
  14. 00:28much if all of my children go to
  15. 00:31university because I think that at this
  16. 00:32point, by the time they go to
  17. 00:34university, boy, the world will be so
  18. 00:36different that the most important skill
  19. 00:39that you could have is that ability to
  20. 00:41synthesize your own idea. I interview
  21. 00:44lots and lots of high school students
  22. 00:46who want to work with me. And during the
  23. 00:48interview, the way that I interview is I
  24. 00:50ask them questions until it's very clear
  25. 00:53from their body language that they have
  26. 00:55never seen this question before. I wait
  27. 00:56until it's really clear that they have
  28. 00:58never seen this before. And then I want
  29. 01:01to see how you think. The expectation is
  30. 01:03that you won't solve it. And so then I
  31. 01:06start to give hints. And then I want to
  32. 01:08see how quickly can you synthesize them
  33. 01:10into a solution for a problem we have
  34. 01:12never seen before. Actually,
  35. 01:16that's also creativity. We really need
  36. 01:18this skill. Now, I'm Po Shanlow. I'm a
  37. 01:22mathematician who likes to solve real
  38. 01:24world problems. In real life, I'm a math
  39. 01:26professor at Carnegie Melon University,
  40. 01:28but I'm also a social entrepreneur where
  41. 01:31I've been running my own educational
  42. 01:33solution, which tries to make the world
  43. 01:36a more thoughtful place.

  44. Why Creativity Won't Save You From AI

  45. 01:41My biggest surprise was last year the
  46. 01:44International Math Olympiad problems,
  47. 01:47four of them were solved by Google's
  48. 01:49artificial intelligence. The
  49. 01:50International Math Olympiad has six
  50. 01:53questions and all six of the questions
  51. 01:54are very very original. They are so
  52. 01:56original that when the national coaches
  53. 01:59meet, they all look at the problems and
  54. 02:01they all try to make sure nothing too
  55. 02:03similar to those problems has ever
  56. 02:05appeared in any contest or anywhere in
  57. 02:07the world before. The questions are
  58. 02:08supposed to be really original. But
  59. 02:10nevertheless, the artificial
  60. 02:12intelligence was able to come up with
  61. 02:13solutions to four out of six, which is
  62. 02:15more than I can do. [music] The only
  63. 02:17unique thing about human intelligence is
  64. 02:18that we hopefully care that humans still
  65. 02:21[music] exist. The creativity in the AI
  66. 02:25can probably surpass what we can do,
  67. 02:27too. In schools, one of the biggest

  68. AI’s #1 Target in Schoolwork

  69. 02:31places where students are using AI to
  70. 02:34cheat on their homework is for their
  71. 02:35writing. This unfortunately could make a
  72. 02:38huge problem for human civilization
  73. 02:40because you just have to think what is
  74. 02:43that AI anyway? It's a large language
  75. 02:45model. How is that AI so good? [music]
  76. 02:47It's because it's good at language. It's
  77. 02:49good at looking at the patterns of words
  78. 02:52that often appear. If many [music] kids
  79. 02:54lose this ability, we'll get many kids
  80. 02:57who grow up and aren't able [music] to
  81. 02:59think logically. All they're able to do
  82. 03:01is just take whatever anyone else gives
  83. 03:04them. They'll just be dependent. If
  84. 03:06you're already grown up and you already
  85. 03:08have that skill and you're using the AI
  86. 03:09to achieve that task because that's for
  87. 03:12your job, great. [music] Okay, you're
  88. 03:14using it to do a job. But if you're in
  89. 03:16school, why are you doing that writing?
  90. 03:19It's not because the writing you make is
  91. 03:21going to make money directly. No, no,
  92. 03:23that writing is actually part of your
  93. 03:24own learning. Using AI to do your
  94. 03:26writing homework in school [music] is
  95. 03:28like saying, "I'm not going to run a
  96. 03:31mile for exercise. I'm going to drive my
  97. 03:33car one mile for exercise." how much
  98. 03:35exercise you get, you get none. You're
  99. 03:37going to grow up and you're not going to
  100. 03:38be able to be as physically fit. Similar
  101. 03:41thing here with mentally fit. And just
  102. 03:43this observation that the power of the
  103. 03:45large language model is the L the
  104. 03:47language. That's why we need to really
  105. 03:50make sure that all of our kids and if
  106. 03:52you're watching this and you're
  107. 03:53students, this is why you need to be
  108. 03:54really really good with language for the
  109. 03:57next generation. All of these skills
  110. 03:58like reading and writing, communication,
  111. 04:01logic, these are all going to be very
  112. 04:02important because these are how you
  113. 04:04develop a a good way to think.

  114. Think Like a Teacher, Not a Student

  115. 04:08People used to go to school to learn how
  116. 04:10to do the homework and do the exams.
  117. 04:12Today, everyone needs to learn how to
  118. 04:14grade the homework. This is the huge
  119. 04:17difference. I've done lots of different
  120. 04:19kinds of teaching. I teach people all
  121. 04:21the way from the International Math
  122. 04:22Olympiad team. I will also go to schools
  123. 04:25and teach sixth grade in schools where
  124. 04:28unfortunately there might not even be
  125. 04:29any math teacher for the whole seventh
  126. 04:31grade. So I go and cover the entire
  127. 04:33range of education. I find this to be
  128. 04:35very interesting because that helps me
  129. 04:37to learn what the challenges are. The
  130. 04:39whole point of a school math test is to
  131. 04:41see whether or not you listened and you
  132. 04:43practiced. In fact, all the math
  133. 04:45competition problems in the US and also
  134. 04:47in many parts of the world are of this
  135. 04:49type. Which is why today the way that I
  136. 04:51approach education and training [music]
  137. 04:52is to try to help as many people as
  138. 04:55possible learn how to do those questions
  139. 04:58which they won't have seen before. But I
  140. 05:01want to emphasize the reason I I've been
  141. 05:02doing a lot of work on this [music]
  142. 05:04nowadays is because when I was doing
  143. 05:06math competitions in the 1980s the way
  144. 05:09you got good at it was [music] by
  145. 05:10thinking. Every problem which was new
  146. 05:13was a chance to practice mental
  147. 05:16flexibility. Today, unfortunately,
  148. 05:18there's a huge industry around test
  149. 05:21preparation and cramming where people
  150. 05:25try to help students get high scores on
  151. 05:27these strange math questions by showing
  152. 05:30you all of the strange math questions
  153. 05:32that you might possibly see. And that
  154. 05:34involves studying for many, many, many,
  155. 05:36many hours. So that the hope of the
  156. 05:38parents is that when the students
  157. 05:40[music] see the test questions, they are
  158. 05:42never surprised that they have done
  159. 05:44everything many many many time. This
  160. 05:47causes students to have to go to school
  161. 05:48school and after school and so many
  162. 05:48and after school [music] and so many
  163. 05:50hours actually very bad for the student.
  164. 05:50hours actually very bad for the student.
  165. 05:52But even worse, it takes away the
  166. 05:52But even worse, it takes away the
  167. 05:55students chance to [music] invent. So
  168. 05:55students chance to invent. So that's why
  169. 05:57that's why what the world needs now is a
  170. 05:58what the world needs now is a largecale
  171. 06:00largecale way for everyone to learn how
  172. 06:01way for everyone to learn how to grade
  173. 06:03to grade homework, for everyone to learn
  174. 06:04homework, for everyone to learn how to
  175. 06:05how to come up with their own way of
  176. 06:06come up with their own way of thinking,
  177. 06:07thinking, not just how to do the
  178. 06:08not just how to do the problems.
  179. 06:09problems.

  180. Why School Makes You Depressed

  181. 06:14This causes students to have to go to
  182. 06:14A long time ago when I started with
  183. 06:16education, I was actually just thinking
  184. 06:18about how to help people do math
  185. 06:19problems. Today when I think back to
  186. 06:22that time, I think I was probably a
  187. 06:24solution looking for a problem in the
  188. 06:26sense that uh somehow I thought it would
  189. 06:28be very important for people to be good
  190. 06:29at math. But then things that happened
  191. 06:31later in my life as I became the
  192. 06:32national coach of the US Olympic math
  193. 06:34team, I saw situations where there were
  194. 06:37so many so clever, so capable people who
  195. 06:41were still so depressed. And
  196. 06:42furthermore, after they graduated from
  197. 06:44high school, they even didn't really
  198. 06:45know what to do next because they
  199. 06:47thought that the point of life was to
  200. 06:48find ways to prove you're better than
  201. 06:50other people. That's when I realized we
  202. 06:53actually will do much better if we think
  203. 06:55about the philosophy to start with,
  204. 06:57right? The philosophy in life should not
  205. 06:59be how do I outdo everyone else? If you
  206. 07:01do [music] that, you will you'll
  207. 07:03probably never be satisfied. But if your
  208. 07:05philosophy in life is, hey, it is
  209. 07:08actually addictive to make a bunch of
  210. 07:10other people happy. Oh, now I can do it
  211. 07:12for five people. Oh, now I can do it for
  212. 07:14500 people. Oh, wow. Now I can get
  213. 07:17thousand people to come to this thing.
  214. 07:19The more that you do, the more you want
  215. 07:21to do. And the fun part is that
  216. 07:22correlates also with traditional
  217. 07:24success. Then I realized, ah, I should
  218. 07:27be trying to push this worldwide. And if
  219. 07:29I don't do it, who will? with the things
  220. 07:32I've done in my life, I now have an
  221. 07:35opportunity to go and say, you know,
  222. 07:38I've seen what happens if you go all the
  223. 07:40way in pure competition. I've seen what
  224. 07:42happens if you go all the way and just
  225. 07:44practice problems to do the best on
  226. 07:46tests.
  227. 07:47Actually, that's not the right target.
  228. 07:50[music]
  229. 07:51And I realized that because of my
  230. 07:53background, I would be able to shift
  231. 07:56mindsets. Then I said, okay, this is

  232. The Way I Change the World

  233. 07:58what I have to do. Money doesn't buy you
  234. 08:00happiness, but money is important for
  235. 08:02impact and influence. [music]
  236. 08:04So, in fact, it's very important that
  237. 08:05the things that we build are capable of
  238. 08:07generating enough money to create the
  239. 08:09impact. This just happens to be what
  240. 08:11drives me. 10 years ago, I had this
  241. 08:14crazy idea that maybe if we made a
  242. 08:17website that would collect people's ways
  243. 08:19of explaining math and science topics,
  244. 08:21then maybe people would explain the math
  245. 08:23and science topics and it would be free
  246. 08:25and everyone would be able to learn math
  247. 08:26and science. And I remember thinking,
  248. 08:28"Oh, that can't be very hard. We'll be
  249. 08:30done with that in a few months. I'm glad
  250. 08:32I thought that because I'm still
  251. 08:33working." So, I had this whole thing
  252. 08:35called XP. We were making a website with
  253. 08:37free explanations, but that didn't
  254. 08:39actually have business model of its own.
  255. 08:41It wasn't generating money. So, I had to
  256. 08:43find some way to support all of that. In
  257. 08:452019 in April, we started creating our
  258. 08:48own version of that in the United States
  259. 08:50of America where we took charge of
  260. 08:52filming me teaching and then we had a a
  261. 08:54product which was consisted of me
  262. 08:57teaching math that people could watch
  263. 08:59recordings of and they would pay for it
  264. 09:00and this this made some amount of money.
  265. 09:02But then this one we still found there
  266. 09:04were pain points. And finally about two
  267. 09:06years ago I realized you know what what
  268. 09:08people really want is to have a live
  269. 09:12human experience with somebody else who
  270. 09:15is an expert. The only problem is that's
  271. 09:17quite rare and hard to find. Uh and
  272. 09:19there's also another challenge which is
  273. 09:20that ideally that person you're talking
  274. 09:21to is friendly. Uh if the person knows a
  275. 09:24lot but is not friendly that's actually
  276. 09:25not useful either. Right? This is the
  277. 09:27hardest thing to deliver in education
  278. 09:29because it's the least scalable. Of
  279. 09:31course, in entrepreneurship world, we
  280. 09:32always think about scalability and yes,
  281. 09:34you can find one brilliant coach who
  282. 09:37teaches 10 students or maybe even 20 or
  283. 09:40maybe even even 100. That's a small
  284. 09:41scale uh compared to the size of the
  285. 09:43world. And then that's when I suddenly
  286. 09:45realized I can make a giant win-win-win
  287. 09:46situation. So the main thing that I do
  288. 09:49now is an ecosystem. It's actually an
  289. 09:51ecosystem that I invented which unites
  290. 09:54many different types of people to all
  291. 09:57contribute [music] in ways where
  292. 09:58everyone is winning. one pain point
  293. 10:00which was for the people learning math.
  294. 10:02Then the second pain point was from the
  295. 10:04people who are very very strong at math
  296. 10:06already from which building the EQ will
  297. 10:07be even better. Although I do want to
  298. 10:09emphasize this is helping them finish up
  299. 10:11to become extraordinary. And the thing
  300. 10:13that made me realize the key that made
  301. 10:15me realize I could put everything
  302. 10:16together was an experience that I had
  303. 10:18about five six years ago which is that I
  304. 10:20also took improvisational comedy classes
  305. 10:22myself. improvisational comedy classes
  306. 10:25are acting classes. [music] And I was
  307. 10:27doing that because I was trying to learn
  308. 10:28how to communicate better to get more
  309. 10:30people interested in math. But I
  310. 10:32realized that even a math nerd like me
  311. 10:33can take those classes and then become
  312. 10:35able to talk to a few more people. So
  313. 10:38then I realized, let me add [music]
  314. 10:39that. And then I walked over to our
  315. 10:41drama department and I found out that
  316. 10:44actually there are lots of people who
  317. 10:45have extraordinary drama skills who are
  318. 10:48actually indeed very interested in paid
  319. 10:50part-time jobs to help to coach the high
  320. 10:52school students. So that's the third
  321. 10:54painoint. The third pain point is there
  322. 10:55are people who absolutely love what
  323. 10:57they're they're passionate about what
  324. 10:58they're doing in the acting and drama
  325. 10:59[music] world, but there's a practical
  326. 11:01need which is well how to find a stable
  327. 11:04part-time job flexible hours that they
  328. 11:06can use to support their passions. So
  329. 11:09suddenly win-win-win we have all three
  330. 11:10lined up and that's why this thing
  331. 11:12scales actually the everyone winning is
  332. 11:14very important because I work with high
  333. 11:16school students and so in our in our
  334. 11:17company anytime anyone wants to ask high
  335. 11:20school students to do anything my answer
  336. 11:22to my employees is always that thing you
  337. 11:24want to ask that high schooler to do can
  338. 11:27we explain to their parent why for a
  339. 11:30very busy high school student that thing
  340. 11:31is the best thing they can do with their
  341. 11:33time if I cannot explain that they're
  342. 11:35not doing it so this this is the
  343. 11:36discipline that we run it to this is
  344. 11:38this how strongly we make it a win-win
  345. 11:40situation. We will never have a high
  346. 11:41school student doing something unless I
  347. 11:43could explain myself to their parent. We
  348. 11:46suggested for your daughter to do this
  349. 11:47because it's really good for her to do
  350. 11:49this. [music] The thing is beforehand it
  351. 11:52was hard to imagine there would be a way
  352. 11:53to do that until the answer became oh
  353. 11:55yeah because while doing this they will
  354. 11:57get to learn from a Broadway or
  355. 11:58Hollywood quality actor or actress
  356. 12:00that's going to help them become
  357. 12:01extraordinarily successful. now win. But
  358. 12:04you see, this took eight years to come
  359. 12:05up with, two more years to scale. The
  360. 12:07speed at which we grow is purely just
  361. 12:09based on how long it takes for people
  362. 12:12who have middle school children to
  363. 12:13realize that, oh, there are these
  364. 12:15classes here where the class looks as
  365. 12:17good as a Twitch gaming stream and it's
  366. 12:19taught by math geniuses who are smiling.
  367. 12:20[music] You know, these are things that
  368. 12:22people could not imagine that you'd put
  369. 12:24all together at the same time. And as
  370. 12:26people discover this, they actually
  371. 12:27switch over. They start joining our
  372. 12:28classes. Then we can bring more high
  373. 12:29school students. And the scaling power
  374. 12:31this can go to is we I estimate that
  375. 12:34this easily could grow to a 100,000 high
  376. 12:36school students in the US. That's 1% of
  377. 12:38the US high school [music] students
  378. 12:39teaching about a million middle school
  379. 12:41students. If you look at our live
  380. 12:43program, it looks a little strange
  381. 12:45because you'll see that the only
  382. 12:46subjects that we teach is a pretty small
  383. 12:48number. Algebra, geometry,
  384. 12:50combinatorics, number theory. Why do
  385. 12:53[music] we cover these? We cover these
  386. 12:55because these are a curriculum that
  387. 12:57teaches you how to think. The only way
  388. 12:59to do that is by giving them questions
  389. 13:01that they have never seen in school
  390. 13:02before. So, I need to find a source of
  391. 13:05problems that you will not see in
  392. 13:06school. Actually, that turns out to be
  393. 13:09the middle school math competition
  394. 13:11curriculum because the people making
  395. 13:12those problems were trying to make
  396. 13:14problems that you don't see in school.
  397. 13:16But the difference between the way we do
  398. 13:18it and the way that lots of the training
  399. 13:20centers do [music] it is that we are
  400. 13:21trying to use those as opportunities to
  401. 13:24make you able to practice [music] the
  402. 13:26thinking instead of just showing you
  403. 13:27doing the question that way enough
  404. 13:29times. So the answer is the topics that
  405. 13:31we cover specifically chosen because
  406. 13:34that will be enough to teach a student
  407. 13:36how to generate their own idea. Our
  408. 13:38philosophy is if you finish all of that
  409. 13:40you will discover that you can learn
  410. 13:41anything. Our goal is not to make it so
  411. 13:43that we have classes for you for every
  412. 13:46year of your life. Our goal is to make
  413. 13:48it so that as fast as possible, you
  414. 13:50don't need any classes from anyone ever

  415. What Matters More Than Creativity

  416. 13:52again.
  417. 13:53Right? So that's one particular piece.
  418. 13:55But going forward, I think that one of
  419. 13:57the skills that people will really need,
  420. 13:59it's that aspect of actually wanting to
  421. 14:03create value and delight in other
  422. 14:05people. Why do I say this? I say this
  423. 14:07because for many many years, humans were
  424. 14:11the top species, the most capable things
  425. 14:15on this planet. Soon, it will not be
  426. 14:17that case.
  427. 14:19Soon, [music] you're going to have to
  428. 14:20work together to survive. The only way
  429. 14:23to get other people to want to team up
  430. 14:26with you is for you to authentically and
  431. 14:29deeply be a person who is motivated by
  432. 14:32creating value in the other. If you are
  433. 14:34not that way, you are a bad partner and
  434. 14:37people will not want to go and team with
  435. 14:38you. If they don't team with you, you
  436. 14:42will die. [music]
  437. 14:43You will lose opportunity because
  438. 14:47eventually [music] all of these kinds of
  439. 14:48jobs you can use AIS to do. Then why
  440. 14:50would anyone want to employ you? Why
  441. 14:52would anyone want to have you as as
  442. 14:53someone on their team? Presumably only
  443. 14:56because they somehow felt like you are
  444. 14:58going to create some value and they they
  445. 14:59like that vibe. They like you. I think
  446. 15:02what we really need is to get more and
  447. 15:04more people who are figuring out what
  448. 15:06the real problem to solve is. But
  449. 15:09unfortunately, sometimes when kids just
  450. 15:11think about problems, they don't realize
  451. 15:13that the way that you solve a problem is
  452. 15:15through empathy and through relating to
  453. 15:17other people. Why? [music] Because you
  454. 15:19can't solve a problem unless you can
  455. 15:22visualize it through their eyes. I do

  456. Simulating the World

  457. 15:24spend a significant amount of my life
  458. 15:27working towards the goal of being better
  459. 15:30at simulating the world. I also use AI
  460. 15:32for that. I think what I'll give one
  461. 15:34exact example. I was just in Nashville,
  462. 15:36Tennessee last week and I just saw a
  463. 15:38really I thought very very talented
  464. 15:40singer in one of the bars there. Wow,
  465. 15:44she's good. And I just got curious how
  466. 15:47hard is it to be able to get a
  467. 15:48performing spot on Broadway in
  468. 15:50Nashville. So I asked AI and I was
  469. 15:52actually not just interested in AI tell
  470. 15:54me about the I want to see the links
  471. 15:56[music] you know tell me more what is
  472. 15:57the background of this particular place
  473. 15:59she's performing at right I I will make
  474. 16:01my own conclusions based on knowing oh
  475. 16:04oh I see so there's all of these
  476. 16:05different people who would want to do
  477. 16:06this thing right so if you're one of the
  478. 16:08people who got picked to do it at this
  479. 16:10prime time [music] oh this makes logical
  480. 16:12sense see I'm using the AI to build the
  481. 16:15logic inside my brain for understanding
  482. 16:18country music performance And why was I
  483. 16:21trying to understand? Honestly, it's
  484. 16:22because these days I also work with
  485. 16:24professional entertainers. So, I'm also
  486. 16:25myself always scouting. The big heart of
  487. 16:28this [music] is I wasn't using the AI to
  488. 16:30write the report for me. I was using AI
  489. 16:32to make myself better at that particular
  490. 16:35goal. Being able to simulate the world
  491. 16:37is the superpower that makes someone
  492. 16:40able to be a successful entrepreneur.
  493. 16:43Simulating the world allows you to
  494. 16:46imagine a product or imagine a strategy
  495. 16:49and then play it forward in your head.
  496. 16:51What would happen if I did this?

  497. Taste: AI’s First Theft

  498. 16:58The work I do is really focused on
  499. 17:01building up autonomous human thinking.
  500. 17:04That's why the core word I use for the
  501. 17:06philosophy is thoughtful. I've watched
  502. 17:08over many years as people are becoming
  503. 17:12less and less interested in thinking. I
  504. 17:15think that actually happened because
  505. 17:17people found out that they can entertain
  506. 17:18themselves with iPads and this
  507. 17:20unfortunately makes people also not have
  508. 17:23as much interest in concentrating and
  509. 17:25thinking about something. AI could make
  510. 17:28that much worse. The fun part of life
  511. 17:30[music] is having your own contribution
  512. 17:33to the life that you live. [music]
  513. 17:35Actually, I think that's why people
  514. 17:37actually like creativity. It's fun.
  515. 17:39People like to draw. People like to put
  516. 17:40their own flavor. People like to wear
  517. 17:42their own fashion. It expresses themsel.
  518. 17:44This expression of yourself, it will be
  519. 17:46lost if everything you do is efficient
  520. 17:48but just reliant on the AI which told
  521. 17:50you how to dress today. That's why I
  522. 17:52want more and more people to discover
  523. 17:54it's fun to think. It's fun to have your
  524. 17:56own twist on things, your own your own
  525. 17:58idea that you inject inside. The other

  526. Truth: AI’s Second Theft

  527. 18:00dangerous thing that happens if people
  528. 18:02lose the ability to to think and reason
  529. 18:05is that it makes it far easier to
  530. 18:08deceive [music] people. The world is so
  531. 18:10complicated that if you look at any
  532. 18:12situation in the world, sometimes
  533. 18:14depending on how you tell the story of
  534. 18:16what happened, you can say statements
  535. 18:19[music] that are all true which make you
  536. 18:21come up with a different feeling. I
  537. 18:23think it's really important for people
  538. 18:25to be critical and to for people to be
  539. 18:27able to understand what's really going
  540. 18:29on because sometimes when someone's
  541. 18:31talking to you, they have an agenda.
  542. 18:32Like I'll be frank, I have an agenda.
  543. 18:34I'm trying to build a more thoughtful
  544. 18:35world. And I'm going to be very very
  545. 18:36upfront with you on that. Anyone who's
  546. 18:38watching this video, I think it's really
  547. 18:40important that we have as many people as
  548. 18:42possible find out how much fun it is
  549. 18:44[music] to delight other people and to
  550. 18:46have the ability to think and figure
  551. 18:48that out. That's my agenda. [music] But
  552. 18:51you see, everyone has an agenda. And if
  553. 18:53you can't think for yourself and you
  554. 18:55just listen to some authority, what if
  555. 18:59that agenda is [music] actually to your
  556. 19:01detriment? You'll have no way of

  557. 5 Perspectives VS 7.5 Billion

  558. 19:04knowing. The technology revolution
  559. 19:06really made all of us start to realize
  560. 19:09how much of an impact bias has in the
  561. 19:13[music] sense that whoever makes some
  562. 19:15technology tool has some bias. What does
  563. 19:18bias really mean? Well, I guess as a
  564. 19:20mathematician, the way I would say it is
  565. 19:222+ 2 is always four. That's right.
  566. 19:25What's the point of life? Oh, I don't
  567. 19:27know. Like, there's no clear definition.
  568. 19:29What's the point of life? I think the
  569. 19:30point of life is is to delight as many
  570. 19:32other people as you can, but I know that
  571. 19:34you might not necessarily agree, and
  572. 19:36it's not a problem. I think it's it's
  573. 19:38healthy that we may have different
  574. 19:39starting points. The part that becomes
  575. 19:41unhealthy is where there is only a very
  576. 19:45short menu of options each of which is
  577. 19:48followed by a huge number of people.
  578. 19:50That's actually where bias comes in
  579. 19:52because we just we just mentioned so
  580. 19:54[music] far in this in this video a
  581. 19:56couple of different uh sources of AI
  582. 19:58providers, right? We have we have
  583. 19:59Claude, we have OpenAI, there's also
  584. 20:01Gemini. If you're in China, there's
  585. 20:03DeepSeek. There are all of these, but
  586. 20:04that's relatively few [music] if you
  587. 20:06think about it. That's that would be
  588. 20:08sort of like saying well the world has
  589. 20:10lots of different viewpoints it has five
  590. 20:12of them really no no the world has 7 and
  591. 20:15a half billion [music]
  592. 20:16different viewpoints there are 7 and 12
  593. 20:18billion people one of the beautiful
  594. 20:19things about I guess humanity is the
  595. 20:22fact that there are so many different
  596. 20:24ideas all out there and let's be frank
  597. 20:27some of the ideas are bad some of the
  598. 20:29people are unfortunately in prison
  599. 20:31because they decided to kill someone
  600. 20:32else hopefully [music]
  601. 20:34we all understand that is a bad idea but
  602. 20:36the point is there are lots of different
  603. 20:38people who are trying different kinds of
  604. 20:39ideas, lots of different philosophies
  605. 20:41and in this great big marketplace of
  606. 20:43ideas that is the [music] world we see
  607. 20:45some ideas come out and the the variety
  608. 20:48also allows us to have more creativity
  609. 20:50perhaps and when I look at the different
  610. 20:53AI tools well it's actually well known
  611. 20:55that they have certain biases this is

  612. How to Avoid One-Sided Thinking

  613. 20:58also why for me when I try to get the
  614. 21:00news [music] I don't only go to CNN.com
  615. 21:03I also go to Fox News I tune my social
  616. 21:06media So that my ex is all tracking
  617. 21:09Republican [music]
  618. 21:10uh right-leaning viewpoints and my
  619. 21:12Facebook is all tracking left-leaning
  620. 21:13[music] viewpoints. And I look at both
  621. 21:15of them every day because I want to see
  622. 21:17what's going on. And my expectation is
  623. 21:19yes, you're going to be biased. You have
  624. 21:21a certain view on the world and you
  625. 21:22think you're right. And you're biased
  626. 21:24too. You have a way of thinking of the
  627. 21:25world. And my [music] job as I simulate
  628. 21:27the world is to try to figure out where
  629. 21:29do you disagree? Ah, you disagree
  630. 21:30perhaps on a few values of how people
  631. 21:33should live their life. And then that
  632. 21:34causes you to have different ways of
  633. 21:36reporting on the story. I [music] think
  634. 21:37it's all the more important now that
  635. 21:39there's AI out here, which sounds like a
  636. 21:41very convincing, reasonable [music]
  637. 21:43person. It's even more important that
  638. 21:45people look at things and say, "All
  639. 21:48right, is that really the story?"
  640. 21:50Because I think that the AI is going to
  641. 21:52be so good at looking complete that you
  642. 21:56may think you have the entire story on a
  643. 21:58controversial situation, but you don't.

  644. Why I Love Night Buses

  645. 22:01What I do for fun is I like to meet and
  646. 22:04try to understand people whose
  647. 22:06backgrounds I don't fully understand
  648. 22:08[music] yet. This is actually what I do
  649. 22:10for fun. This is also why we're we're in
  650. 22:12we're we're talking right now. I happen
  651. 22:14to be talking to you in New York City.
  652. 22:15The way I got here overnight is I
  653. 22:17[music] took the bus, the overnight bus.
  654. 22:20You know, some people don't take the
  655. 22:21overnight bus because who knows who
  656. 22:22you're taking the bus with. [music] But
  657. 22:24for me, I'm actually not scared by that.
  658. 22:26That's just called real world. You can't
  659. 22:28understand the real world unless you
  660. 22:30actually start going into various parts
  661. 22:32of the real world. I think my message of
  662. 22:34how to create value is you cannot create
  663. 22:36value if you don't interact with people.
  664. 22:39You cannot just theoretically think
  665. 22:40about the value. And the more people the
  666. 22:42more you can understand people of
  667. 22:44different backgrounds. Understand means
  668. 22:46have some [music] idea of how they tick.
  669. 22:48What are their needs? What are the
  670. 22:49limiting factors? What do they want to
  671. 22:51do? The better you are at modeling this,
  672. 22:53the more effective you will be at coming
  673. 22:55up with a solution. I started going to
  674. 22:57city after [music] city after city
  675. 22:59giving math talks in public parks. I
  676. 23:01actually set a schedule. I put a
  677. 23:03schedule on my website and I said I'm
  678. 23:05going to go to all these cities and
  679. 23:06people could just sign up to show up for
  680. 23:08the talks. And at the beginning people
  681. 23:10were wondering will anyone show up? But
  682. 23:11actually there would be like 50 to 100
  683. 23:13people showing up at these talks [music]
  684. 23:15in parks. And by the way, that was a fun
  685. 23:16journey because in order to do that, I
  686. 23:18was traveling around from park to park
  687. 23:20with all the AV equipment, [music]
  688. 23:22speakers and everything to be able to
  689. 23:24have a a stage in in in park shelters
  690. 23:27all around the US. But while doing that
  691. 23:30in inadvertently, that was customer
  692. 23:32discovery because I was able to suddenly
  693. 23:35interact with and talk to thousands of
  694. 23:38parents and [music] students, which
  695. 23:39started to make me realize what kind of
  696. 23:41challenges people had. And that's why
  697. 23:44just probably about [music] 1 to two
  698. 23:46months after that, the big idea came.
  699. 23:48The big idea of oh, we can actually have
  700. 23:51all these middle school students who
  701. 23:53I've met, they can all learn how to
  702. 23:55think all at the same time while these
  703. 23:57people who are brilliant become
  704. 24:00extremely polished so that someday later
  705. 24:02in their careers they can be really
  706. 24:04successful. So that that that was that
  707. 24:06was the idea. It was like somehow you
  708. 24:08cannot really find pain points if
  709. 24:10[music] you're not seeing people. That's
  710. 24:13also why with a lot of the work that I
  711. 24:14do, I will go into schools, right? I
  712. 24:16love to work on education [music] and I
  713. 24:18do it in a way where even just last
  714. 24:21night I was writing to somebody who is
  715. 24:22involved with a large network of schools
  716. 24:24[music] and their schools, I believe,
  717. 24:27serve students who are also
  718. 24:28disadvantaged. [music] Now, instead of
  719. 24:30just putting money or putting resources
  720. 24:32from my side, what I said is I'm very
  721. 24:34interested. [music] Can we arrange for
  722. 24:36me to go into some of your schools and
  723. 24:38teach sixth grade? What I'm explaining
  724. 24:40is that the way I do anything, if I want
  725. 24:42to work in a sector, [music]
  726. 24:43I go and myself step in and start doing
  727. 24:46the work and see what happens. And this
  728. 24:48is actually how I came up with all these
  729. 24:50ideas because actually the ideas that
  730. 24:51I'm doing are all things I've personally
  731. 24:53[music] experienced myself. I've
  732. 24:55experienced being a math person taking
  733. 24:57acting classes. [music] I've experienced
  734. 24:59being a person learning how to think,
  735. 25:00taught by somebody who knows a lot of
  736. 25:02things and also smiles. So all the
  737. 25:05different parts gave me these ideas.
  738. 25:08And the other story I'll share is I

  739. Upcoming Episode

  740. 25:10don't only go to rural America. I go all
  741. 25:12over the world. In fact, as I started
  742. 25:14running around rural areas, do I walked
  743. 25:16into the elementary school? I walked
  744. 25:17into the fourth grade classroom and I
  745. 25:19was just going to do my usual thing, Mr.
  746. 25:21Poe, the substitute teacher. So, I wrote
  747. 25:23on the blackboard, "What is 1 + [music]
  748. 25:263 + 5 + 7 + 9 =?" [music] As soon as I
  749. 25:32wrote equals, behind me, I heard a bunch
  750. 25:34of kids yelling 25. I've actually never
  751. 25:37experienced before a classroom. The kids
  752. 25:40were all suggesting ideas. They were
  753. 25:42also very respectful of each other's
  754. 25:43ideas. This was one of the best
  755. 25:46classrooms I have ever taught. Those are
  756. 25:48wonderful kids. And I just told you the
  757. 25:50profile of the area was high poverty. I
  758. 25:54asked the person who took me around
  759. 25:56afterwards, "These kids are amazing.
  760. 26:00Do they play games on their phones?" And
  761. 26:03the lady told me, "They don't [music]
  762. 26:04have phones. It's because of the money.
  763. 26:07In fact, they might not even have the
  764. 26:08internet access." So, that's an
  765. 26:10interesting commentary. [laughter] Uh,
  766. 26:12then I said, "What do they do for fun?"
  767. 26:14And she said, "Well, they just [music]
  768. 26:15figure out how to make their own games."
  769. 26:17So, then I realized actually that huge
  770. 26:20pool of authentically interested and
  771. 26:22[music] curious kids throughout rural
  772. 26:24America who are ready, have the wits and
  773. 26:27the creativity which they've built from
  774. 26:29the way of life that they have, very
  775. 26:31[music] smart kids. This could be an
  776. 26:32enormous untapped potential for
  777. 26:35unleashing science and technology across
  778. 26:38not only the US but the the entire
  779. 26:40world.
What you must know before AGI arrives | Carnegie Mellon University Po-Shen Loh — Transcriptly