#221 – Douglas Lenat: Cyc and the Quest to Solve Common Sense Reasoning in AI

Douglas Lenat is the founder of Cyc, a 37 year project aiming to solve common-sense knowledge and reasoning in AI. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Douglas's Twitter: https://twitter.com/cycorpai
Cyc's Website: https://cyc.com

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OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(07:39) - What is Cyc?
(15:45) - How to form a knowledge base of the universe
(26:11) - How to train an AI knowledge base
(30:32) - Global consistency versus local consistency
(54:53) - Automated reasoning
(1:00:33) - Direct uses of AI and machine learning
(1:13:11) - The semantic web
(1:23:44) - Tools to help Cyc interpret data
(1:32:54) - The most beautiful idea about Cyc
(1:38:53) - Love and consciousness in AI
(1:45:52) - The greatness of Marvin Minsky
(1:50:46) - Is Cyc just a beautiful dream?
(1:55:31) - What is OpenCyc and how was it born?
(2:01:21) - The open source community and OpenCyc
(2:11:48) - The inference problem
(2:13:31) - Cyc's programming language
(2:21:05) - Ontological engineering
(2:28:30) - Do machines think?
(2:37:15) - Death and consciousness
(2:47:16) - What would you say to AI?
(2:51:52) - Advice to young people
(2:53:48) - Mortality