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Ivory tower is usually a pejorative term meaning people who are isolated from the reality of the situation. So it doesn’t include the most advanced research la
by ethanbond 3y ago
Ivory tower is usually a pejorative term meaning people who are isolated from the reality of the situation.
So it doesn’t include the most advanced research labs when those research labs are in touch with the reality of the situation, like right now with AI.
Nitpick “most advanced research labs” if you want, it’s obvious what I mean: it is clear that the “shouting” is not coming solely from people who don’t know what’s going on.
- lazide 3y agoEh, from folks isolated from the constraints and practicalities of the real world. Which OpenAI definitely is, and has been for some time. Or do you think infinite money and ‘do whatever you want’ is constraining?
- ethanbond 3y agoWhat does constraints have to do with it? The question is who has the best grasp on the trajectory of the technology. If not the researchers who are at the frontier of building and deploying these systems, playing with next generation iterations and planning several generations forward, then who? Andreessen? People who like playing with LLMs? People who called the OpenAI API?
- lazide 3y agoBecause if you don’t have real world constraints (like needing to be profitable, or paying the bill for thermodynamic reality), then ‘anything is possible’. Also if you aren’t dealing with those, then problems that come from that never occur to the person involved. So the concerns are abstract and not based on real limits or real problems. Hence ivory tower.
- ethanbond 3y agoOkay so the server bills or thermodynamic bills mean we need not worry. Open to hearing the argument: tell me how!
- lazide 3y agoNot at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, no one knows where the line between actually economic/useful/effective and 'not worth the trouble' actually is, let alone 'could be done without boiling the oceans'. Right now it's all hand wavey, could do everything, etc. etc.