RE: Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for January 17, 2020
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I expect AI 'summers' are almost completely the result of irrational exuberance. I point out the video you posted of Pigeonbot, which used actual feathers. Viewing the way in which the bot flies is comparable to a graph of the competence of general AI, as the manner of flight is directly dependent on the quality of the AI controlling the bot. Notably, the bot wasn't even autonomous at all, but directed by a human via a controller.
I believe general AI is at least decades away, and despite hubris regarding the state of tech today, comparing biological systems to information tech is a good way to judge the competence of our AI devices. We're orders of magnitude short of relevance. The vast majority of biological complexity remains utterly beyond our comprehension today, despite our immense progress. We have only just grasped that epigenetics and expression exist, and have a lot to learn before we can successfully build mechanisms remotely competent to improve on our general ability to understand and control things. Literally orders of magnitude more to learn than we have already.
Thanks!
Thanks for the reply!
I agree with your points. Additionally, I think a big part of the recent AI hype has had to do with the asymmetric access to free data. Data seemed worthless to the individual, but immensely valuable to the aggregator, so the aggregators have had free reign to harvest it for decades. Now that the value of aggregated data has been recognized, I think there will be ever-increasing friction as the original data owners seek to reclaim their share of that value.
In the long run, I think that AI development has to slow down dramatically when the source data stops being free to the aggregators.
You make a good point about the pigeon-bot. So far, human engineers haven't been able to fully replace something as simple as feather, so how far must we be from replacing a complex structure like the brain?
There's a story in tomorrow's scheduled post that will offer additional support to your idea that we are still very far from a complete understanding of biological intelligence.
My thoughts are piqued by your phrasing. Aggregators of data are also aggregators of financial assets, and this link you well reveal is not only a one way provisioning, but detracts from the enjoyment of their lives the sources of that data experience. I reckon this is also effected financially.
Looking at it this way is subtly different, and perhaps potential of better consideration. It seems there should be a means of improving the provisioners of data and financial assets lots. Imma think on it.
Thanks again!