Yann LeCun's Essential Reads for AI Brilliance

Cade Metz is a technology correspondent for The New York Times and the author of Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, a critically acclaimed examination of artificial intelligence’s evolution and its societal implications.

With over 25 years of experience covering tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, Metz combines deep industry insight with a narrative-driven approach to dissecting AI’s ethical challenges, corporate rivalries, and breakthroughs. His expertise spans robotics, virtual reality, and blockchain, informed by roles as a senior writer at WIRED, U.S. editor of The Register, and contributor to publications like PC Magazine.

Metz’s work has been featured on Craig Smith’s Eye on AI podcast and documentaries like AlphaGo (2017), reflecting his authority in bridging technical complexity with accessible storytelling. Born into a tech-centric family—his father helped develop the Universal Product Code (UPC) at IBM—Metz holds a Bachelor’s in English from Duke University and began his career as a playwright before transitioning to journalism.

Genius Makers, lauded for its rigorous research and vivid profiles, has become a pivotal resource for understanding AI’s global impact, cited in academic and industry discussions alike.

1. Neural networks' resurgence defined AI's leap from theory to real-world impact.
2. Collaboration between academia and tech giants accelerated deep learning breakthroughs.
3. Ethical risks of AI mirror its potential for societal transformation.
4. Geoff Hinton's persistence revolutionized machine perception through backpropagation innovation.
5. DeepMind's AlphaGo victory marked AI's crossover into human intuition domains.
6. AI's bias problem stems from training data, not algorithmic intent.
7. Self-driving car evolution showcases AI's promise and safety paradoxes.
8. Cade Metz traces AI's power shift from IBM to Google.
9. Language models like GPT-3 expose creativity-automation tension in AI.
10. Military AI applications raise urgent questions about autonomous warfare ethics.
11. Meta's Yann LeCun championed open-source AI to democratize innovation.
12. Talent wars between Silicon Valley firms shaped modern AI infrastructure.

Peter Godfrey-Smith is an award-winning philosopher of science and bestselling author of Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. A professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney, he holds a PhD from UC San Diego and has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and the Australian National University.

His work explores the evolution of consciousness, blending marine biology, comparative neuroscience, and philosophy. Other Minds, a seminal work in popular science, examines cephalopod intelligence and the origins of subjective experience, informed by Godfrey-Smith’s firsthand diving research.

He is also the author of Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind, which expands on themes of animal cognition. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, and The Guardian, and his 2009 book Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection won the prestigious Lakatos Award. Translated into over 10 languages, Other Minds was hailed by The New York Times Book Review for its groundbreaking insights into the animal mind.

1. Cephalopod intelligence evolved separately from vertebrates, offering an “alien” consciousness blueprint.
2. Octopus brains distribute cognition across arms, enabling decentralized problem-solving.
3. The Medawar-Williams theory explains aging through late-acting genetic mutations.
4. “Complex active bodies” drove parallel intelligence evolution in vertebrates and cephalopods.
5. Octopuses demonstrate sentience by protecting injured body parts.
6. Godfrey-Smith’s Octopolis fieldwork reveals social behaviors in solitary species.
7. Consciousness likely emerged gradually through sensory-motor coordination, not sudden leaps.
8. Cuttlefish skin patterns suggest a visual language predating human speech.
9. Studying cephalopods challenges human exceptionalism in tool use and memory.
10. The book reframes intelligence as embodied adaptation, not just brain size.
11. Evolutionary convergence shows multiple paths to complex problem-solving.
12. Octopus short lifespans reflect trade-offs between intelligence and survival strategies.

Frans de Waal (1948–2024) was a world-renowned primatologist and New York Times bestselling author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, a groundbreaking exploration of animal cognition and intelligence.

A Dutch-American ethologist and professor at Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center, de Waal revolutionized understanding of primate behavior through decades of research on chimpanzees, bonobos, and capuchin monkeys. His work bridged biology and psychology, examining themes of empathy, morality, and social dynamics across species.

Known for accessible science writing, de Waal authored 16 translated books, including Chimpanzee Politics (required reading for U.S. politicians) and Mama’s Last Hug, which popularized animal emotion studies. His TED Talks on primate behavior have garnered millions of views, while his research appeared in Science, Nature, and Scientific American. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, de Waal received the NAT Award for advancing public understanding of evolutionary biology.

Translated into 20 languages, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? cemented his legacy as one of the most influential science communicators of the 21st century.

1. Animal intelligence challenges human uniqueness through shared problem-solving and empathy.
2. Evolutionary cognition reveals mental continuity between species, not superiority hierarchies.
3. Study animal minds through species-specific behaviors, not human-centric benchmarks.
4. Empathy and cooperation in primates redefine “human-only” social complexity.
5. Anthropocentric bias distorts how we design animal intelligence experiments.
6. Cognitive abilities evolve to solve ecological needs, not pass human tests.
7. Frans de Waal redefines anthropomorphism as valid insight into animal emotions.
8. Bonding & Identification Based Learning (BIOL) shapes species-specific survival strategies.
9. Controlled experiments must mirror natural behaviors to avoid misleading conclusions.
10. Animal self-awareness extends beyond mirrors to social cognition and politics.
11. The “cognitive riзз” metaphor replaces outdated intelligence hierarchy models.
12. Rethink animal intelligence: Observation beats lab tests for authentic cognitive insights.

Ernest Becker (1924–1974) was a cultural anthropologist and existential psychologist whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, bridges philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Born in Massachusetts to Jewish immigrants, his worldview was profoundly shaped by his infantry service in World War II, which included the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp. This experience deeply informed his exploration of human mortality and meaning.

Becker was a professor at Syracuse University and Simon Fraser University. His interdisciplinary approach synthesized insights from influential thinkers such as Freud, Kierkegaard, and Otto Rank.

The Denial of Death, a seminal work in existential psychology, examines how humanity’s awareness of mortality drives cultural, religious, and personal quests for symbolic immortality. Becker’s other notable books, including Escape from Evil and The Birth and Death of Meaning, further dissect themes of heroism, societal structures, and the psychological roots of human behavior. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1974, The Denial of Death remains a cornerstone in existential thought, cited in academic circles and adapted into the documentary Flight from Death. Its enduring relevance is underscored by translations into over 20 languages and its continued influence on contemporary psychology and philosophy.

1. Human civilization exists to repress awareness of mortality through cultural hero systems.
2. Heroic immortality projects mask death anxiety by creating symbolic self-importance beyond biological limits.
3. Death anxiety emerges from consciousness of impermanence and insignificance, not fear of dying.
4. Modern society replaces religion with science but fails to provide existential meaning against mortality.
5. Self-transcendence requires confronting mortality directly to escape ego-driven "vital lies".
6. Cultural violence stems from conflicting immortality projects defending against existential terror.
7. Psychological neuroses often originate in repressed awareness of life’s fragility and finitude.
8. Sexual impulses and relationships become distorted attempts to achieve cosmic heroism.
9. Proximal defenses avoid death awareness; distal defenses rebuild self-esteem through irrational heroism.
10. Authentic faith embraces mystery rather than clinging to absolutist immortality narratives.
11. COVID-era anxiety spikes revealed humanity’s struggle with unmediated existential givens.
12. Therapy helps resolve cognitive dissonance between mortality awareness and survival instinct.