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I'm confused by your comment. This is an article about AI potentially helping with treatment of cancer. I strongly disagree in any case that we shouldn't be in

by suby 2y ago

I'm confused by your comment. This is an article about AI potentially helping with treatment of cancer. I strongly disagree in any case that we shouldn't be investing in AI. I think that there's likely a rising tides lifts all boats effect that occurs with improving AI in general -- it all feeds into each other. People who work on image generators are building expertise in AI and can potentially discover things which advance the field, or inspire others to work in the field. Humanity getting better at making AI generate images, or compete at video games, or predict protein folding, it all probably contributes to the rate of improvement in AI. And it's not unreasonable to think that AI will one day solve problems like cancer or climate change, so we should very much care about the rate of AI improvement. As for the power concerns, ironically, thanks to the increased demand we are seeing companies like Microsoft and Oracle make large investments in nuclear power now. It could be the case that this kicks starts a boom in the nuclear industry which eventually brings costs / eases regulations enough to put us in a better place in the long run. It's extremely complex, I don't think we can say at this point that investing in AI in the midst of a climate crisis is a mistake.

chefandy 2y ago
You misread my comment. I think solving problems like finding genetic patterns in cancer is exactly what we should be investing in. That is not even close to the largest resource sinks for AI model training right now. In the resources were going into generally making AI better, great. They're not. They're going until training models for mediocre consumer "gee-whizz aint that neat" products.
- evantbyrne 2y ago
  I think people may not be aware of how much medical research is happening right now based around ML. It is a key component of our liquid cancer biopsy. If anything, there might be a bit too much hype-driven development at the moment. I would be cautious of any ML-based diagnostic that isn't leveraging the technology to better understand the biological aspects of cancer itself.
  - chefandy 2y ago
    Great. I'd rather add a drop in that bucket than have another model trained to make my phone do something I wish it didn't do.
- borski 2y ago
  That’s not true. That’s just what you see. There is tons of research going on using AI for a lot more than memes.
  - chefandy 2y ago
    I'm not implying that there isn't money going into AI in medical research, and a bunch of other worthy pursuits, also. However, there's also an extraordinary amount of resources going into dumb shit that nobody wants that could actually benefit humanity. Not a trivial sum for a test, not a large sum that will contribute to entertainment-- it's the equivalent of an airport gift shop trinket. The person receiving the useless bauble would be better off without it but the giver paid $20 for it so...

by suby 2y ago

chefandy 2y ago

You misread my comment. I think solving problems like finding genetic patterns in cancer is exactly what we should be investing in. That is not even close to the largest resource sinks for AI model training right now. In the resources were going into generally making AI better, great. They're not. They're going until training models for mediocre consumer "gee-whizz aint that neat" products.

evantbyrne 2y ago
I think people may not be aware of how much medical research is happening right now based around ML. It is a key component of our liquid cancer biopsy. If anything, there might be a bit too much hype-driven development at the moment. I would be cautious of any ML-based diagnostic that isn't leveraging the technology to better understand the biological aspects of cancer itself.
- chefandy 2y ago
  Great. I'd rather add a drop in that bucket than have another model trained to make my phone do something I wish it didn't do.
borski 2y ago
That’s not true. That’s just what you see. There is tons of research going on using AI for a lot more than memes.
- chefandy 2y ago
  I'm not implying that there isn't money going into AI in medical research, and a bunch of other worthy pursuits, also. However, there's also an extraordinary amount of resources going into dumb shit that nobody wants that could actually benefit humanity. Not a trivial sum for a test, not a large sum that will contribute to entertainment-- it's the equivalent of an airport gift shop trinket. The person receiving the useless bauble would be better off without it but the giver paid $20 for it so...