AI’s Rounding Error

“These programs have been hailed as the first glimmers on the horizon of artificial general intelligence — that long-prophesied moment when mechanical minds surpass human brains not only quantitatively in terms of processing speed and memory size but also qualitatively in terms of intellectual insight, artistic creativity and every other distinctively human faculty. That day may come, but its dawn is not yet breaking.” Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull give humans a solid chance against the AI we’re all either so worried or so hopeful about. Very interesting stuff in the NYT (Gift Article): The False Promise of ChatGPT. “Whereas humans are limited in the kinds of explanations we can rationally conjecture, machine learning systems can learn both that the earth is flat and that the earth is round. They trade merely in probabilities that change over time.” (What I’m worried about are those who will use AI to convince more people that the earth is flat—and other wrongheaded, and often dangerous, ideas.)

+ The Verge: Semafor reporters are going to curate the news with AI. (Bring it on!)