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Where does the idea come from on HN that anyone is working on “general” AI? It’s a straw man argument. That’s not the goal of GPT3 or pretty much any of the cur

Where does the idea come from on HN that anyone is working on “general” AI? It’s a straw man argument. That’s not the goal of GPT3 or pretty much any of the current AI research.

goatlover 5y ago
It should have been called Augmented Intelligence from the start. The goal is to augment human cognition. Give us better tools. AGI is the stuff of scifi and futurists.
- sgt101 5y ago
  Some people have the goal to understand human cognition. Augmentation is good - I agree - but understanding would also be useful I think. I think that understanding ourselves and how our society processes information could allow us to avoid some of the mistakes that plague us.
- machinehermiter 5y ago
  I think the problem with mythologizing and the fictional nonsense would have grown up around whatever term was originally adopted. AGI though is just the worst. If I am consider to posses general intelligence then why I am so bad at painting? I would love to be able to paint, even to just do Picasso ripoffs but I can't even make something close after much time, effort and training on past data/paintings. When a computer has the same type of problem though then it negates any concept of general intelligence for the computer. Nothing short of an Artificial God will satisfy what we mean by AGI. Our poorly defined language here is causing philosophical problems. I think a good analogy is to artificial light. The attitude towards AI would be to not be impressed by the light bulb but be constantly waiting for some miniature Sun/star that doesn't even make sense. That light bulb is not real artificial light says the AGI fanatic.
satisfice 5y ago
The idea comes from the vast and overwhelming deluge of marketing of AI products, which give the calculated impression that products are “smart.” I just saw a product being described as containing the “distilled wisdom of 1000 testers.” So, really? Are you actually wondering how people like me can think that some might be trying to work on genral AI?

Where does the idea come from on HN that anyone is working on “general” AI? It’s a straw man argument. That’s not the goal of GPT3 or pretty much any of the current AI research.

goatlover 5y ago

It should have been called Augmented Intelligence from the start. The goal is to augment human cognition. Give us better tools. AGI is the stuff of scifi and futurists.

sgt101 5y ago
Some people have the goal to understand human cognition. Augmentation is good - I agree - but understanding would also be useful I think. I think that understanding ourselves and how our society processes information could allow us to avoid some of the mistakes that plague us.
machinehermiter 5y ago
I think the problem with mythologizing and the fictional nonsense would have grown up around whatever term was originally adopted. AGI though is just the worst. If I am consider to posses general intelligence then why I am so bad at painting? I would love to be able to paint, even to just do Picasso ripoffs but I can't even make something close after much time, effort and training on past data/paintings. When a computer has the same type of problem though then it negates any concept of general intelligence for the computer. Nothing short of an Artificial God will satisfy what we mean by AGI. Our poorly defined language here is causing philosophical problems. I think a good analogy is to artificial light. The attitude towards AI would be to not be impressed by the light bulb but be constantly waiting for some miniature Sun/star that doesn't even make sense. That light bulb is not real artificial light says the AGI fanatic.

satisfice 5y ago

The idea comes from the vast and overwhelming deluge of marketing of AI products, which give the calculated impression that products are “smart.” I just saw a product being described as containing the “distilled wisdom of 1000 testers.” So, really? Are you actually wondering how people like me can think that some might be trying to work on genral AI?