Thinking Machines: AI & Philosophy

ML Engineer and tech writer Donato Riccio wrote an article entitled "The End of RAG?" discussing what might replace Retrieval Augmented Generation in the near future. The article was received as highly controversial within the AI echo chamber, so I brought Donato on the podcast to discuss RAG, why people are so obsessed with vector databases, and the upcoming research in AI that might replace it.

Takeaways:
  • RAG is necessary due to LLMs' limited context window and scalability issues, and the need to avoid hallucinations and outdated information.
  • Larger/infinite context window models and linear-scaling models (e.g. RWKV, Eagle) may allow for learning through forward propagation, allowing for more efficient and effective knowledge acquisition
  • Agentic flows are likely far more powerful than RAG - and when they actually start working consistently, we may see the need for vector databases dramatically reduced.
  • RAG libraries and abstracts can be helpful for getting off the ground but don't solve the hard problems in specific vertical LLM use cases.
  • RAG vs Agents, and the complex ways that vertical AI approach RAG in practice
Share your thoughts with us at hello@slingshot.xyz or tweet us @slingshot_ai.

Creators & Guests

Host
Daniel Reid Cahn
Founder @ Slingshot - AI for all, not just Goliath

What is Thinking Machines: AI & Philosophy?

“Thinking Machines,” hosted by Daniel Reid Cahn, bridges the worlds of artificial intelligence and philosophy - aimed at technical audiences. Episodes explore how AI challenges our understanding of topics like consciousness, free will, and morality, featuring interviews with leading thinkers, AI leaders, founders, machine learning engineers, and philosophers. Daniel guides listeners through the complex landscape of artificial intelligence, questioning its impact on human knowledge, ethics, and the future.

We talk through the big questions that are bubbling through the AI community, covering topics like "Can AI be Creative?" and "Is the Turing Test outdated?", introduce new concepts to our vocabulary like "human washing," and only occasionally agree with each other.

Daniel is a machine learning engineer who misses his time as a philosopher at King's College London. Daniel is the cofounder and CEO of Slingshot AI, building the foundation model for psychology.