51–60 of 105 posts
> I’m not convinced that today’s AI is anywhere near as profound as electricity or fire @akshayka can you elaborate a bit more on why you think that
Modern ML certainly has some cool applications, but none seem revolutionary. Can you list any that are?
I always find fairly positive accounts of graduate school to be quite interesting. Without a doubt, you can always find someone in the comments (if it's something posted in a format such as this) with a chip on their shoulder from their own graduate school experience (or lack thereof). Also I find it interesting to think about places similar in impact to Xerox PARC, which people usually admire after everything unfolds and becomes a part of history. A good chunk of people from today would probably avoid a place like PARC back then in order to opt for a more stable or known job.
> While I’m interested in machine learning, I’m not convinced that today’s AI is anywhere near as profound as electricity or fire This seems a not too uncommon experience among CS people where machine learning loses its interest once they understand the magic
In 1850, few people felt that electricity was particularly profound either. That year, William Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, asked Michael Faraday why electricity was valuable. Faraday replied, "One day sir, you may tax it." [1]. The electric motor had been invented (by Faraday), but it couldn't do any useful work and had to sit in a pool of mercury to function. Electric lighting had been invented, but the…
You can make a claim that "This might be revolutionary! It's just too early to tell." about literally anything.
Maybe I need to lighten up here, but I find this "AI-first" branding to be really off-putting. What I fear it means is "We're going to add the world's biases and a bit more unpredictability into every single one of our features."
And in some ways it's like like a carpenter deciding to become a "wrench-first" operation. Shouldn't the first priority be the people affected by the things that you do, rather than a particular tool that you inflict upon them? And, great as it can be, is it really the right tool for every job? Maybe some of the problems the AI fairness team has exposed (or tried to) will push Google to realize that it need not be present in everything, let alone first.
I have nothing of value to add except that seeing someone do what they love and enjoy, greatly warms my heart. Good luck with everything Akshay!!
Really? If anything it makes me really angry. I generally despise seeing people happy, especially people that have gotten everything in life (as someone that has definitely not ). What an interesting way to view the world...
> [Sundar Pichai] has emphasized that Google is an “AI-first” company Maybe I need to lighten up here, but I find this "AI-first" branding to be really off-putting. What I fear it means is "We're going to add the world's biases and a bit more unpredictability into every single one of our features." And in some ways it's like like a carpenter deciding to become a "wrench-first" operation. Shouldn't the first priority…
Honestly my first reaction was a snarky "Well, your moderation and support channels certainly are" given all the horror stories we hear about people getting locked out of their entire google accounts with no recourse or access to humans to appeal / investigate.
Of particular note: "Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai (who believes AI is “more profound than electricity or fire”) has emphasized that Google is an “AI-first” company, with the company seeking to implement machine learning in nearly everything do" Nearly everything they do with your data.
Not sure if a part of your post got cut off? As framed, it seems rather inflammatory without much direction or practical addition to the conversation. Perhaps I'm missing something.
Great post. An interesting aphorism I used to spout was “to never listen to a first year PhD student sing praise of their PhD experience.” Though that was aimed at commodity phd students in regular universities not at people who can just choose to work at Google Brain if they feel like it. But ignoring that one persons warning about PhD still sounded like he had the typical arrogance contained by every person who eve…
It sounds like you've had a very different PhD experience than I did. Perhaps a difference in fields? My PhD in physics was probably the most humbling experience I've had in my professional life. I went from thinking I knew everything to learning that I knew nothing. To me that's one of the most important parts of a research education, to become aware of what you don't know and be provided tools to try figuring it ou…
If you went through your entire PhD without seriously questioning your life choices at all then we definitely did a different PhD for sure! I and my colleagues constantly discussed the pros and cons and why the system is the way it is.
In general I can never present the problems as clearly as Hamming did so I’ll let him give my viewpoint since I agree with everything here - http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html