# Mechanistic Interpretability: Philosophy, Practice & Progress with Goodfire's Dan Balsam & Tom McGrath

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution/mechanistic-interpretability-philosophy-practice-progress-with-goodfire-s-dan-balsam-tom-mcgrath
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution/mechanistic-interpretability-philosophy-practice-progress-with-goodfire-s-dan-balsam-tom-mcgrath.md
Podcast: ["The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution)
Published: 2025-05-29T23:04:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai
Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/1113/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/RINTP1640982682.mp3?updated=1748554855
Processing state: processed
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Duration seconds: 6592

## Resource

In this episode, Daniel Balsam and Tom McGrath, at Goodfire, discuss the future of mechanistic interpretability in AI models. They explore the fundamental inputs like models, compute, and algorithms, and emphasize the importance of a rich empirical approach to understanding how models work. Balsam and McGrath provide insights into ongoing projects and breakthroughs, particularly in scientific domains and creative applications, as they aim to push the frontiers of AI interpretability. They also discuss the company's recent funding and their goal to advance interpretability as a critical area in AI research. SPONSORS: Box Report: AI is delivering truly measurable productivity — strategic companies are already turning a 37% productivity edge. Discover how in Box’s new 2025 State of AI in the Enterprise Report — read the full report here: https://bit.ly/43uVP52 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers next-generation cloud solutions that cut costs and boost performance. With OCI, you can run AI projects and applications faster and more securely for less. New U.S. customers can save 50% on compute, 70% on storage, and 80% on networking by switching to OCI before May 31, 2024. See if you qualify at https://oracle.com/cognitive ElevenLabs: ElevenLabs gives your app a natural voice. Pick from 5,000+ voices in 31 languages, or clone your own, and launch lifelike agents for support, scheduling, learning, and games. Full server and client SDKs, dynamic tools, and monitoring keep you in control. Start free at https://elevenlabs.io/cognitive-revolution NetSuite: Over 41,000 businesses trust NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud ERP, to future-proof their operations. With a unified platform for accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR, NetSuite pro…

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