Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
1–10 of 205 posts
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#2Rachel and I (fast.ai co-founders) will be keeping an eye on this thread, so if you have any questions or thoughts, let us know!
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#3Best paragraph:
"Cracking AGI is a very long-term goal. The most relevant field of research is considered by many to be reinforcement learning: the study of teaching computers how to beat Atari. Formally, reinforcement learning is the study of problems that require sequences of actions that result in a reward/loss, and not knowing how much each action contributes to the outcome. Hundreds of the world’s brightest minds, with the most elite credentials, are working on this Atari problem."
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#4> Cracking AGI is a very long-term goal.
Is this fair to say? I feel like advancements in the field happened far quicker than anyone expected, and every few years we are reevaluating timelines. Especially given the research happening in tandem that will almost certainly speed up AGI, like graphene, quantum computing, advanced GPU design...
If you asked someone 10 years ago about the possibilities of ML/Deep learning they'd say it was far off too. I'm not going to say Kurzweil is correct but if I know anything, it's that historically these things have happened faster than expected. Look at 1997 -> 2017. 20 years, but what isn't changed?
Appreciate any discussion as I am not an expert :)
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#5How would you compare the work that you are doing to the work that is being done in China?
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#6How would you compare the work that you are doing to the work that is being done in China?
Can you be more specific? China is a big place and there's a lot happening there! One non-profit in China for instance has kindly translated the entirety of part 1 into Chinese and provided a discussion group for Chinese students.
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#7I agree with this article: all the fear about AGI taking over the species seems the hide the far more dangerous likelihood of efficient but non-general AI ending up in the hands of intelligences with a proven history of oppressing humans: i.e. other humans.
Besides which AGI, when it comes, is just as likely be a breakthrough in some random's shed rather than from a billion dollar research team's efforts to create something which can play computer games well. Not a lot Musk or anyone else can do to guard against that, except perhaps help create a world that doesn't need 'fixing' when such an AGI emerges.
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#8Best paragraph: "Cracking AGI is a very long-term goal. The most relevant field of research is considered by many to be reinforcement learning: the study of teaching computers how to beat Atari. Formally, reinforcement learning is the study of problems that require sequences of actions that result in a reward/loss, and not knowing how much each action contributes to the outcome. Hundreds of the world’s brightest mind…
Calling it an "Atari problem" sounds quite disparaging and misses the point. It's like calling a convolutional network doing the ImageNet task a "Doggy-detection" problem. That may be the original development problem, but the final product still helps detect cancer in CT scan images... Same goes for advances in reinforcement learning made on atari games.
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#9it sounds like people who don't work with machine learning asked that question. People who do work with machine learning should see the difference. Besides what is mentioned in the blog post, OpenAI is a research effort for moving start of the art, while fast.ai is for teaching students in a non math heavy way.
Re: Thoughts on OpenAI, reinforcement learning, and killer robots
#10> Cracking AGI is a very long-term goal. Is this fair to say? I feel like advancements in the field happened far quicker than anyone expected, and every few years we are reevaluating timelines. Especially given the research happening in tandem that will almost certainly speed up AGI, like graphene, quantum computing, advanced GPU design... If you asked someone 10 years ago about the possibilities of ML/Deep learning…
We don't make specific time predictions because it's just not possible. But we can make relative predictions. However long it takes to get to AGI, when we're (say) half way there, the amount of societal upheaval will be enormous.
If we can't navigate that successfully, we'll never get to see AGI...