The Peterman Pod
The Peterman Pod
Ryan Peterman
Turing Award Winner: Early AI, LLM Predictions, Causality | Judea Pearl
1 hour 27 minutes Posted Jul 27, 2026 at 10:00 am.
Judea Pearl is a Turing Award winner and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and causal reasoning. We talked about how he got into science, his major breakthroughs and his predictions for AI today.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-donePodcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/FleTXB1fAcQ• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-early-ai-llmThank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work:• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/Timestamps:
Intro
How he got into AI
Greatest scientist of all time
What people thought of AI in the 80s
Entering academia and researching AI
The invention of Bayesian networks
Pioneering work in causality
The causal hierarchy
LLMs and predictions
A restless mind pays
Advice for his younger self
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Judea Pearl is a Turing Award winner and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and causal reasoning. We talked about how he got into science, his major breakthroughs and his predictions for AI today.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-donePodcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/FleTXB1fAcQ• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-early-ai-llmThank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work:• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:54) How he got into AI(11:17) Greatest scientist of all time(20:15) What people thought of AI in the 80s(26:23) Entering academia and researching AI(34:52) The invention of Bayesian networks(46:28) Pioneering work in causality(55:38) The causal hierarchy(59:34) LLMs and predictions(01:20:12) A restless mind pays(01:24:36) Advice for his younger self(01:26:37) OutroWhere to find Judea:• X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/yudapearl• Website: https://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/jp_home.html• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_PearlWhere to find Ryan:• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• The Book of Why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Why• Bayesian networks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_network• Alpha-beta pruning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha%E2%80%93beta_pruning• Pearl vortex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_vortex• Graphoid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphoid• Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality_(book)• Coexistence and Other Fighting Words: Selected Writings of Judea Pearl, 2002–2025: https://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/COEXISTENCE/