Reinforcement Learning and Human Reward

What if understanding how AI thinks could reveal uncomfortable truths about how your own brain works, and give you powerful tools to make smarter decisions, resist manipulation, and upgrade your cognition at the root level? 

-Watch this episode on YouTube for the full video experience: https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR 

Host Dave Asprey sits down with Tom Griffiths, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture in the Departments of Psychology and Computer Science at Princeton University. Griffiths directs Princeton's Computational Cognitive Science Lab, a research group focused on understanding the mathematical foundations of human cognition, and the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence. He is the coauthor of Algorithms to Live By and the author of the new book The Laws of Thought, and his award-winning research has appeared in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Together, Dave and Tom go deep on the cognitive science behind human performance, brain optimization, and the surprising overlap between biohacking and artificial intelligence. They explore why your body filters reality before your conscious brain ever sees it, how your mitochondria function as a distributed cognitive network, and what that means for longevity, decision-making, and neuroplasticity. 

You'll Learn: 

• Why AI models reveal that humans may be more "stochastic parrots" than we'd like to admit 
• How your mitochondria pre-process sensory reality before your auditory cortex even fires 
• Why emotions like anger, love, and remorse are computational tools evolution built into your reward function 
• How low energy and blood sugar directly degrade your decision-making at a hardware level 
• What "resource rationality" means and how to use it to make better decisions under constraint 
• Why AI systems have measurable psychological personalities, and which ones are least likely to mess with your head 
• How neuroplasticity can eliminate the inner critic and reshape your mental operating system 
• Why two-process cognition (fast and slow thinking) is a feature, not a bug, of human intelligence 

Thank you to our sponsors!  

-BEYOND Biohacking Conference 2026 | Register with code DAVE300 for $300 off  https://beyondconference.com

-Essentia | Go to https://myessentia.com/dave and use code DAVE for $100 off The Dave Asprey Upgrade.

-Quantum Upgrade | Try it free for 15 days — no credit card required — at QuantumUpgrade.io/DAVE. Simple. Powerful. Backed by data.

-Go to timeline.com/dave and save 20% with code DAVE20  

Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, and the father of biohacking. With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living. 

New episodes are released every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (BONUS). Dave asks the questions no one else will and gives you real tools to become stronger, smarter, and more resilient. 

Keywords: AI, cognitive science, Tom Griffiths, The Laws of Thought, Princeton, brain optimization, neuroplasticity, mitochondria, decision-making, biohacking, Dave Asprey, human performance, longevity, anti-aging, consciousness, large language models, dopamine, reward function, resource rationality, emotions, game theory, altered states, chronic fatigue, dual process theory, Danger Coffee, Smarter Not Harder, cognitive biases, memory, AI bias, neurofeedback, Algorithms to Live By 

Resources:   

• Get Tom's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Laws-Thought-Quest-Mathematical-Theory/dp/1250358353 

• Get My 2026 Clean Nicotine Roadmap | Enroll for free at https://daveasprey.com/2026-clean-nicotine-roadmap/ 

• Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today.  

• Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15   

• My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off)   

• Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off)   

• Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com   

• Dave Asprey’s New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated  

• Join My Substack (Live Access To Podcast Recordings): https://substack.daveasprey.com/ 

• Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com   

Timestamps: 

00:00 – Intro

00:50 - Tom's Background & Chronic Fatigue 

10:22 – Mathematics of Mind 

12:43 – Memory and Emotion 

15:29 – Decision Making Under Constraints 

21:10 – Computational Problems of Consciousness 

24:18 – Reality Pre-Processing 

26:14 – Meat Robots vs Stochastic Parrots 

29:21 – Emotions: Game Theory 

35:39 – Dual Systems: Model-Based vs Model-Free 

39:22 – Mitochondria and Consciousness 

50:00 – Testing AI Like Humans 

52:11 – Choosing AI Models 

57:14 – AI Research Questions 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.