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I find it a bit disappointing that despite originally stating that YC Research would target underfunded/underserved areas of research, they've decided to fund a

I find it a bit disappointing that despite originally stating that YC Research would target underfunded/underserved areas of research, they've decided to fund and dive into one of the most-hyped, well-funded areas of research: deep learning, an area of research where companies are hiring like crazy and even universities are hiring faculty like crazy. I'm reasonably sure all the research scientists had multiple job offers, and most could get faculty offers as well. Instead of funding areas of research where grad students legitimately struggle to find faculty or even industry research positions in their field, YC Research decided to join the same arms race that companies like Toyota are joining.

pbreit 11y ago
I'm disappointed that you're disappointed. There's $1b coming from primarily not YC.
- randyrand 11y ago
  And I'm disappointed that you're disappointing that he's disappointed.
- argonaut 11y ago
  The $ figure is not really my point. It's the focus and attention. The world is not lacking in research interest in deep learning.
- yeukhon 11y ago
  It is committed. There is a big difference between committed $1B (which is a proposal really) and funded with $1B.
bdcs 11y ago
I agree with you that AI is a well-funded area of research, although if you take the view that traditional forms of research, eg private or academic, come with crippling problems -- short-term horizons, corrupting influence of profits, publish or parish, time wasted in meetings/grant-writing -- then you can see the potential of having a more long-term, focused, and centralized space for inventing AI. >> YC Research decided to join the same arms race that companies like Toyota are joining. Or perhaps YC Research providing a sandbox next to a warzone.
- argonaut 11y ago
  AI research is a very deserving field. And the market/research community recognizes that! So it's not an area where there is a lack of job opportunities for researchers to do research and publish papers. That sandbox would be a faculty position. I would be more sympathetic to that idea if it weren't the case that universities are hiring machine learning faculty like crazy. There are many areas where the market/research interest is low, but the area is very deserving and of great benefit to society (clean energy?)
pmichaud 11y ago
"AI" has a lot of attention, but AI Safety is underfunded, and understaffed.
- argonaut 11y ago
  None of the people hired are AI safety researchers. It also goes without saying that all of the so-called AI safety researchers are philosophers. None of them actually work in deep learning or on building AI systems.
  - pmichaud 11y ago
    You are not correct, there are people working on these problems who are experts in the relevant technical fields. Just not enough of them. But yes, I'm also concerned about the lack of safety-focused headliners at OpenAI, given the message that they think safety is important.
    - argonaut 11y ago
      Who are those researchers? I'll admit I don't follow the stuff written by the friendly AI folks very much; I only know of Bostrom/Yudkowsky, both of whom are very much philosophers. All of the hype around ML today is in deep learning (let's be honest, OpenAI would not exist if that wasn't the case), and AFAIk there is almost no overlap between people who are prolific in deep learning and prolific in FAI.
      - apsec112 11y ago
        Here's an overview of the technical work MIRI has done: https://intelligence.org/research/ https://intelligence.org/research/ It's true that Bostrom and Yudkowsky, as individuals, aren't deep learning people. However, I know that MIRI and I think FHI/CSER do send people to top conferences like AAAI and NIPS.
        argonaut 11y ago
hodgesrm 11y ago
Looking at it a different way, I find this initiative rather heartening. A lot of AI applications have been extensions of mechanical efficiency--doing more with fewer people. More than a few people are worried about the consequences of this progression since there's not an obvious place for displaced workers to go the way manufacturing has soaked up agricultural works in the past. The authors of the manifesto seem to be concerned with avoiding some of the obviously bad possible outcomes of widespread AI use by explicitly looking for ways that it can also change society for the better. Just being able to articulate what we mean "by benefitting humanity as a whole" would already be a good contribution.

pbreit 11y ago

I'm disappointed that you're disappointed. There's $1b coming from primarily not YC.

randyrand 11y ago
And I'm disappointed that you're disappointing that he's disappointed.
argonaut 11y ago
The $ figure is not really my point. It's the focus and attention. The world is not lacking in research interest in deep learning.
yeukhon 11y ago
It is committed. There is a big difference between committed $1B (which is a proposal really) and funded with $1B.

bdcs 11y ago

I agree with you that AI is a well-funded area of research, although if you take the view that traditional forms of research, eg private or academic, come with crippling problems -- short-term horizons, corrupting influence of profits, publish or parish, time wasted in meetings/grant-writing -- then you can see the potential of having a more long-term, focused, and centralized space for inventing AI. >> YC Research decided to join the same arms race that companies like Toyota are joining. Or perhaps YC Research providing a sandbox next to a warzone.

argonaut 11y ago
AI research is a very deserving field. And the market/research community recognizes that! So it's not an area where there is a lack of job opportunities for researchers to do research and publish papers. That sandbox would be a faculty position. I would be more sympathetic to that idea if it weren't the case that universities are hiring machine learning faculty like crazy. There are many areas where the market/research interest is low, but the area is very deserving and of great benefit to society (clean energy?)

pmichaud 11y ago

"AI" has a lot of attention, but AI Safety is underfunded, and understaffed.

argonaut 11y ago
None of the people hired are AI safety researchers. It also goes without saying that all of the so-called AI safety researchers are philosophers. None of them actually work in deep learning or on building AI systems.
- pmichaud 11y ago
  You are not correct, there are people working on these problems who are experts in the relevant technical fields. Just not enough of them. But yes, I'm also concerned about the lack of safety-focused headliners at OpenAI, given the message that they think safety is important.
  - argonaut 11y ago
    Who are those researchers? I'll admit I don't follow the stuff written by the friendly AI folks very much; I only know of Bostrom/Yudkowsky, both of whom are very much philosophers. All of the hype around ML today is in deep learning (let's be honest, OpenAI would not exist if that wasn't the case), and AFAIk there is almost no overlap between people who are prolific in deep learning and prolific in FAI.
    - apsec112 11y ago
      Here's an overview of the technical work MIRI has done: https://intelligence.org/research/ https://intelligence.org/research/ It's true that Bostrom and Yudkowsky, as individuals, aren't deep learning people. However, I know that MIRI and I think FHI/CSER do send people to top conferences like AAAI and NIPS.
      - argonaut 11y ago

hodgesrm 11y ago

Looking at it a different way, I find this initiative rather heartening. A lot of AI applications have been extensions of mechanical efficiency--doing more with fewer people. More than a few people are worried about the consequences of this progression since there's not an obvious place for displaced workers to go the way manufacturing has soaked up agricultural works in the past. The authors of the manifesto seem to be concerned with avoiding some of the obviously bad possible outcomes of widespread AI use by explicitly looking for ways that it can also change society for the better. Just being able to articulate what we mean "by benefitting humanity as a whole" would already be a good contribution.