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Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

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Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#41

Post by gizmo »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #14
kvdveer wrote: post #7

I feel the author is comparing an abstract representation of the brain to a mechanical representation of a computer. This is not a fair or useful comparison. If a computer does not understand words, neither does your brain. While electromagnetic charge in the brain does not at all correspond with electromagnetic charge in a GPU, they do share an abstraction level, unlike words vs bits.

No, only a brain can "think" and be original. A computer is limited to what we input to it. An "AI" simply recapitulates what it was trained on.

And what gives brains this unique power? Do brains of lesser animals also have this unique “thinking” property? Is this “thinking” a result of how the brain is architected out of atoms and if so why can’t other machines emulate it?

Our brains are the product of the same dumb evolutionary process that made every other plant and animal and fungus and virus. We evolved from animals capable of only the most basic form of pattern recognition. Humans in the absence of education are not capable of even the most basic reasoning. It took us untold thousands of years to figure out that “try things and measure if it works” is a good way to learn about the world. An intelligent species would be able to figure things out by itself our ancestors, who have the same brain architecture we do, were not able to figure anything out for generation after generation. So much for our ability to do original independent thinking.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#42

Post by scotty79 »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #14
kvdveer wrote: post #7

I feel the author is comparing an abstract representation of the brain to a mechanical representation of a computer. This is not a fair or useful comparison. If a computer does not understand words, neither does your brain. While electromagnetic charge in the brain does not at all correspond with electromagnetic charge in a GPU, they do share an abstraction level, unlike words vs bits.

No, only a brain can "think" and be original. A computer is limited to what we input to it. An "AI" simply recapitulates what it was trained on.

Do a little exercise for me. Try to be as creative as you can be and imagine how a space alien might look.

It's a combination of what you have already seen, read about or heard of, isn't it?

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#43

Post by jryan49 »

cynusx wrote: post #31

The comparison doesn't really hold. He is comparing energy spend during inference in humans with energy spend during training in LLM's. Humans spend their lifetimes training their brain so one would have to sum up the total training time if you are going to compare it to the training time of LLM's. At age 30 the total energy use of the brain sums up to about 5000 Wh, which is 1440 times more efficient. But at age 30…

How about the fact that llm's don't work unless humans generate all that data in the first place. I'd say the llm's energy usage is the amount it takes to train plus the amount to generate all that data. Humans are more efficient at learning with less data.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#44

Post by Closi »

cynusx wrote: post #31

The comparison doesn't really hold. He is comparing energy spend during inference in humans with energy spend during training in LLM's. Humans spend their lifetimes training their brain so one would have to sum up the total training time if you are going to compare it to the training time of LLM's. At age 30 the total energy use of the brain sums up to about 5000 Wh, which is 1440 times more efficient. But at age 30…

I think you would probably have to take into account the full functioning power of a human too.

We don't know how to fully operate a human brain when it's fully disconnected from eyes, a mouth, limbs, ears and a human heart.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#45

Post by belter »

exe34 wrote: post #19
Synaesthesia wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, only a brain can "think" and be original. A computer is limited to what we input to it. An "AI" simply recapitulates what it was trained on.

that's incredible! how did you put the confetti back in the canon?

Clearly he/she...is a previous LLM version...it will get updates next month....

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#46

Post by wanderingmind »

cynusx wrote: post #31

The comparison doesn't really hold. He is comparing energy spend during inference in humans with energy spend during training in LLM's. Humans spend their lifetimes training their brain so one would have to sum up the total training time if you are going to compare it to the training time of LLM's. At age 30 the total energy use of the brain sums up to about 5000 Wh, which is 1440 times more efficient. But at age 30…

Not just that the brain of a newborn comes pretrained with billions of years of evolution. There is an energy cost associated with that which must be taken into account

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#47

Post by freehorse »

cynusx wrote: post #31

The comparison doesn't really hold. He is comparing energy spend during inference in humans with energy spend during training in LLM's. Humans spend their lifetimes training their brain so one would have to sum up the total training time if you are going to compare it to the training time of LLM's. At age 30 the total energy use of the brain sums up to about 5000 Wh, which is 1440 times more efficient. But at age 30…

> representations for most of the stuff on the internet

Yes we have learnt far more complex stuff, ffs.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#48

Post by Closi »

jryan49 wrote: post #43
cynusx wrote: post #31

The comparison doesn't really hold. He is comparing energy spend during inference in humans with energy spend during training in LLM's. Humans spend their lifetimes training their brain so one would have to sum up the total training time if you are going to compare it to the training time of LLM's. At age 30 the total energy use of the brain sums up to about 5000 Wh, which is 1440 times more efficient. But at age 30…

How about the fact that llm's don't work unless humans generate all that data in the first place. I'd say the llm's energy usage is the amount it takes to train plus the amount to generate all that data. Humans are more efficient at learning with less data.

Humans also learn from other humans (we stand on the shoulders of giants), so we would need to account for all the energy that has gone into generating all of human knowledge in the 'human' scenario too.

i.e. not many humans invent calculus or relativity from scratch.

I think OP's point stands - these comparisons end up being overly hand-wavey and very dependent on your assumptions and view.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#49

Post by jryan49 »

Closi wrote: post #48
jryan49 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the fact that llm's don't work unless humans generate all that data in the first place. I'd say the llm's energy usage is the amount it takes to train plus the amount to generate all that data. Humans are more efficient at learning with less data.

Humans also learn from other humans (we stand on the shoulders of giants), so we would need to account for all the energy that has gone into generating all of human knowledge in the 'human' scenario too. i.e. not many humans invent calculus or relativity from scratch. I think OP's point stands - these comparisons end up being overly hand-wavey and very dependent on your assumptions and view.

Yes I agree. The whole concept of trying to compare energy usage is incredibly complicated.

Re: Why your brain is 3 milion more times efficient than GPT-4

#50

Post by cjk2 »

makingstuffs wrote: post #33
cjk2 wrote: post #22

I think GPT-4 is way more than 3 million times more efficient than my brain. All it does is a lot of multiplication and adding and my brain is crap at that.

Your conscious brain, maybe, your subconscious brain, no chance. The maths which goes into something as seemingly simple as picking up a glass is far beyond the reach of GPT. Hell, it’s so complex that the world’s top robotics labs burn through immense resources just to get some jittery arm to replicate the action.

It’s not really mathematics though. That’s an abstract concept which is my point.
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