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

Lex Fridman Podcast

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