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Our life is dominated by systems we don't understand. I have some understanding of how my cell phone works at the software level, but when it comes to details a

Our life is dominated by systems we don't understand. I have some understanding of how my cell phone works at the software level, but when it comes to details at the hardware level I just trust the electrical engineers knew what they're doing. I have virtually no understanding of how the engine in the bus operates beyond what I learned in thermodynamics 101. Sure, you might say - someone understands these things. But for some systems, it's hard to pinpoint these people. And for some other complex systems, like the stock market, nobody really understands them or (completely) controls them. But we still use them every day. I think once AI becomes useful enough, people will gladly hand control over.

imaginenore 11y ago
But some engineer out there understands how your phone works. With neural nets NOBODY really understands how they work.
- Nadya 11y ago
  Maybe my understanding of neural networks is wrong... but I'm under the impression they work from weighted criteria. With enough weight an answer is selected as being the most likely. A well-trained neural network has enough data to weight options and pick with high accuracy. Then again, this is essentially black magic to me: http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/02/26/ai-masters-classic-video-games-without-being-told-the-rules/ http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/02/26/ai-masters-classic-video...
- stefs 11y ago
  and, well, that's just a faulty assumption. of course we do know how they work.
- Quiark 11y ago
  A trained neural network is like a horrible huge spaghetti code ball you've inherited after a programmer ran over by a bus that for some miraculous reason happens to be working mostly correctly. However, you won't be able to understand why or how it works. That also means you won't be able to modify/improve/fix it using systematic methods. Only trial and error and it will be 'error' most of the time.

imaginenore 11y ago

But some engineer out there understands how your phone works. With neural nets NOBODY really understands how they work.

Nadya 11y ago
Maybe my understanding of neural networks is wrong... but I'm under the impression they work from weighted criteria. With enough weight an answer is selected as being the most likely. A well-trained neural network has enough data to weight options and pick with high accuracy. Then again, this is essentially black magic to me: http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/02/26/ai-masters-classic-video-games-without-being-told-the-rules/ http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/02/26/ai-masters-classic-video...
stefs 11y ago
and, well, that's just a faulty assumption. of course we do know how they work.
Quiark 11y ago
A trained neural network is like a horrible huge spaghetti code ball you've inherited after a programmer ran over by a bus that for some miraculous reason happens to be working mostly correctly. However, you won't be able to understand why or how it works. That also means you won't be able to modify/improve/fix it using systematic methods. Only trial and error and it will be 'error' most of the time.