Top 15 Machine Learning Podcasts for AI Enthusiasts

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Written By Zach Johnson

AI and tech enthusiast with a background in machine learning.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are rapidly evolving fields with new developments happening every day. For both practitioners and casual listeners interested in staying on top of the latest trends, machine learning podcasts are a great educational resource.

Podcasts allow you to learn about new research and applications of AI while on the go. Top shows feature insightful interviews with researchers and developers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with machine learning. Through lively discussions, experts explore how techniques like neural networks and deep learning are transforming areas like computer vision, natural language processing, and data science.

Here are the top 15 machine learning podcasts that are must-listens for anyone fascinated by the world of AI:

1. AI Today Podcast

Hosted by: Kathleen Walch and Ron Schmelzer

About: This podcast focuses on relevant information about what’s going on today in the world of artificial intelligence. The hosts discuss pressing topics around AI with easy-to-digest content, interviewed guests and experts on various domains within AI, and an attempt to cut through the hype and noise to identify what’s really happening with adoption and implementation of AI.

Episode Highlight: How AI is Being Used in the Fight Against Climate Change

Why Listen: If you want to stay on top of the latest real world applications and trends happening with artificial intelligence, the AI Today podcast is a great listen. The hosts do an excellent job identifying key developments and bringing in domain experts to discuss them in depth. You’ll come away from each episode with an enhanced understanding of AI’s current capabilities and limitations.

2. O’Reilly Data Show

Hosted by: Ben Lorica

About: This podcast features interviews with some of the most interesting people in the data science and big data communities. Host Ben Lorica covers topics such as machine learning, data engineering, and data privacy.

Episode Highlight: Responsible AI Practices with Rumman Chowdhury

Why Listen: Ben Lorica is one of the leading voices when it comes to data and AI. He draws on his extensive network to get world-class guests from companies like LinkedIn, Netflix, Google Cloud, and more to share fascinating case studies and viewpoints. If you want exposure to forward-thinking perspectives on applying data science and machine learning, this show delivers.

3. Talking Machines

Hosted by: Katherine Gorman and Neil Lawrence

About: This podcast is your window into the world of machine learning. During each episode, the hosts bring you clear conversations with experts in the field, insightful discussions of industry news, and useful answers to your questions. The hosts explore how to ask the best questions and what to do with the answers.

Episode Highlight: How Computers Learn to See with Prof. Kristen Grauman

Why Listen: Katherine Gorman and Neil Lawrence are both highly regarded researchers in the ML field and conduct thoughtful interviews with an academic bent. The conversations illuminate how machine learning algorithms work under the hood. If you want to strengthen your foundational knowledge of the key concepts behind techniques like neural networks, this podcast delivers those insights in an accessible way.

4. Data Skeptic

Hosted by: Kyle Polich

About: This podcast features interviews and discussion of topics related to data science, statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence from the perspective of applying critical thinking and the scientific method to evaluate the evidence. The host aims to help listeners learn how to think critically about the information they consume and how to apply that knowledge to their work.

Episode Highlight: Bias in Facial Recognition Systems with Joy Buolamwini

Why Listen: The Data Skeptic podcast has been running for over a decade, showing Kyle Polich’s talent for identifying fascinating topics at the intersection of data and technology. By emphasizing critical thinking around both the capabilities and limitations of AI systems, listeners come away better equipped to evaluate bold claims made about machine learning in the media and research.

5. Machine Learning Street Talk

Hosted by: Various

About: This podcast is inspired by academic research and each week the hosts engage in dynamic discussion with pre-eminent figures in the AI field. The podcast covers topics such as AI safety, natural language processing, and deep learning.

Episode Highlight: Offline Reinforcement Learning with Prof. Sergey Levine

Why Listen: The rotating set of hosts on Machine Learning Street Talk dive deep on niche machine learning topics with top researchers like Yoshua Bengio, Andrej Karpathy, and Yann LeCun. The technical conversations illuminate the cutting edge of ML, making this podcast better suited to advanced practitioners. But beginners can still gain valuable context on influential concepts.

6. The TWIML AI Podcast

Hosted by: Sam Charrington

About: This podcast features interviews with researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who are pushing the boundaries of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The host covers topics such as deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing.

Episode Highlight: Beyond Backpropagation with Jürgen Schmidhuber

Why Listen: Sam Charrington has been covering the world of AI for over a decade, allowing him to draw on connections to many pioneers in the space. His interview style balances technical depth with accessibility. Episodes keep up with the latest innovations but also provide historical context on how we arrived at them. Listen to gain well-rounded knowledge of both theoretical breakthroughs and practical applications.

7. DataFramed

Hosted by: Hugo Bowne-Anderson

About: This podcast is all about data science and its impact on the world. The host interviews data scientists, statisticians, and machine learning engineers to explore the latest trends and techniques in the field.

Episode Highlight: Building a Data Science Team with DJ Patil

Why Listen: Hugo Bowne-Anderson is skilled at teasing out unique career stories and perspectives from top data scientists. By focusing less on models and math and more on the human side of practicing data science, these thoughtful human conversations reveal the creativity and serendipity involved in advancing the field. You’ll come away inspired about the positive change enabled by the skillful application of data.

8. Linear Digressions

Hosted by: Katie Malone and Ben Jaffe

About: This podcast is all about machine learning and data science. The hosts cover topics such as neural networks, decision trees, and clustering algorithms.

Episode Highlight: An Intuitive Guide to Convolutional Neural Nets

Why Listen: Katie Malone and Ben Jaffe make machine learning concepts accessible and even fun. Their lighthearted banter paired with clear explanations of the intuition behind ML algorithms helps listeners develop an understanding of advanced techniques. The visual show notes that accompany each episode further reinforce the key ideas. For those new to AI, Linear Digressions provides the perfect starting point.

9. The AI Alignment Podcast

Hosted by: Rohin Shah and Dylan Hadfield-Menell

About: This podcast is all about the long-term future of artificial intelligence and how to ensure that it is aligned with human values. The hosts cover topics such as AI safety, value alignment, and decision theory.

Episode Highlight: Debate on the Orthogonality Thesis with Stuart Russell

Why Listen: For the philosophically-minded, The AI Alignment Podcast from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute explores theoretical issues around designing AI systems that align with what humans value. While concepts like value learning and normative uncertainty may not have immediate real-world application, tuning into these thought-provoking discussions illuminates risks and considerations for AI’s future that are too often ignored.

10. Practical AI

Hosted by: Chris Benson and Daniel Whitenack

About: This podcast is all about making artificial intelligence practical, productive, and accessible to everyone. The hosts cover topics such as deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.

Episode Highlight: Building Conversational AI with Google DialogFlow

Why Listen: Chris Benson and Daniel Whitenack ground the theoretical world of artificial intelligence in the practical realities of building and deploying ML systems. With the motto “AI that works”, their conversations will help technologists better understand how to apply AI concepts to deliver tangible business value. Episodes provide code samples and recommendations that can be implemented in your own projects.

11. Machine Learning Guide

Hosted by: Tyler Renelle

About: This podcast is all about demystifying machine learning and making it accessible to everyone. The host covers topics such as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning.

Episode Highlight: An Intro to Neural Networks

Why Listen: Tyler Renelle is on a mission to break down complex machine learning topics through clear explanations and visualizations. His friendly teaching style coupled with great show notes help newcomers develop intuition around techniques like backpropagation in neural networks. By starting from the basics, listeners can build up foundational ML knowledge in a structured way.

12. This Week in Machine Learning & AI

Hosted by: Sam Charrington

About: This fast-paced podcast features weekly headline news from the machine learning and artificial intelligence communities. The host covers topics such as deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing.

Episode Highlight: AI Generates Images from Text Prompts, GPT-3 Usage Restricted

Why Listen: In our rapidly changing field, staying on top of the latest developments can feel overwhelming. This Week in Machine Learning & AI provides easily digestible weekly recaps of the most important news items so you can keep up without getting lost in the minutia. Tune in to gain awareness of emerging trends and innovations as they happen.

13. The AI Ethics Podcast

Hosted by: Mia Dand and Hannah Fry

About: This podcast is all about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. The hosts cover critical topics related to AI such as bias, the future of work, and the impact of technology on society.

Episode Highlight: Is Your Phone Privileged? with Chris Gilliard

Why Listen: While much media coverage focuses on AI’s capabilities and business potential, The AI Ethics Podcast takes a critical look at its downsides. Hosted by experts Mia Dand and Hannah Fry, thought-provoking discussions bring much needed attention to vital issues of bias, inclusion, privacy, and governance relating to machine learning. Listeners gain a more holistic view of how to responsibly shape the future of AI.

14. Machine Learning Applied

Hosted by: Tyler Renelle

About: This podcast is all about practical applications of machine learning. The host covers topics such as data cleaning, feature engineering, and model selection.

Episode Highlight: Building a Spam Filter with Naive Bayes

Why Listen: While many podcasts cover high-level theory, Machine Learning Applied zeros in on the nitty gritty hands-on work of building ML systems. Through detailed code walkthroughs and data science project case studies, Tyler Renelle illuminates key techniques for preparing data, training models, and properly evaluating performance. If you want actionable advice for applying machine learning to real problems, give this podcast a listen.

15. The AI Alignment Newsletter Podcast

Hosted by: Rohin Shah and Jared Kaplan

About: This podcast summarizes and discusses the latest research in AI alignment featured in Rohin Shah’s Alignment Newsletter. Topics include value alignment, decision theory, and AI safety.

Episode Highlight: Debate on the Orthogonality Thesis with Stuart Russell

Why Listen: Stay on the cutting edge of AI alignment research by listening to these audio summaries of key papers and developments curated by Rohin Shah. By distilling complex scholarship down to critical insights and takeaways, the hosts make the continuing progress in this vital domain more accessible to practitioners. This helps chart a course towards advanced AI systems that retain human values.

Expand Your Understanding with Machine Learning Podcasts

The world of artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly and machine learning podcasts are a great way to stay informed. Lively discussions with researchers and engineers illuminate both the capabilities and limitations of leading-edge AI systems.

Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner looking to deepen your expertise or a curious listener aiming to grasp ML fundamentals, these top shows will expand your knowledge. They deliver key insights and trend awareness to enhance your work in data science and machine learning.

So tune in during your commute, at the gym, or anytime you want to advance your understanding of this dynamic field. With new episodes released weekly, there’s always more to discover about our AI-enabled future.

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