4 ms·

Our simulations have gotten way better in 40 years. You could teach an AI the basics of simulation driving or flying that would work as a baseline for the real

by piyh 8y ago

Our simulations have gotten way better in 40 years. You could teach an AI the basics of simulation driving or flying that would work as a baseline for the real world.

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
Unfortunately, modern, statistical machine-learning based AI is extremely bad at generalising from one environment or one context to another. And, training one some task in a simulation and then performing the same task in the real world requires a very strong ability for generalisation. That is because it is extremely expensive to simulate the real world with any fidelity and therefore every simulation is "cutting corners" - and really, really big corners at that. This gap, between reality and simulation must be covered by generalisation, but our machine learning systems genearlise too poorly. As a result, training in simulated environments doesn't help handle the full complexity of the real world. Even if we had robot bodies that could move as freely and manipulate objects with as much dexterity as they can do in simulations.
- Isinlor 8y ago
  Well, for very simple, repetitive tasks it does work: https://blog.openai.com/generalizing-from-simulation/ https://blog.openai.com/generalizing-from-simulation/ But you are right that it will fail on anything that is hard to simulate. And a lot of trivial things are very hard to simulate. Tesla recently failed at things like plugging two cables together. Picking stuff like bags at Amazon warehouses may be another example.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
    It's even hard to tell whether that robot hand pushing the puck is actually "generalising" like the article claims. Maybe it is, maybe the task is set up so that it makes it possible for the robot hand to push around the puck even when it's on a bag of crisps. It's very difficult to know for sure.

4 ms·

Our simulations have gotten way better in 40 years. You could teach an AI the basics of simulation driving or flying that would work as a baseline for the real

by piyh 8y ago

Our simulations have gotten way better in 40 years. You could teach an AI the basics of simulation driving or flying that would work as a baseline for the real world.

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
Unfortunately, modern, statistical machine-learning based AI is extremely bad at generalising from one environment or one context to another. And, training one some task in a simulation and then performing the same task in the real world requires a very strong ability for generalisation. That is because it is extremely expensive to simulate the real world with any fidelity and therefore every simulation is "cutting corners" - and really, really big corners at that. This gap, between reality and simulation must be covered by generalisation, but our machine learning systems genearlise too poorly. As a result, training in simulated environments doesn't help handle the full complexity of the real world. Even if we had robot bodies that could move as freely and manipulate objects with as much dexterity as they can do in simulations.
- Isinlor 8y ago
  Well, for very simple, repetitive tasks it does work: https://blog.openai.com/generalizing-from-simulation/ https://blog.openai.com/generalizing-from-simulation/ But you are right that it will fail on anything that is hard to simulate. And a lot of trivial things are very hard to simulate. Tesla recently failed at things like plugging two cables together. Picking stuff like bags at Amazon warehouses may be another example.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
    It's even hard to tell whether that robot hand pushing the puck is actually "generalising" like the article claims. Maybe it is, maybe the task is set up so that it makes it possible for the robot hand to push around the puck even when it's on a bag of crisps. It's very difficult to know for sure.