Google DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis: Three Truths about AI • Hacker News Board

Re: Google DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis: Three Truths about AI

#141

Post by mattnewport » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #134

ohopton wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading about the Infinite Polygon Engine in Edge (UK video games mag). Pleasantly described as twaddle on Eurogamer in 2003. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_republic_pc Still disappointed!

Interesting. Thanks! There is so little information about the Infinite Polygon Engine that my comment above is now the #1 Google search result for "Infinite Polygon Engine" (with quotes), even above that Eurogamer article. Without quotes, my comment is only #2. :)

Here's Demis hyping up the AI (plus ca change...) to IGN: http://m.ca.ign.com/articles/2001/05/17/republic-the-revolut...

Compare these claims to the game as reviewed when it finally shipped some 2 years later. It probably did do some reasonably clever and even innovative things but it never really lived up to the hype.

He's a smart guy but his real genius appears to be drumming up breathless and relatively unskeptical media coverage, something else he probably learned from Peter Molyneux who also made a career out of some genuinely innovative games that nonetheless rarely quite lived up to the extravagant claims made about them years before they shipped.

Re: Google DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis: Three Truths about AI

#142

Post by PeterisP » Wed, Oct 03, 2018, 11:08 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #58

fallingfrog wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that a stable population level requires mass starvation or some such thing. Most of the developed world is already at zero or slightly negative population growth, all it required was birth control. (A technology, to your point).

We could achieve a stable population, but we're still growing our energy use - and will be for some time, as there's something like 2 billion people who also want to have western living standards (like hot water and washing machines).

This is not entirely true - in the developed world, energy use per capita has been stable for many decades now, currently economic growth has been decoupled from energy usage, breaking the assumptions of 70s "The Limits to Growth" argument. There's no exponential growth trend; yes, the total energy usage will grow while the population is (still) growing; yes, the energy usage per capita in developing countries will eventually increase to match developed countries, but that's it, there's expected growth but it is limited.

Our continuing progress and well being does not rely on unbounded growth of energy use until it inevitably hits a ceiling; we can expect total energy demand to stabilize at some level (though higher than the current one), and there's no reason why we couldn't meet that energy demand with sustainable means. There's no revolution needed to lift the ceiling - the ceiling we need is within sight, and we can reach it with straightforward application of current technology, e.g. increased adoption and economy-of-scale cost reduction of currently available solar and battery technology among others.

Re: Google DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis: Three Truths about AI

#143

Post by perl4ever » Thu, Oct 04, 2018, 12:48 AM UTC

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #94

hyperbovine wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One potential solution is to not have children.

What’s the point of living if you can’t achieve your biological function?

You seem to be implying that promotion of one's genes is the only worthwhile goal. Stipulating that value system for the sake of argument, procreation is hardly the only way to do that. Literally anything you do in life affects other life forms which share some of your genes.

Re: Google DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis: Three Truths about AI

#144

Post by wsy » Thu, Oct 04, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

meh2frdf wrote: post #139

wsy wrote: post #97

AI has been a marketing terms from its invention, and is very misleading. Whenever you read something about 'Artificial Intelligence', try to replace this term with an actual technology, such as 'Deep Learning'. If the sentence doesn't make sense with any such replacement, it is most probably just marketing bullshit.

Replace deep learning with ANN, it was branded DL In order to get easier grant funding!

You are right, even DL is still quite fuzzy, ANN would be a much better example.