Smash Notes
What Is Elon Musk Hoping to Get From Neuralink · Decrypted

Decrypted

Why Silicon Valley Is Hiring Bird Experts

A few years ago, reporter Sarah McBride noticed that a top engineer at Twitter was also an expert on the brains of birds. Then, more and more, she started seeing that many top tech companies have bird brain experts in their highest ranks⁠—that includes Apple, Google, Intel and a secretive startup founded by Elon Musk. This week on Decrypted, Sarah and…

Notes

  1. What Is a Zebra Finch at 1:45

    "The zebra finch is the most common estrildid finch of Central Australia and ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool moist south and some… Full answer

  2. What Question Prompted Tim, Boston University Professor, With Exploring the Correlation Between Avian Minds and Human Minds at 4:40

    At the core of his exploration, he wanted to explore why a task seemed so easy for a child, but was difficult for a robot. Full answer

  3. What Is One of the Key Focuses of Tim's Studies at 5:40

    He has honed in on why zebra finches learn to sing. Full answer

  4. Why Do Researchers Study How Zebra Finches Learn to Sing? at 6:01

    The old title of this note says birds learn to "sign." On Decrypted, Sarah McBride and Brad Stone are talking about singing. Full answer

  5. Why Does Silicon Valley Want Bird Brain Research? at 12:02

    Scientists working on animals studies have a lot of interesting data, and tech companies love access to data. Full answer

  6. Why Are Researchers Studying Animal and Not Human Brains at 12:32

    Human brains are too complicated to study, nevermind the ethical implications of doing it, while animal brains a lot simpler and we have set principles and… Full answer

  7. How Are Tech Companies Hiring Neuroscientists to Build AI? at 14:24

    On Decrypted, Sarah McBride tells Brad Stone that neuroscience is starting to shape how companies design AI, so it is a good moment to be a neuroscientist. Full answer

  8. Why Does Amir Khosrowshahi Study Brains So Much? at 15:00

    Amir Khosrowshahi is a computational neuroscientist by training, and he says that a lot of AI technologies can benefit from learning how humans perform tasks… Full answer

  9. Do Researchers Already Know What Matters About Birds? at 16:02

    Decrypted puts the question to Intel. Full answer

  10. When Does Zebra-finch Research Pay Off, According to Decrypted? at 17:49

    On Bloomberg's Decrypted, Sarah McBride and Brad Stone ask when zebra-finch research shows up in products. Full answer

  11. What Is Elon Musk Hoping to Get From Neuralink at 19:43

    Neuralink could enable people to have a superhuman cognition, where's one could download an entire library into their brain, or learn a language in an instant. Full answer

  12. Can You Already See Bird-brain Research in Siri, Alexa, and Google? at 26:32

    Brad Stone asks Sarah McBride, at the end of Bloomberg's Decrypted, whether it is too early to hear a zebra finch inside Alexa, Siri, or Google's voice… Full answer

Related notes

Related episodes

Plays from this note through the rest of the episode.

Note

Weekly highlights

One letter a week.

The notes worth hearing, with the minute they were said.