Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying mathematical concepts that power modern machine learning, to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives–even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…
It's that time of year again. Classrooms are freshly dusted and new posters are laminated. It's the beginning of August and it's back to school season. For teachers and parents, it's the most wonderful time of the year. For us, a new school year is a time to re-evaluate philosophies and ideas and evolve into better teachers than we were the year before. It amazes me how much I grow as a teacher each year; spending time in reflection and constant learning is an integral part of a teacher's summer vacation. We need to decompress, yes, but we also need to set new goals, gather new data, and plan for the new year. In episode 9, Jennifer and I will share our goals for the upcoming school year. It's short and sweet because, quite honestly, we were exhausted. But we showed up and did our best just as we expect our students to do. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you're a teacher who has his or her own goals for the upcoming school year, please share them with us. You can find us on Facebook @ Sassy Schoolmarms; email sassyschoolmarms@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.
It's that time of year again. Classrooms are freshly dusted and new posters are laminated. It's the beginning of August and it's back to school season. For teachers and parents, it's the most wonderful time of the year. For us, a new school year is a time to re-evaluate philosophies and ideas and evolve into better teachers than we were the year before. It amazes me how much I grow as a teacher each year; spending time in reflection and constant learning is an integral part of a teacher's summer vacation. We need to decompress, yes, but we also need to set new goals, gather new data, and plan for the new year. In episode 9, Jennifer and I will share our goals for the upcoming school year. It's short and sweet because, quite honestly, we were exhausted. But we showed up and did our best just as we expect our students to do. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you're a teacher who has his or her own goals for the upcoming school year, please share them with us. You can find us on Facebook @ Sassy Schoolmarms; email sassyschoolmarms@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.
With a couple of weeks of school under our belt, we are back and ready to talk about a childhood favorite: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Thankfully, we don't live on the prairie, but we sure love reading about it! Her new novel Pioneer Girl is not suitable for children which makes us want to read it even more! Other topics of discussion include eating real food, The Great Gatsby, and the amazing Burris family! Really, we are all over the place this week, but I blame it on the heat.…
We try to keep it light this week, but recent events in Ferguson, Missouri bring us down a bit. Topics include the importance of Twitter to report real news, Pharrell Williams, and upcoming movies that we are excited about.
It's that time of year again. Classrooms are freshly dusted and new posters are laminated. It's the beginning of August and it's back to school season. For teachers and parents, it's the most wonderful time of the year. For us, a new school year is a time to re-evaluate philosophies and ideas and evolve into better teachers than we were the year before. It amazes me how much I grow as a teacher each year; spending time in reflection and constant learning is an integral part of a teacher's summer vacation. We need to decompress, yes, but we also need to set new goals, gather new data, and plan for the new year. In episode 9, Jennifer and I will share our goals for the upcoming school year. It's short and sweet because, quite honestly, we were exhausted. But we showed up and did our best just as we expect our students to do. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you're a teacher who has his or her own goals for the upcoming school year, please share them with us. You can find us on Facebook @ Sassy Schoolmarms; email sassyschoolmarms@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.…
We know it’s a little early, but since teachers start back to school next week, we had a few things we needed to discuss. This week we give you the first Sassy Schoolmarm list. Our list consists of 5 things that we think will be important to keep in mind as you prepare for the most wonderful time of the year! (It really is like a holiday, isn’t it?)…
For episode 7, the ladies discuss the Jonathan Hopper novel This Is Where I Leave You. They also discuss a recent visit to a local food truck, an article in the Washington Post by Amy Joyce "Are You Raising Nice Kids?", and take the "Who's Your 80's Boyfriend?" quiz.
The ladies took a week off, but are back with a vengeance. This week's episode covers Weird Al's new single "Word Crimes", several different mini book reviews, Little Free Libraries, and Jennifer changed her Facebook profile page and is now considering a modeling career.
In this week's episode, Jennifer and Sara discuss The Little Friend, We Were Liars, and All the Light We Cannot See. The ladies also discuss a recent tragedy in their community and talk about how teachers deal with the loss of a student. Music: "Firecracker" by Ryan Adams Books Discussed: The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.…
In the 4th episode the ladies discuss ways to enjoy a little "me" time. They also discuss the YA novel Eleanor and Park, chalk paint, and a new Article of the Week.
Two sassy rural school teachers discuss how to overcome the perils of summer. This week's episode covers Melissa Fenton's "10 Ways to Give Your Kids an Honest to Goodness 70's Summer." We also talk about tracking your teenager via iPhone while Sara claws at her poison ivy. humansofnewyork.com 100happydays.com…
In this week's episode we discuss more summer reading and film, touch on kids and technology, introduce our first Article of the Week, and Sara finally learns how to use mascara. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Wild by Cheryl Strayed The Little Friend by Donna Tartt "Against YA" by Ruth Graham