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This attitude is not just ignorant; it's dangerous. I'm seeing rampant use of ML now for problems we already know how to solve in much simpler ways: linear con

This attitude is not just ignorant; it's dangerous. I'm seeing rampant use of ML now for problems we already know how to solve in much simpler ways: linear control theory, bayesian statistics, Kalman filters, etc. "Oh hey, no need to study those old, dry topics. Just throw a bunch of training data at this GPU-bound black box and it will probably work." That's right, it will probably work. Until it doesn't. And then you won't be able to debug it. More important: You won't be able to predict when the system will fail, because it's a black box. And if it's controlling a high-consequence system, when it fails people could die. The moral is that if your problem falls into one of the already known easy-to-solve domains, you should use the old techniques. It will probably need at least 1/10^6 the CPU resources as an ML approach and you'll be able to characterize its failure regimes in advance.

jstx1 3y ago
You're arguing with a point that I haven't made. > I'm seeing rampant use of ML now for problems we already know how to solve in much simpler ways: linear control theory, bayesian statistics, Kalman filters, etc. How many of these techniques are in the book in the original post? I'm not saying the we should throw ML at everything, I'm saying the Norvig's book isn't useful in 2023.
- medo-bear 3y ago
  Norvig's book is extremely useful for a whole different reason. It remains one of the best advanced books on general software design. Don't get distracted by the title
- abecedarius 3y ago
  Those are all in his other textbook -- presumably he'd agree that AIMA is much more up to date than PAIP. I do think PAIP is still great for programmers wanting to improve their craft.
  - Jtsummers 3y ago
    > presumably he'd agree that AIMA is much more up to date than PAIP. Yes, he would. He's written as much in the past. https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html

jstx1 3y ago

You're arguing with a point that I haven't made. > I'm seeing rampant use of ML now for problems we already know how to solve in much simpler ways: linear control theory, bayesian statistics, Kalman filters, etc. How many of these techniques are in the book in the original post? I'm not saying the we should throw ML at everything, I'm saying the Norvig's book isn't useful in 2023.

medo-bear 3y ago
Norvig's book is extremely useful for a whole different reason. It remains one of the best advanced books on general software design. Don't get distracted by the title
abecedarius 3y ago
Those are all in his other textbook -- presumably he'd agree that AIMA is much more up to date than PAIP. I do think PAIP is still great for programmers wanting to improve their craft.
- Jtsummers 3y ago
  > presumably he'd agree that AIMA is much more up to date than PAIP. Yes, he would. He's written as much in the past. https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html