Three Ages and Three Intelligences: Exploit Explore Empower with Alison Gopnik

A common model of AI suggests that there is a single measure of intelligence, often called AGI, and that AI systems are agents who can possess more or less of this intelligence. Cognitive science, in contrast, suggests that there are multiple forms of intelligence and that these intelligences trade-off against each other and have a distinctive developmental profile and evolutionary history. Exploitation, the pursuit of goals, resources and utilities, is characteristic of adult cognition. Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the UC Berkeley, and a member of the Berkeley AI Research Group, argues that two very different kinds of cognition characterize childhood and elderhood. Childhood is characterized by exploration. In particular, children seek out information about the world. However, forgoing reward for exploration requires support, care and teaching from others. Care and teaching are particularly characteristic of elders and the intelligence of care has a distinctive structure – it involves empowering others – giving them the resources they need to be effective. The combination of these different kinds of intelligence across the course of a life explains human success. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 41068]

You can listen to Three Ages and Three Intelligences: Exploit Explore Empower with Alison Gopnik online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Three Ages and Three Intelligences: Exploit Explore Empower with Alison Gopnik is an episode from UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures (Video) by UCTV.

This episode is 01:17:29 long.

This episode was published on Feb 18, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures (Video) when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.