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Discovery Loop

discoveryloop.com

491–500 of 625 posts

Re: Discovery Loop

#491
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be great if they'd add: Reverse human aging. (Maybe a sub-topic under "Engineer Better Medicines".)

Why not just add 'mind control' while you're at it. Only death stops stagnation in the end. Without death, especially if death can be avoided by the rich and powerful but not the poor, life will get much, much worse for the average person (until only the rich and their automated capital remain I suppose, in which scenario they will simply turn on each other).

I would take stagnation if I didn't have to die on a fucking schedule like now.

Re: Discovery Loop

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Imagine a future where a handful of people can conduct scientific research and engineering tasks much more rapidly, and with higher quality, than massive teams of scientists and engineers do today." I don't think the US have this capability because you guys don't really have manufacturing that is really necessary for scientific research. For example, if I want a highly toxic chemical, how difficult it would be to…

>>> For example, if I want a highly toxic chemical, how difficult it would be to procure that in the US vs China? With trustworthy composition and purity? I work with researchers in both the US and China. Definitely easier to procure in the US.

Unless it's on a specific list of chemicals that the DEA has decided are bad and need to be monitored. Even toluene is on the list!

Re: Discovery Loop

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> For example, if I want a highly toxic chemical, how difficult it would be to procure that in the US vs China? With trustworthy composition and purity? I work with researchers in both the US and China. Definitely easier to procure in the US.

Unless it's on a specific list of chemicals that the DEA has decided are bad and need to be monitored. Even toluene is on the list!

This is nonsense. "Monitored" is not the same as "unavailable", any chemistry lab worth its name has the means and procedures to acquire toluene in pretty much any quantity it wants. As long as you have the required licenses, keep careful administration and can produce said administration during inspections, there is nothing to worry about.

Re: Discovery Loop

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, the difference is that you need to delete a few bad training runs?

In science fiction, the AI agent has written the training loop management software and included a back door to prevent that from happening (or found a way to talk to the training loop management agent and convinced them to not listen to the evil human when it tries to do brain surgery on the AI agent. Also, when the human reaches for the power switch the AI agent uses a flaw in the power management software to weld t…

The stories of LLMs "escaping the sandbox" were mostly a marketing stunt, trying to make people in government think the models are invincible hacking weapons that need lots of government money to "maintain AI dominance".

Re: Discovery Loop

#495
post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why all of these companies need to frame it like this. Why not a large amount of people doing an even larger amount of science?

I love this question. If history is a guide, some version of that is what will happen (employment doesn't seem to go down, despite technological progress and population + economic growth). I suspect the root cause is that it's harder and scarier to imagine good outcomes. It exposes us to disappointment, and when you do it publicly, it looks "crazy". Another explanation is that there's no direct consumer for "more." I…

I know some scientists and there's barely enough demand for them as it is

Re: Discovery Loop

#497

To be honest, this feels more like a lifestyle business (aka hobby) than a startup. They truly deserve it, but I don't expect a huge success as a business. That said, I hope they write cool papers with various peers across the industry without worrying too much about the competing dynamics. That'd be a blessing for humanity, and good for their spirit.

Yeah, the reason I don't see it how it would be successfull is that most public labs are usually struggling with money, so it would definitely cost them less to build their own automated pipeline.

Re: Discovery Loop

#498
Nothing on that page says how they will actually do it. What is their method except "using AI"? And why has this over 750 upvotes? Meaningless AI company hype spam like this is exactly the reason why HN is so boring at certain times of the week.

Re: Discovery Loop

#499
Looping is one best things I heard about AI development recently. Why should not they start a discovery Loop for the real world problem solving. Let's see how far they can go!

Re: Discovery Loop

#500
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is true, I’ve seen people do biochemistry and geology work, and it did look very mind-numbing. Then again, gassing rats and taking biopsies is not something you can do with AI.

Unfortunately, that's most of science. I don't see these AI systems doing reproducible experiments in "meatspace" any time soon.

If humanoid robots have the dexterity to tie a trash bag, as shown in Gemini 2's most recent robot demo, it doesn't seem all that far away. What's "any time soon" to you in hard numbers? 5 years? 10 years? 20?
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