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Machine Learning: How Did We Get Here?

Machine Learning: How Did We Get Here?

By: Tom Mitchell | Stanford Digital Economy Lab | Carnegie Mellon University
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Tom Mitchell literally wrote the book on machine learning. In this series of candid conversations with his fellow pioneers, Tom traces the history of the field through the people who built it. Behind the tech are stories of passion, curiosity, and humanity. Tom Mitchell is the University Founders Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and the author of Machine Learning, a foundational textbook on the subject. This podcast is produced by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.© 2026 Stanford Digital Economy Lab. All rights reserved. World
Episodes
  • From Philosophy to Machine Learning with Bruce Buchanan

    From Philosophy to Machine Learning with Bruce Buchanan
    May 18 2026

    Tom sits down with Bruce Buchanan, a PhD Philosopher turned machine learning researcher. Bruce produced a key milestone for machine learning in the 1970s by creating the first program that discovered new symbolic knowledge publishable in a scientific journal.

    Bruce has held professorships at the University of Pittsburgh (Philosophy and Medicine) and Stanford University (Computer Science).

    Tom Mitchell is the Founders University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Produced by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
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    38 mins
  • AI Agents to Model Human Cognition with John Laird

    AI Agents to Model Human Cognition with John Laird
    May 11 2026

    Tom chats with John Laird, who has spent the past 40 years trying to build an AI agent that accomplishes the full range of human cognitive abilities, beginning with his 1980s PhD research on the SOAR model of human cognition with Allen Newell and Paul Rosenbloom.

    John E. Laird received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985, and is John L. Tishman Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is one of the original developers of the SOAR architecture and leads its continued development and evolution. He was a founder of Soar Technology. He is a AAAI, ACM, AAAS, and Cognitive Science Society Fellow. In 2018, he was co-winner of the Herbert A. Simon Prize for Advances in Cognitive Systems.
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    33 mins
  • Machine Learning and Speech Recognition with Kai-Fu Lee

    Machine Learning and Speech Recognition with Kai-Fu Lee
    May 4 2026

    Tom meets with Kai-Fu Lee, a pioneer in using machine learning to significantly advance speech recognition.

    Kai-Fu, former president of Google China and now Chairman of Sinovation Ventures and CEO of 01.AI, has led speech, machine learning and AI efforts at several top firms, and is now one of the top AI venture capitalists in China.
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    39 mins
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