Night Science

← Night Science29 dec 2025 · 32 min

80 | Why greatness cannot be planned with Kenneth Stanley

80 | Why greatness cannot be planned with Kenneth Stanley29 dec 202532 min

Ken Stanley is a highly regarded researcher in machine learning and artificial intelligence. After leaving his professorship at the University of Central Florida, he cofounded Geometric Intelligence (now Uber AI Labs), and he is now Senior Vice President of Open-Endedness at LilaSciences. In this episode, Ken explains why ambitious objectives often backfire: the real stepping stones to breakthrough discoveries rarely look like progress toward the goal, so a direct pursuit can blind us to the ...