Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL • Hacker News Board

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#121

Post by vosper » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 7:45 PM UTC

TaupeRanger wrote: post #114

orlp wrote: post #91

> AlphaDev uncovered new sorting algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements. As someone that knows a thing or two about sorting... bullshit. No new algorithms were uncovered, and the work here did not lead to the claimed improvements. They found a sequence of assembly that saves.…

This is DeepMind's modus operandi. Every press release is just utterly hyperbolic nonsense that doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny. AlphaGo, AlphaFold, AlphaDev... they've done literally nothing to improve the human condition, and may have actually made things worse. Go players have DECREASED their Elo after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether). I would be embarrassed to be associated with DeepMin…

> Go players have DECREASED their ELO after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether)

Can you explain this for someone unfamiliar with the game?

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#122

Post by lurknot » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC

blazespin wrote: post #120

TaupeRanger wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably very fun to be at DeepMind, I just don't think I'd want to be a part of the cringey hype machine.

I bet it really sucks, tbh. They did all this over promising and now the only way they can deliver is by grifting like this. That sounds really stressful to me.

ya bet it sucks making $500-800k/year comp getting access to the best hardware and google datasets

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#123

Post by scotty79 » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 7:55 PM UTC

vosper wrote: post #121

TaupeRanger wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is DeepMind's modus operandi. Every press release is just utterly hyperbolic nonsense that doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny. AlphaGo, AlphaFold, AlphaDev... they've done literally nothing to improve the human condition, and may have actually made things worse. Go players have DECREASED their Elo after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether). I would be embarrassed to be associated with DeepMin…

> Go players have DECREASED their ELO after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether) Can you explain this for someone unfamiliar with the game?

Maybe they just lost so their ELO went down? Or do loses against AI not count?

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#124

Post by skellington » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 7:56 PM UTC

So clickbait to claim a faster algorithm when all it did was find a faster machine optimization for a particular CPU. It's fun/cool, but not the leap they seem to be representing.

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#125

Post by scotty79 » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 7:58 PM UTC

orlp wrote: post #91

> AlphaDev uncovered new sorting algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements. As someone that knows a thing or two about sorting... bullshit. No new algorithms were uncovered, and the work here did not lead to the claimed improvements. They found a sequence of assembly that saves.…

Shouldn't libc++ be kinda good? Since it's the standard and all? Why isn't/wasn't it?

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#126

Post by malux85 » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 8:01 PM UTC

TaupeRanger wrote: post #114

orlp wrote: post #91

> AlphaDev uncovered new sorting algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements. As someone that knows a thing or two about sorting... bullshit. No new algorithms were uncovered, and the work here did not lead to the claimed improvements. They found a sequence of assembly that saves.…

This is DeepMind's modus operandi. Every press release is just utterly hyperbolic nonsense that doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny. AlphaGo, AlphaFold, AlphaDev... they've done literally nothing to improve the human condition, and may have actually made things worse. Go players have DECREASED their Elo after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether). I would be embarrassed to be associated with DeepMin…

I thought the same thing - it smacks of desperation at the moment, any tiny win is exaggerated .

It’s not hard to see why, with the emergence (ha) of OpenAI, Midjourney and all of this generative modelling, what has DeepMind done? I imagine the execs at Google are asking them some very probing questions on their mediocre performance over the last 5 years.

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#127

Post by dfan » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 8:09 PM UTC

vosper wrote: post #121

TaupeRanger wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is DeepMind's modus operandi. Every press release is just utterly hyperbolic nonsense that doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny. AlphaGo, AlphaFold, AlphaDev... they've done literally nothing to improve the human condition, and may have actually made things worse. Go players have DECREASED their Elo after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether). I would be embarrassed to be associated with DeepMin…

> Go players have DECREASED their ELO after playing AlphaGo (or just quit the game altogether) Can you explain this for someone unfamiliar with the game?

I am familiar with the game and I cannot explain it. Go is not typically rated with the Elo system, and the quality of top-level human play has increased since 2016.

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#128

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 8:09 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #26

Zamicol wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like intuition.

Intuition is the only thing we've figured out how to automate. Reason turns out to be higher hanging fruit.

[deleted]

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#129

Post by petschge » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 8:16 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #125

orlp wrote: post #91

> AlphaDev uncovered new sorting algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements. As someone that knows a thing or two about sorting... bullshit. No new algorithms were uncovered, and the work here did not lead to the claimed improvements. They found a sequence of assembly that saves.…

Shouldn't libc++ be kinda good? Since it's the standard and all? Why isn't/wasn't it?

The LLVM implementation of libc++ is very young compared to other implementations (it was started 5 years ago or so), so there is still a lot of things missing and a lot of things that can be improved.

Re: Deepmind Alphadev: Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep RL

#130

Post by throwaway106382 » Wed, Jun 07, 2023, 8:25 PM UTC

orlp wrote: post #91

> AlphaDev uncovered new sorting algorithms that led to improvements in the LLVM libc++ sorting library that were up to 70% faster for shorter sequences and about 1.7% faster for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements. As someone that knows a thing or two about sorting... bullshit. No new algorithms were uncovered, and the work here did not lead to the claimed improvements. They found a sequence of assembly that saves.…

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