I play Go, and AI tools have allowed computers to leave humans completely in the dust, while more deterministic approaches had gotten nowhere close to top level play.
Go has an extremely large number of variations which overwhelms the straightforward, traditional approach. Machine learning allows the computer to get better through experience, by having a bunch of games in its training data that it can pull from to evaluate possible board positions. It also benefits from the fact that, unlike language, every game has a definitive win-lose outcome. This allows AI to get stronger by playing games against itself, even starting from purely random moves.
“So what, I don’t play Go,” sure, but it’s the principle. Given a sufficiently large “probability space” and an objective “win condition” to evaluate itself against, ML algorithms can and do outperform traditional, deterministic algorithms.
The fact that people are trying to put AI on your toaster and shit doesn’t make it completely worthless. But it is massively over hyped and not applicable to most of the applications people are trying to shove it into.
I think using chess and go as analogies rather than misses the point. They’re not trying to get a system to automate playing a game, not really.
They are trying to get it to make intelligent decisions about complex real-world problems, Go has a very simple set of rules that are always true, never change, and are always in play. None of the complexities of real life are replicated. So it’s ability to play Go or Chess or even a more complicated game like a first person shooter are not demonstrations of its ability in the domains in which AI is being advertised for.
I think a far better test of whether a system is actually useful is what it does if it is given no input at all. Does it just sit there forever or does it actually start doing things and currently every single AI system in existence would just stay idle in that scenario.
> i open a repl
> i type in nothing
> nothing happens
> shocked_pikachu.jpg
> i open a window
> i click nothing
> nothing happens
> shocked_pikachu.png
> i buy a computer
> i do not turn it on
> it does nothing
> shocked_pikachu.jxl
demonstrations of its ability in the domains in which AI is being advertised for.
I am absolutely not claiming that AI is useful “in the domains in which it’s being advertised for.” I’m saying that it’s not entirely useless. Despite being overhyped, there are a handful of useful applications.
I think a far better test of whether a system is actually useful is what it does if it is given no input at all.
What? That’s not true at all. My toaster doesn’t go out and do things on its own initiative but it’s still very useful for making toast when I tell it to.
Maybe instead of usefulness, you mean like consciousness or actual intelligence? But that’s pure hype and bullshit. Anyone claiming that a word generator is conscious is either trying to scam you or is being scammed.
Just because someone says (as they do), “This oil will allow you to unlock the hidden power of the 90% of your brain you don’t use, thanks to our new quantum formula, now only $300 a bottle” that doesn’t mean that quantum mechanics isn’t also a real thing that has actual applications. Machine learning is the same way. It attracts all the snake oil salesmen who spout complete and utter bullshit about it, but it is a real technology that has legitimate uses despite all that.
“Worthless” is going a bit far.
I play Go, and AI tools have allowed computers to leave humans completely in the dust, while more deterministic approaches had gotten nowhere close to top level play.
Go has an extremely large number of variations which overwhelms the straightforward, traditional approach. Machine learning allows the computer to get better through experience, by having a bunch of games in its training data that it can pull from to evaluate possible board positions. It also benefits from the fact that, unlike language, every game has a definitive win-lose outcome. This allows AI to get stronger by playing games against itself, even starting from purely random moves.
“So what, I don’t play Go,” sure, but it’s the principle. Given a sufficiently large “probability space” and an objective “win condition” to evaluate itself against, ML algorithms can and do outperform traditional, deterministic algorithms.
The fact that people are trying to put AI on your toaster and shit doesn’t make it completely worthless. But it is massively over hyped and not applicable to most of the applications people are trying to shove it into.
I think using chess and go as analogies rather than misses the point. They’re not trying to get a system to automate playing a game, not really.
They are trying to get it to make intelligent decisions about complex real-world problems, Go has a very simple set of rules that are always true, never change, and are always in play. None of the complexities of real life are replicated. So it’s ability to play Go or Chess or even a more complicated game like a first person shooter are not demonstrations of its ability in the domains in which AI is being advertised for.
I think a far better test of whether a system is actually useful is what it does if it is given no input at all. Does it just sit there forever or does it actually start doing things and currently every single AI system in existence would just stay idle in that scenario.
> i open a repl
> i type in nothing
> nothing happens
> shocked_pikachu.jpg
> i open a window
> i click nothing
> nothing happens
> shocked_pikachu.png
> i buy a computer
> i do not turn it on
> it does nothing
> shocked_pikachu.jxl
I am absolutely not claiming that AI is useful “in the domains in which it’s being advertised for.” I’m saying that it’s not entirely useless. Despite being overhyped, there are a handful of useful applications.
What? That’s not true at all. My toaster doesn’t go out and do things on its own initiative but it’s still very useful for making toast when I tell it to.
Maybe instead of usefulness, you mean like consciousness or actual intelligence? But that’s pure hype and bullshit. Anyone claiming that a word generator is conscious is either trying to scam you or is being scammed.
Just because someone says (as they do), “This oil will allow you to unlock the hidden power of the 90% of your brain you don’t use, thanks to our new quantum formula, now only $300 a bottle” that doesn’t mean that quantum mechanics isn’t also a real thing that has actual applications. Machine learning is the same way. It attracts all the snake oil salesmen who spout complete and utter bullshit about it, but it is a real technology that has legitimate uses despite all that.