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Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

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Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#281

Post by rsynnott »

lolive wrote: post #172
rsynnott wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume they’re referring to the previous one.

I still have to understand why you think another AI winter is coming. Everyyyybody is using it, everybody is racing to invent the next big thing. What could go wrong? [apart from a market crash, more related to financial bubble than technical barriers]

> apart from a market crash, more related to financial bubble than technical barriers

_That is what an AI winter is_.

Like, if you look at the previous ones, it's a cycle of over-hype, over-promising, funding collapse after the ridiculous over-promising does not materialise. But the tech tends to hang around. Voice recognition did not change the world in the 90s, but neither did it entirely vanish once it was realised that there had been over-promising, say.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#282

Post by diego_sandoval »

sigbottle wrote: post #202
blutoot wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the types that want academic freedom in a cut-throat industry setup and conversely never fit into academia because their profiles and growth ambitions far exceed what an academic research lab can afford (barring some marquee names). It's an unfortunate paradox.

Maybe it's time for Bell Labs 2? I guess everyone is racing towards AGI in a few years or whatever so it's kind of impossible to cultivate that environment.

The fact that people invest on the architecture that keeps getting increasingly better results is a feature, not a bug.

If LLMs actually hit a plateau, then investment will flow towards other architectures.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#283

Post by cantor_S_drug »

mehulashah wrote: post #277

Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

Because when the recipe is open and public, the product's success depends on Distribution (which has been cornered by MS, Google, Apple). This is good for the ecosystem but not sure how those particular VCs will get exits.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#284

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

mehulashah wrote: post #277

Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

The scale of money is crazy in this example, but the same thing happens in the pharmaceutical/bio-tech industry.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#285

Post by DebtDeflation »

mehulashah wrote: post #277

Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

That's been true for the last year or two, but it feels like we're at an inflection point. All of the announcements from OpenAI for the last couple of months have been product focused - Instant Checkout, AgentKit, etc. Anthropic seems 100% focused on Claude Code. We're not hearing as much about AGI/Superintelligence (thank goodness) as we were earlier this year, in fact the big labs aren't even talking much about their next model releases. The focus has pivoted to building products from existing models (and building massive data centers to support anticipated consumption).

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#286

Post by zikduruqe »

mehulashah wrote: post #277

Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

> This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen.

You must have not lived through the dot com boom. There was almost everything under the sun was being sold under a website that started with an "e". ePets, ePlants, eStamps, eUnderwear, eStocks, eCards, eInvites.....

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#287

Post by cantor_S_drug »

gtech1 wrote: post #268
sigbottle wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's time for Bell Labs 2? I guess everyone is racing towards AGI in a few years or whatever so it's kind of impossible to cultivate that environment.

This sounds crazy. We don't even know/can't define what human intelligence is or how it works , but we're trying to replicate it with AGI ?

Intelligence and human health can't be defined neatly. They are what we call suitcase words. If there exists a physiological tradeoff between medical research about whether to live till 500 years or to be able to lift 1000kg when a person is in youth, those are different dimensions / directions across we can make progress. Same happens for intelligence. I think we are on right track.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#288

Post by afthonos »

gtech1 wrote: post #268
sigbottle wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's time for Bell Labs 2? I guess everyone is racing towards AGI in a few years or whatever so it's kind of impossible to cultivate that environment.

This sounds crazy. We don't even know/can't define what human intelligence is or how it works , but we're trying to replicate it with AGI ?

Man, why did no one tell the people who invented bronze that they weren’t allowed to do it until they had a correct definition for metals and understood how they worked? I guess the person saying something can’t be done should stay out of the way of the people doing it.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#289

Post by cheevly »

zikduruqe wrote: post #286
mehulashah wrote: post #277

Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

> This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. You must have not lived through the dot com boom. There was almost everything under the sun was being sold under a website that started with an "e". ePets, ePlants, eStamps, eUnderwear, eStocks, eCards, eInvites.....

These are not the same.

Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

#290

Post by anotherd1p »

blutoot wrote: post #256
sigbottle wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's time for Bell Labs 2? I guess everyone is racing towards AGI in a few years or whatever so it's kind of impossible to cultivate that environment.

[flagged]

I always take a bird's eye kind of view on things like that, because however close I get, it always loops around to make no sense.

> is massively monopolistic and have unbounded discretionary research budget

that is the case for most megacorps. if you look at all the financial instruments.

modern monopolies are not equal to single corporation domination. modern monopolies are portfolios who do business using the same methods and strategies.

the problem is that private interests strive mostly for control, not money or progress. if they have to spend a lot of money to stay in control of (their (share of the)) segments, they will do that, which is why stuff like the current graph of investments of, by and for AI companies and the industries works.

A modern equivalent and "breadth" of a Bell Labs (et. al) kind of R&D speed could not be controlled and would 100% result in actual Artificial Intelligence vs all those white labelababbebel (sry) AI toys we get now.

Post WW I and II "business psychology" have build a culture that cannot thrive in a free world (free as in undisturbed and left to all devices available) for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of elements with a medieval/dark-age kind of aggressive tendency to come to power and maintain it that way.

In other words: not having a Bell Labs kind of setup anymore ensures that the variety of approaches taken on large scales aka industry-wide or systemic, remains narrow enough.

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