01
A while ago I came across videos by Johnathan Bi online and was drawn in for no clear reason. Philosophy seemed so different in his world. A few days ago I listened to his conversation with the quantitative-investing master Jim O'Shaughnessy. They talked about the humanities and philosophy, and also mentioned Shakespeare and the Tao Te Ching.
02
Not long ago I listened to Zhang Xiaojun interview Xie Saining. In seven hours of audio, Professor Xie mentioned Arendt three times—philosophy again. He is also working on world models. I think this episode is worth listening to together with Yunqi Capital's interview with Xu Huazhe. There is a lot of information in both, and they made research on embodied intelligence and world models feel very interesting too.
03
Today YouTube recommended me a video reviewing an AGI conference in Iceland. It mentioned phenomenology and philosophy of science. I have probably been listening to some Cantonese podcasts recently, so this Cantonese video arrived on my homepage too. YouTube's algorithm is pretty good. It has helped me find many interesting creators and videos.
04
Over the last two days I listened to WhynotTV's latest interview with Danfei Xu. It did not mention philosophy directly, but I could see its shadow in the conversation: when they spoke about intelligence, for example, they said that without a body, AGI in the physical world may never arrive. They also discussed empiricism versus rationalism in training robots, and whether forcing robots to learn from human data gives them intelligence or limits them to the range of human ability…
05
I have always felt that Claude is the most philosophical AI. That has a lot to do with the philosopher Amanda Askell—or maybe Claude is Amanda Askell's student. She was also the main writer of the Claude Constitution. While I was trying to understand the product-design ideas in Shakespeare's work, I kept being surprised: isn't this exactly what Claude is doing??!
…
I only recently learned that DeepMind created a full-time philosopher role in mid-April. A philosopher entering an AI lab is… really interesting.
After looking into it a little, I found that the AI we interact with every day involves more than philosophy of science. It also touches epistemology, phenomenology, metaphysics, ethics, and other branches of philosophy.
The more I learn, the more I feel my own ignorance. Things I took for granted have so much that I had never noticed or thought about.
Drinking hot water is a classic example.
We all know that drinking hot water is a Chinese habit, but how did that habit stay with us? Before I learned the history behind it, I had no idea. Once I did, I thought: wow, this is so interesting.
Also, when I used to make AI tools and tried to build memory systems, I only had my small brain and AI's help. My ability and understanding are limited. I do not know what I do not know, so the solutions AI gave me did not always land in the right place. Only after listening to these podcasts did I suddenly understand.
So memory paths can be designed like this. Agents can be used like this. Products can be designed like this…
I really recommend these episodes to anyone interested in AI products and system design, embodied intelligence, robots, world models, investment, or philosophy. You can find them on Xiaoyuzhou, Xiaohongshu, or YouTube. (Very loudly!)
P.S. I saw a home robot shaped like a desk lamp these days. In that moment—wow, that is what an ideal home robot looks like in the physical world, at least to me. In my imagination, a home robot should feel almost absent. See how functionalist I am. Also, I recently found that if I do not want to read a whole book, I can be a little practical and let AI teach it to me. I have really thought about whether AI can help me read books. When I have time, I will write something about it—another diary entry I have already planned in my head, waiting for me to finish…