MINDWORKS Mini: Recent Episodes
Daniel Serfaty
MINDWORKS Minis are curated segments from the MINDWORKS podcast that have been reimagined to work with your busy schedule. Join Aptima CEO, Daniel Serfaty, as he speaks with scientists, technologists, engineers, other practitioners, and thought leaders to explore how AI, data science, and technology is changing how humans think, learn, and work in the Age of AI.
Famous last words: “what’s the worst that can happen?" When introducing automation, artificial intelligence, and compute robotic devices into our lives, what should we be worrying about? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, asks Prof. Julie Shah, associate dean of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT, and Laura Majors, Chief Technology Officer at Motional, to learn more.
Listen to the entire interview in Human-Robot Collaboration with Julie Shah and Laura Majors
In the domain of human systems, quite often, progress has unfortunately been made after big disasters. The Three Mile Island nuclear accident, for example, in the '70s prompted people to rethink about how to design control rooms and human systems. Some accidents with the US Navy prompted the rebirth of the science of teams and on. With robots, inevitably in the news, we hear more about robots when they don't work and when there is an accident somewhere. MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, speaks with Prof. Julie Shah, associate dean of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT, and Laura Majors, Chief Technology Officer at Motional, about how accidents make us become better designers and better engineers.
Listen to the entire interview in Human-Robot Collaboration with Julie Shah and Laura Majors
In their new book, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration”, Prof. Julie Shah, associate dean of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT, and Laura Majors, Chief Technology Officer at Motional, describe the relationship between humans and robots in terms of a dance. Anyone who has danced with a partner knows that, to be successful, it is paramount that each partner understands, not only their own capabilities, but their partner's capabilities, then communicate those capabilities to each other. How does this principle apply to the relationship between humans and robots? You’re going to have to listen to this mini to find out!
Listen to the entire interview in Human-Robot Collaboration with Julie Shah and Laura Majors
When designing the systems that would take man to the moon, Apollo engineers had to figure out how much control they would give to the guidance computer versus the astronauts. 60 years later, engineers are having a similar debate: how much control do humans relinquish to machines and robots. As time goes by, the debate gets harder since machines and robots become more intelligent, thus they can do more.
MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, speaks with Prof. Julie Shah, associate dean of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT, and Laura Majors, Chief Technology Officer at Motional, to get their take.
Listen to the entire interview in Human-Robot Collaboration with Julie Shah and Laura Majors
What do you have to consider when taking human measurement and training science and technology in one domain, then transferring it to another? How do you take all the tools, smarts, theories of human performance, sophisticated measurement tools and transfer them into a different domain? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, talks with Dr. Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster of Aptima, as they share their experiences pivoting from one domain to another.
Listen to the entire interview in Mission-Critical Environments: Can we improve human performance? With Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster.
Whether with methods or tools or just intuition sometimes to measure humans to improve their performance in doing their job, we track measurements. Have you ever thought to yourself, “why is measurement important”? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, sits down with Dr. Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster of Aptima to learn more!
Listen to the entire interview in Mission-Critical Environments: Can we improve human performance? With Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster.
When studying human performance, we need multidisciplinary curiosity along with the combination of methods to crack the nut of the difficult problem that capturing human performance represent. What does that look like? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, sits down with Dr. Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster of Aptima to learn more!
Listen to the entire interview in Mission-Critical Environments: Can we improve human performance? With Shawn Weil, Courtney Dean, and Evan Oster.
Life is anything but predictable. When designing systems that utilize artificial intelligence, what do you have to account for? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, was also curious so he asked the experts to find out more! Join Daniel as he speaks Dr. William Casebeer, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Riverside Research Open Innovation Center, and Mr. Chad Weiss, Senior Research Engineer at Aptima.
Listen to the entire interview in The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with William Casebeer and Chad Weiss.
Language generates mutual intelligibility and understanding. This is paramount for effective communication, if humans do not understand how their AI counterpart think and reason, the team is doomed from the get-go. However, what does this all entail? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he discusses with Dr. William Casebeer, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Riverside Research Open Innovation Center, and Mr. Chad Weiss, Senior Research Engineer at Aptima.
Listen to the entire interview in The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with William Casebeer and Chad Weiss.
In the premier episode of MINDWORKS, “Meet your new AI coworker – are you ready?”, the MINDWORKS audience was introduced to Charlie, the world’s first AI employee. You heard her speak and you heard her ideas, but was she thinking, or did she find a hidden pattern that is opaque to human eyes? More broadly speaking, is AI learning and thinking? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he discusses with Dr. William Casebeer, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Riverside Research Open Innovation Center, and Mr. Chad Weiss, Senior Research Engineer at Aptima.
Listen to the entire interview in The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with William Casebeer and Chad Weiss.
In alternate universe, NASA has come to team science experts: Dr. Steve Kozlowski, Dr. Tara Brown, and Dr. Samantha Perry, to ask them how NASA should form the team that will embark on the first manned mission to Mars. What aspects of team science should they consider? You’re going to have to listen to find out!
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams Part 3: The Future of Teams with Steve Kozlowski, Tara Brown, and Samantha Perry.
Well before we studied the formal principles of engineering and design, we studied ethics. Given that artificial intelligence is becoming more and more advanced each year, is it time that we study the ethics of artificial intelligence? MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, sits down with Dr. William Casebeer, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Riverside Research Open Innovation Center, and Mr. Chad Weiss, Senior Research Engineer at Aptima, as they make the case for the study of ethics of artificial intelligence.
Listen to the entire interview in The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence with William Casebeer and Chad Weiss
Teamwork can make the dreamwork, or it could bring a project to a screeching halt. In this MINDWORKS MINI, Daniel Sefaty speaks with team science experts: Dr. Steve Kozlowski, Dr. Tara Brown, and Dr. Samantha Perry, about what makes for a good team.
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams Part 3: The Future of Teams with Steve Kozlowski, Tara Brown, and Samantha Perry.
“I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”— nobody wants to hear their AI teammate utter a chilling sentiment like that, especially when they are millions of miles away from humanity and trying to re-enter their spaceship! HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” was designed to work alongside humans as a teammate, however, HAL ended up working against its human teammates due to a lack of ethical considerations in its design. To prevent something like this from becoming a reality, what ethical considerations should we take when designing AI systems?
Listen to the entire intervew in The Magic of Teams Part 4: Human-AI Teams with Jared Freeman and Adam Fouse.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced enterprises into distributed and remote work situations. There is no question that the team of 2019 is not going to be like the team of 2021. Does that mean that we witnessing an evolution of the definition of how teams perform and what is teamwork in those situations? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he talks to Dr. Nancy Cooke, the Director of Arizona State University’s Center for Human, AI and Robot Teams, and Dr. Stephen Fiore, Director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory at University of Central Florida, about the evolution of teams.
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams 1: The ABCs of Teams with Nancy Cooke and Stephen Fiore
The Brady-Belichick Patriots, the Apollo 13 team, and the Allies, what do they all have in common? They are all legendary teams; one could say there is something “magical” about them. However, is there actual “magic” in play? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he speaks with Professor John Hollenbeck of Michigan State University, where they look at the “magic” of teams.
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams Part 5: Multiteam Systems with John Hollenbeck
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) matures out of its infancy, is it going to cause a mass displacement of human jobs? Is this sentiment simply just Luddite fear mongering or is it something we should be concerned about? Luckily, MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, knows just who to ask: Dr. Jared Freeman and Dr. Adam Fouse!
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams Part 4: Human-AI Teams with Jared Freeman and Adam Fouse.
From the underdogs winning the big game to humans landing on the Moon, teams allow us to achieve what was previously thought to be unachievable. It makes one think: what is so magical about teams? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he talks with team science experts: Dr. Steve Kozlowski, Dr. Tara Brown, and Dr. Samantha Perry to address this thought provoking question.
Listen to the entire interview in The Magic of Teams Part 3: The Future of Teams with Steve Kozlowski, Tara Brown, and Samantha Perry.
Effective communication can make or break a team. Most people would assume that more communication would lead to a better team. However, is that really the case: is more communication better in teams? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he discusses this question with Dr. Nancy Cooke, the Director of Arizona State University’s Center for Human, AI and Robot Teams, and Dr. Stephen Fiore, Director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory at University of Central Florida.
Listen to the entire interview in Episode 7, The Magic of Teams Part 1: The ABCs of Teams.
Today, many of us find ourselves on a plethora of different teams. Day after day, we spend jumping back and forth between all these different teams that we are members of. All of this movement begs the question, what happens when people are on too many teams? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he talks one-on-one with Professor John Hollenbeck of Michigan State University about this very question!
Learning, education and training are undergoing major transformation in front of our eyes and not just because of COVID-19 and the remote learning we are experiencing as a result. Join host Daniel Serfaty as he talks with Janet Spruill and Dr. Krista Ratwani about the future of learning, whether technology is the answer, and how we might close the accelerating competency gap in the workplace.
Since the age of AI is upon us, it begs the question: “how will humans and AI work together?” Before we can answer this question, we must understand how teams work in the first place. Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, as he talks to Dr. Nancy Cooke, the Director of Arizona State University’s Center for Human, AI and Robot Teams, and Dr. Stephen Fiore, Director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory at University of Central Florida, about the importance of studying teams.
Sometimes people just don’t get it! But will our AI teammate? Join MINDWORKS host, Daniel Serfaty, in this MINDWORKS Mini as he talks with Dr. Jared Freeman, and Dr. Adam Fouse, about the importance of a mutual understanding between humans and their AI counterparts, as it will be crucial to the success of human-AI teams.
We have all heard it: “teamwork makes the dream work”. But why, what’s benefit of working together as a team? Join Daniel Serfaty for another MINDWORKS Mini as he talks with Dr. Eduardo Salas and Dr. Scott Tannenbaum, authors of “Teams That Work: The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness,” and Dr. Kara Orvis, about the social phenomena that we know as “teams”.
In the digital age, the way we collect data has been revolutionized. Now, there are a magnitude of different ways that we can collect data from a plethora of sources, all done with astonishing speed. However, the speed at which we formulate of new theories has not drastically changed. This begs the question “can theories keep up with data?” Join host Daniel Serfaty for a MINDWORKS Mini featuring Dr. Steve Kozlowski, Dr. Tara Brown, and Dr. Samantha Perry as they tackle this provocative question.
As we evolve toward a future of multi-species teams made up of human intelligences and artificial intelligences, what's going to happen to team science? Should we apply blindly apply what we know about teams at work and say, "Well, it works with humans. There is no reason it shouldn't work with artificial intelligence and human teams." Or is there a possibility for developing a whole new science? Join host Daniel Serfaty for a MINDWORKS Mini featuring Eduardo Salas, Scott Tannenbaum, and Kara Orvis as they explore how the addition of AI is going to change not only the nature of teamwork, but our understanding of ourselves as humans.