4 ms·

Doesn't this just suggest that the next frontier for powerful AI models is to ask challenging questions, not simply solve them? Terry even says this: "In fact,

Doesn't this just suggest that the next frontier for powerful AI models is to ask challenging questions, not simply solve them? Terry even says this: "In fact, it is now the identification of a promising problem which is the scarce and precious resource." The creativity and insight needed to ask a question that Terry gets excited about is the next step. Perhaps OpenAI should create a set of challenging questions and offer a prize to solve them.

roywiggins 24d ago
If AI can generate questions and then answer them, what are the people for?
- gowld 24d ago
  If humans can shovel dirt, then what are the ants for?
  - roywiggins 24d ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations
qlte 24d ago
The incentives are massively skewed towards the AI labs investing their massive amounts of compute into being the first to solve an outstanding problem. It's a marketing game for them, any societal benefits are secondary. Winning a prize is going to get headlines and feed into the "AGI soon, machine replaces another career" narrative they crave unlike coming up with some (possibly) interesting problems.
pictureofabear 24d ago
I think the problem with AI asking questions is that it will ask questions that are interesting to it but not necessarily us. AI, as a model, will never be a perfect copy of a human. It will always be a simulation, and thus to some extent, will ask questions that humans find irrelevant and solve problems that humans find irrelevant. For anyone facing an existential crisis on AI, your ace in the hole is your humanity. Only you have it, and only you will be the best judge of what is good and interesting (to a human at least).
- pixl97 24d ago
  >your ace in the hole is your humanity Average HN Poster: [nervous sweating]
  - alex_suzuki 24d ago
    Exactly. My humanity is not paying my bills.
matt3210 24d ago
> ask challenging questions As far as I can tell, it's still not possible for an agent to reliably determine if a question is a good question. That means the test part of the loop cant be fulfilled.
- kohllision 23d ago
  That should be the easiest part of the loop. Frontier models are good judges of human preference and taste and should be excellent at prioritizing proposed questions. The generation part is much harder.

roywiggins 24d ago

If AI can generate questions and then answer them, what are the people for?

gowld 24d ago
If humans can shovel dirt, then what are the ants for?
- roywiggins 24d ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations

qlte 24d ago

The incentives are massively skewed towards the AI labs investing their massive amounts of compute into being the first to solve an outstanding problem. It's a marketing game for them, any societal benefits are secondary. Winning a prize is going to get headlines and feed into the "AGI soon, machine replaces another career" narrative they crave unlike coming up with some (possibly) interesting problems.

pictureofabear 24d ago

I think the problem with AI asking questions is that it will ask questions that are interesting to it but not necessarily us. AI, as a model, will never be a perfect copy of a human. It will always be a simulation, and thus to some extent, will ask questions that humans find irrelevant and solve problems that humans find irrelevant. For anyone facing an existential crisis on AI, your ace in the hole is your humanity. Only you have it, and only you will be the best judge of what is good and interesting (to a human at least).

pixl97 24d ago
>your ace in the hole is your humanity Average HN Poster: [nervous sweating]
- alex_suzuki 24d ago
  Exactly. My humanity is not paying my bills.

matt3210 24d ago

> ask challenging questions As far as I can tell, it's still not possible for an agent to reliably determine if a question is a good question. That means the test part of the loop cant be fulfilled.

kohllision 23d ago
That should be the easiest part of the loop. Frontier models are good judges of human preference and taste and should be excellent at prioritizing proposed questions. The generation part is much harder.