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AI is a horse (2024)

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Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#91

Post by arrozconcosas »

simonw wrote: post #74
throw310822 wrote: post #56

Famously Steve Jobs said that the (personal) computer is "like a bicycle for the mind". It's a great metaphor because- besides the idea of lightness and freedom it communicates- it also described the computer as multiplier of the human strength- the bicycle allows one to travel faster and with much less effort, it's true, but ultimately the source of its power is still entirely in the muscles of the cyclist- you don'…

I've been calling LLMs "electric bicycles for the mind", inspired by that Jobs quote. - some bicycle purists consider electric bicycles to be "cheating" - you get less exercise from an electric bicycle - they can get you places really effectively! - if you don't know how to ride a bicycle an electric bicycle is going to quickly lead you to an accident

Not sure how this fits in the analogy, but as a cyclist I would add some people get more exercise by having an electric bicycle. It makes exercise available to more people.

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#92

Post by [deleted] »

agentultra wrote: post #72

I prefer Doctorow's observation that they make us into reverse-centaurs [0]. We're not leading the LLM around like some faithful companion that doesn't always do what we want it to. We're the last-mile delivery driver of an algorithm running in a data-center that can't take responsibility for and ship the code to production on its own. We're the horse. [0] https://locusmag.com/feature/commentary-cory-doctorow-revers.…

[deleted]

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#94

Post by nomilk »

The metaphor makes sense in comparing a human walking (SWE w/o AI) to a human riding on a horse (SWE w/ AI), except for:

> (The horse) is way slower and less reliable than a train but can go more places

What does the 'train' represent here?

A guess: perhaps off-the-shelf software? - rigid, but much faster if it goes where (/ does what) you want it to.

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#95

Post by MarceliusK »

throw310822 wrote: post #56

Famously Steve Jobs said that the (personal) computer is "like a bicycle for the mind". It's a great metaphor because- besides the idea of lightness and freedom it communicates- it also described the computer as multiplier of the human strength- the bicycle allows one to travel faster and with much less effort, it's true, but ultimately the source of its power is still entirely in the muscles of the cyclist- you don'…

Even if the autonomy is limited, the step change in what a single person can attempt is unmistakable

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#96

Post by retsibsi »

the_af wrote: post #87
pmarreck wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony with the chess example is that chess has never been more popular. Perhaps we're about to experience yet another renaissance of computer languages.

I know chess is popular because I have a friend who's enthusiastic about it and plays online regularly. But I'm out of the loop: in order to maintain popularity, are computers banned? And if so, how is this enforced, both at the serious and at the "troll cheating" level? (I suppose for casual play, matchmaking takes care of this: if someone is playing at superhuman level due to cheating, you're never going to be matc…

The most serious tournaments are played in person, with measures in place to prevent (e.g.) a spectator with a chess engine on their phone communicating with a player. For online play, it's kind of like the situation for other online games; anti-cheat measures are very imperfect, but blatant cheaters tend to get caught and more subtle ones sometimes do. Big online tournaments can have exam-style proctoring, but outside of that it's pretty much impossible to prevent very light cheating -- e.g. consulting a computer for the standard moves in an opening is very hard to distinguish from just having memorized them. The sites can detect sloppy cheating, e.g. a player using the site's own analysis tools in a separate tab, but otherwise they have to rely on heuristics and probabilistic judgments.

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#97

Post by nemomarx »

the_af wrote: post #87
pmarreck wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony with the chess example is that chess has never been more popular. Perhaps we're about to experience yet another renaissance of computer languages.

I know chess is popular because I have a friend who's enthusiastic about it and plays online regularly. But I'm out of the loop: in order to maintain popularity, are computers banned? And if so, how is this enforced, both at the serious and at the "troll cheating" level? (I suppose for casual play, matchmaking takes care of this: if someone is playing at superhuman level due to cheating, you're never going to be matc…

Computers are banned in everything except specific tournaments for computers, yeah. If you're found out to have consulted one during a serious competition your wins are of course stripped - a lot of measures have to be taken to prevent someone from getting even a few moves from the model in the bathroom at those.

Not sure how smaller ones do it, but I assume watching to make sure no one has any devices on them during a game works well enough if there's not money at play?

Re: AI is a horse (2024)

#99

Post by spot5010 »

nomilk wrote: post #94

The metaphor makes sense in comparing a human walking (SWE w/o AI) to a human riding on a horse (SWE w/ AI), except for: > (The horse) is way slower and less reliable than a train but can go more places What does the 'train' represent here? A guess: perhaps off-the-shelf software? - rigid, but much faster if it goes where (/ does what) you want it to.

I had the same question.

Maybe the train is software that's built by SWEs (w/ or w/o AI help). Specifically built for going from A to B very fast. But not flexible, and takes a lot of effort to build and maintain.

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