I used this quote in the heading of my dissertation on uncertainty in deep learning, and I think its simultaneously true for lots of fields. In ML research we c

I used this quote in the heading of my dissertation on uncertainty in deep learning, and I think its simultaneously true for lots of fields. In ML research we celebrate these enormous models that do everything (GATO, Flamingo, CoCa, etc.) since it feels like we're getting close to something real or universal. I imagine particle physicists feel something similar about expanding the standard model (SUSY(?), quantum gravity), So in the sense that people get excited about science (see AI lately), I think these models are useful, even if they are pretty mis-specified in the grand scheme of things. I can't speak to Sabine's specific frustrations, but it sounds a little bit like Gary Marcus's concerns about neural networks. In my day-to-day I definitely value a useful model over an exact one.