AI Can t Teach AI New Tricks – WSJ

Not so fast. Large language models are impressive, but they are still statistical models mimicking human thinking. You can t just throw cheaper chips at the problem and expect growth. More than Moore s Law (chips doubling in density every 18 months) is in play. I hate to be the one to throw it, but here s some cold water on the AI hype cycle:

Moravec s paradox: Babies are smarter than AI. In 1988 robotics researcher Hans Moravec noted that It is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility. Most innate skills are built into our DNA, and many of them are unconscious.

Mr. Moravec went on: Encoded in the large, highly evolved sensory and motor portions of the human brain is a billion years of experience about the nature of the world and how to survive in it. DNA is the carrier of life s success signals. Yes, since we were fish.

via www.wsj.com

Andy Kessler.

Nvidia is working on this problem. They’re speeding up AI models in simulations of physical environments. The little buggers seem to pick up all but impossible physical tasks, like spinning pencils, pretty quickly. This doesn’t make them intelligent or conscious, but it can make robots darn good at spinning pencils.