Everyone involved in AI should have read The Library of Babel [1].
It's about many things, but perhaps the most relevant idea here is that no information matters without understanding. We could generate all possible knowledge, but unless someone--a human--can verify and understand it, it doesn't count. The cure for mortality could be written on the moon, but if no one reads it, it hasn't really been discovered.
The part that does count is that we can verify that we does what we want it to do. We just don't know how.
Same with the black box part of AI. What the weights represent? Arcane dark magic if you ask me. What do they do? Well with LLMs we're all experiencing it.
This was my existential horror for most of my life as I almost never remembered dreaming or going to sleep - until I got a CPAP. Once I started using it, there was continuity to my life, I vividly dream and remember those dreams now. I never scored too badly on the apnea tests but just enough to qualify for one so I said what the hell and got it. Even though I don't use it regularly, something about my sleep has changed for the better.
Planktonne · · focus · HN ↗
It's about many things, but perhaps the most relevant idea here is that no information matters without understanding. We could generate all possible knowledge, but unless someone--a human--can verify and understand it, it doesn't count. The cure for mortality could be written on the moon, but if no one reads it, it hasn't really been discovered.
[1] <a href="https://maskofreason.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://maskofreason.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/0...
tom_alexander · · focus · HN ↗
One counter-point: Humans have not figured out how general anesthesia works, but we use it every day to great effect.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_general_anaesthetic_action" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_general_anaestheti...
mettamage · · focus · HN ↗
Same with the black box part of AI. What the weights represent? Arcane dark magic if you ask me. What do they do? Well with LLMs we're all experiencing it.
amelius · · focus · HN ↗
How do we know the person getting anesthesia doesn't die and a new soul/consciousness replaces them?
(We can ask the same question about going to sleep, er even walking through a door, but it's still something to think about).
no_input · · focus · HN ↗