Are babies smarter than robots? AI is no match for a 4-year-old!
On the next Fiat Lux Redux, Tuesday, August 18 at 9AM, Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley, and member of the Berkeley AI Research Group, discusses how the next leap in AI technology depends on replicating the unique forms of human intelligence cultivated during childhood.
Rather than viewing AI as an emerging autonomous mind, Gopnik demonstrates that true intelligence requires active experimentation and social relationality. Human intelligence is a collection of distinct cognitive modes — exploration, exploitation and care — distributed across different stages of a person’s life. Childhood is evolution’s way of creating a dedicated “explorer” phase (learning through play), made possible by a specialized care system provided by adults. Gopnik has found that while AI’s large language models excel at exploitation (goal-oriented execution) using existing data to predict patterns, it lacks the embodied, curiosity‑driven learning that allows a child to form novel theories, test cause-and-effect through open-ended play, and adapt flexibly. To create truly intelligent systems, she suggests that we need to focus on the “intelligence of care.” This will require AI to move beyond static data prediction toward embodied systems that learn dynamically over time through human-like care and continuous interaction with the physical world.
Gopnik has six grandchildren and is a leader in the study of learning and development. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD from Oxford University and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a Guggenheim Fellow. She is the author of over 160 journal articles and several books including the bestselling and critically acclaimed popular books The Scientist in the Crib, 1999, The Philosophical Baby, 2009, and The Gardener and the Carpenter, 2016. She has written widely about cognitive science and psychology and Her TED talk has been viewed more than 5.6 million times.
This Berkeley Talks lecture took place on Nov. 5, 2025, as part of the Berkeley Distinguished Faculty Lectures in the Social Sciences and was edited for KALX by Lisa Katovich. If you have questions or comments about Fiat Lux Redux, contact lisa.katovich@gmail.com.
Fiat Lux Redux presents previously aired lectures, conversations, and podcasts originating on the campus of UC Berkeley every other Tuesday from 9am to 9:30am. These often-lengthy original programs have been edited to a 30-minute format by experienced KALX producers. The show’s name, Latin for “Let there be light”, is a reference to the University of California’s motto, which is also Fiat Lux. The show’s goal is to provide listeners with a window into the intellectual and cultural life of UC Berkeley and to showcase the wide range of subjects and diversity of thought and ideas that are present at UC Berkeley.
