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Lex Fridman

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Lex Fridman
Fridman in 2018
Born (1983-08-15) 15 August 1983 (age 41)
Chkalovsk, Tajik SSR (now Buston, Tajikistan), Soviet Union
EducationDrexel University (BS, MS, PhD)
Occupations
  • Computer scientist
  • podcaster
  • writer
Scientific career
FieldsArtificial intelligence, computer science
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology (non-faculty)
ThesisLearning of Identity from Behavioral Biometrics for Active Authentication (2014)
Doctoral advisorMoshe Kam, Steven Weber
YouTube information
Channels
Genre(s)Talk, Technology
Subscribers
  • 4.27 million[1]
Total views
100,000 subscribers2019
1,000,000 subscribers2021
Last updated: September 2, 2024
Websitelexfridman.com Edit this at Wikidata

Lex Fridman (/ˈfriːdmən/; born 15 August 1983)[2] is a Russian-American computer scientist and podcaster. Since 2018 he has hosted the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he interviews notable figures from various fields such as science, technology, sports, and politics.

Fridman rose to prominence in 2019 after Elon Musk praised his study which concluded that drivers remained focused while using Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system. The study was criticized by AI experts and was not peer-reviewed.[3][4]

Early life and education

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Fridman was born in Chkalovsk, Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic and grew up in Moscow.[3] He is Jewish.[5] His father, Alexander Fridman, is a plasma physicist and professor at Drexel University. His brother Gregory was also a professor at Drexel.[3]

When he was about 11, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Fridman's family moved from Russia to the Chicago area.[3][6] He attended Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois.[7] He then went on to obtain B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science at Drexel University in 2010,[8] and completed his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Drexel in 2014.[9] His PhD dissertation, Learning of Identity from Behavioral Biometrics for Active Authentication, was completed under the advisement of engineering educators Moshe Kam and Steven Weber and sought to "investigate the problem of active authentication on desktop computers and mobile devices".[10]

Career

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MIT

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In 2014, Fridman was hired by Google to continue his dissertation work on the use of AI for identity authentication, but left the company after only six months stating that he prefers the "chaos of research and the academic environment".[9] In 2015, he moved to MIT's AgeLab to work on "psychology and big-data analytics to understand driver behavior."[3]

In 2019, Fridman published a non-peer-reviewed study about Tesla Autopilot finding that drivers using semi-autonomous vehicles stayed focused, contrasting with established research on how humans interact with automated systems. Following his Tesla Autopilot study, Fridman was flown to Tesla offices for an interview with Elon Musk. Fridman's study on Tesla Autopilot was criticized for its methodology by Missy Cummings, a professor at Duke University and advisor for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who described it as "deeply flawed". AI researcher Anima Anandkumar suggested Fridman should submit his study for peer review before seeking press coverage.[3][4] Following the interview with Musk, his podcast episodes saw significant growth. The study was later removed from MIT's website.[3]

Following the publication of the study, he left AgeLab and took up an unpaid role in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.[3] As of 2023, he is a research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).[11][12]

Lex Fridman Podcast

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Fridman began his podcast in 2018. It was originally titled The Artificial Intelligence Podcast, but changed to The Lex Fridman Podcast in 2020.[3] Episodes of the podcast have included businessman Elon Musk,[6] Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,[6] U.S. president Donald Trump,[13] Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg,[6] Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales,[6] actor Matthew McConaughey,[6] rapper Kanye West,[6] film director Oliver Stone,[6] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,[14] historian Yuval Noah Harari,[14] physicist Lisa Randall,[15] and writer Mohammed El-Kurd.[14] In 2024, the Boston Globe reported that the podcast had attracted 3.6 million subscribers.[16]

In October 2022, Kanye West made an appearance on Fridman's podcast. During the interview, West made a "series of incendiary and false statements about the Holocaust, abortion and the Jewish people."[5] Alongside a link to the interview with West, Fridman posted on X, "I believe in the power of tough, honest, empathetic conversation to increase the amount of love in the world."[17]

Reception

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Frank Wilczek stated that "Lex is at a higher intellectual level" than many journalists who cover science.[16] In contrast, computational biologist Lior Pachter said "some scientists and academics fear Fridman is contributing to the 'cacophony of misinformation'", while another AI researcher [who?] thought that Fridman may have "abandoned academic rigor in pursuit of fame".[3]

Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs wrote, "Fridman is not an idealogue and seems genuine in his desire to empathetically understand leftists (he has also interviewed Richard Wolff, Steve Keen, and Noam Chomsky) and to be fair to all sides, he has hosted a debate between 'skeptical environmentalist' Bjørn Lomborg and climate journalist Andrew Revkin. But as with [Joe] Rogan, it is hard to avoid noticing a certain lack of balance. There are far more right-leaning 'intellectual dark web' types than leftists [...]." Robinson added that "the Fridman podcast is an excellent way to see how the posture of neutrality actually fails to adequately challenge falsehoods and toxic beliefs."[18]

A 2023 article by Elizabeth Lopatto in The Verge stated that Fridman's podcast "has a following among the tech elite" and said that Fridman "is a softball interviewer".[4] Ben Samuel argued in another 2023 article in Haaretz that Fridman failed to challenge claims made on his podcast by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[19] A 2024 article by Bloomberg, by Ellen Huet, commented that Fridman's podcast is seen by tech CEOs as a friendlier alternative to more adversarial interviews with traditional journalists.[20]

Personal life

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Fridman holds a first degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, awarded by Rick and Phil Migliarese at Balance Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[21]

Fridman lives in Austin, Texas.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Lex Fridman's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". SocialBlade.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  2. ^ Fridman, Lex [@lexfridman] (15 August 2023). "Thank you for the birthday wishes! I got to celebrate it with amazing friends, including @elonmusk @joerogan and @hubermanlab, all who have brought so much fun, wisdom, and joy into my life. I'm truly grateful for this beautiful journey, and the love & kindness I've gotten along the way. Thank you for everything. I love you all!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Black, Julia (12 April 2023). "Peace, love, and Hitler: How Lex Fridman's podcast became a safe space for the anti-woke tech elite". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Lopatto, Elizabeth (18 December 2023). "Jeff Bezos wants Elon Musk to know Blue Origin is serious now". The Verge. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  5. ^ a b Brown, August; Saki, Anousha (25 October 2022). "Kanye West assails Jews, abortion in new interview with Lex Fridman". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h White, Roland (30 June 2023). "The fitness supergeek turning Elon Musk into a killing machine". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  7. ^ "Alex Fridman - About". lexfridman.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  8. ^ Adams, Christine (8 June 2017). "AgeLab researching autonomous vehicle systems in ongoing collaboration with Toyota". MIT News. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  9. ^ a b Plumb, Wendy (2 October 2018). "Alum Lex Fridman Visits From MIT To Lead Public "AI" Lecture". Drexel University College of Engineering. Drexel University. Archived from the original on 12 February 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  10. ^ Fridman, Lex (December 2014). Learning of Identity from Behavioral Biometrics for Active Authentication (Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering thesis). Drexel University.
  11. ^ "Research Staff". MIT LIDS. Archived from the original on 8 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  12. ^ Fridman, Lex (18 June 2023). "Transcript for Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia | Lex Fridman Podcast #385". Lex Fridman. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. ^ Marquez, Alexandra (4 September 2024). "Trump acknowledges losing the 2020 election 'by a whisker'". NBC News. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  14. ^ a b c Ahmed, Nasim (27 July 2023). "What did we learn from Fridman's podcast with Netanyahu, Harari and El-Kurd?". Middle East Monitor. Archived from the original on 16 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  15. ^ Globe, Scott Kirsner. "How podcaster Lex Fridman became MIT's highest-profile science ambassador - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  16. ^ a b Kirsner, Scott. "How podcaster Lex Fridman became MIT's highest-profile science ambassador". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  17. ^ Black, Julia. "Peace, love, and Hitler: How Lex Fridman's podcast became a safe space for the anti-woke tech elite". Business Insider. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  18. ^ Robinson, Nathan (5 January 2023). "The Guy Who Just Loves Everyone". Current Affairs. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  19. ^ Samuels, Ben (13 July 2023). "Netanyahu Uses Podcast Appearance to Denigrate Protests, Float Conspiracy". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 13 July 2023.
  20. ^ Huet, Ellen (29 March 2024). "Tech CEOs Find Friendly Podcast Hosts Help Get Out Their Talking Points". Bloomberg News.
  21. ^ Jones, Phil (17 April 2023). "Lex Fridman Promoted To First Degree BJJ Black Belt". Jits. Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
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