4 ms·

I took an AI course in college back around 2015. Just a bit before AlphaGo. One project was to implement a simple Q-learning action/value system to play simple

I took an AI course in college back around 2015. Just a bit before AlphaGo. One project was to implement a simple Q-learning action/value system to play simple games, like Pacman. The crypto-bros-turned-AGI-experts on twitter are spouting the most uninformed, misguided garbage about this whole thing, it's quite amazing to watch. And I'm not saying that I am smart or an expert about Q* because I took an introductory college course. I'm saying that even I, someone who knows basically nothing beyond the introductory concept can identity that these people have no clue what they are talking about, and yet the have this incredible talent of speaking in such an authoritative and faux-intelligent tone. It's amazing. My favorites are the tweets that sound like this: "So, now we know that [insert something totally wrong]. Well, what if extend that further, by [another totally wrong conclusion]. Here's an explanation of how this all works. A thread, 1/N" followed by a full thread, images included, of drivel.

nothrowaways 3y ago
Exactly, a VC hype.
munificent 3y ago
> these people have no clue what they are talking about, and yet the have this incredible talent of speaking in such an authoritative and faux-intelligent tone. I miss the good old days with those idiots were mostly stuck to the honeypot that is/was cryptocurrencies.
kibwen 3y ago
> The crypto-bros-turned-AGI-experts on twitter are spouting the most uninformed, misguided garbage about this whole thing, it's quite amazing to watch. After the LK-99 debacle where Twitter "confirmed" its superconductivity and breathless sheisters heralded the dawn of a new age, my new policy is "inverse Twitter": if Twitter thinks something is a big deal, then it's more than than 50% likely that it's unsubstantiated horsepucky. The signal:noise ratio on Twitter has always been uselessly low, but the post-crypto scene has plumbed heretofore unfathomable depths.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Why not just assess each question and each position on its merits, as best you can? No clue why people try to come up with these obviously silly heuristics.
  - pixel8account 3y ago
    How am I, someone with no experience in AI, supposed to make an informed decision? Certainly not by myself. By reading experts on the topic? But which experts? Twitter ones? In the day of misinformation we need some heuristics (or trusted experts), just look what happened during COVID when people with no experience in medicine suddenly decided they can make their own conclusions.
    - _heimdall 3y ago
      People without the ability to understand the current body of knowledge and make an educated conclusion, caveated with the known and unknown gaps in current knowledge, simply shouldn't be trying to make conclusions. Making a decision for oneself is totally reasonable, but there should be a high bar as soon as someone tries to push that as a conclusion that others should follow. The problem during the pandemic response wasn't that individuals tried to understand and decide for themselves, its that those who were supposed experts got out over their skis and were forcing decisions and conclusions that weren't backed up by data. What's wrong with someone reading studies and deciding whether they themselves want to get vaccinated or west masks, especially when we didn't have solid data to show how those decisions might impact others' rights?
- dorkwood 3y ago
  HN wasn't much better during the whole LK-99 debacle. The crowd wasn't at all welcoming to skeptics.
  - daneel_w 3y ago
    Nor to optimists.

nothrowaways 3y ago

Exactly, a VC hype.

munificent 3y ago

> these people have no clue what they are talking about, and yet the have this incredible talent of speaking in such an authoritative and faux-intelligent tone. I miss the good old days with those idiots were mostly stuck to the honeypot that is/was cryptocurrencies.

kibwen 3y ago

> The crypto-bros-turned-AGI-experts on twitter are spouting the most uninformed, misguided garbage about this whole thing, it's quite amazing to watch. After the LK-99 debacle where Twitter "confirmed" its superconductivity and breathless sheisters heralded the dawn of a new age, my new policy is "inverse Twitter": if Twitter thinks something is a big deal, then it's more than than 50% likely that it's unsubstantiated horsepucky. The signal:noise ratio on Twitter has always been uselessly low, but the post-crypto scene has plumbed heretofore unfathomable depths.

ethanbond 3y ago
Why not just assess each question and each position on its merits, as best you can? No clue why people try to come up with these obviously silly heuristics.
- pixel8account 3y ago
  How am I, someone with no experience in AI, supposed to make an informed decision? Certainly not by myself. By reading experts on the topic? But which experts? Twitter ones? In the day of misinformation we need some heuristics (or trusted experts), just look what happened during COVID when people with no experience in medicine suddenly decided they can make their own conclusions.
  - _heimdall 3y ago
    People without the ability to understand the current body of knowledge and make an educated conclusion, caveated with the known and unknown gaps in current knowledge, simply shouldn't be trying to make conclusions. Making a decision for oneself is totally reasonable, but there should be a high bar as soon as someone tries to push that as a conclusion that others should follow. The problem during the pandemic response wasn't that individuals tried to understand and decide for themselves, its that those who were supposed experts got out over their skis and were forcing decisions and conclusions that weren't backed up by data. What's wrong with someone reading studies and deciding whether they themselves want to get vaccinated or west masks, especially when we didn't have solid data to show how those decisions might impact others' rights?
dorkwood 3y ago
HN wasn't much better during the whole LK-99 debacle. The crowd wasn't at all welcoming to skeptics.
- daneel_w 3y ago
  Nor to optimists.