We Now Know How AI 'Thinks'–and It's Barely Thinking at All(www.wsj.com)
14 pointsby uxhacker7 hours ago4 comments
  • rkagerer3 hours ago
    I'm growing weary of all the AI hype being shoved down my throat. Every time I dig into examples of what it can do, the result seems shittier than what a talented human would achieve instead. I'm forming an impression it's a kludge for the mediocre.

    I don't want to be a crotchety old grump about this - I'd love to hear thoughts on truly notable examples where quality far exceeds our existing best in class work.

    • mptestan hour ago
      I think your only problem is too-high expectations.

      >examples where quality far exceeds our existing best in class work

      I'm no expert, but what percentage of the economy needs/is best in class work?

      I agree running up against the limits of these models after reading the marketing material can give the impression they're "a kludge for the mediocre" and they certainly are in part that, but they're also so much more.[0]

      [0] https://crawshaw.io/blog/programming-with-llms

    • 18 minutes ago
      undefined
    • stefs24 minutes ago
      chess or go.

      but i agree with the others - AI currently shines not at being better than best-in-class humans, it's - sometimes - useful at doing intellectual chores.

    • chii2 hours ago
      > the result seems shittier than what a talented human would achieve instead.

      but what about compared to an average, or below average human would achieve?

  • chii3 hours ago
    An AI doesn't need to think in the same way humans think. It just needs to achieve results (that are better, or at least equal to humans).

    The same question has been asked of chess "ai" in the past - that chess ai isn't thinking, it's "just" searching through all possibilities etc. And yet, the result is that no humans can beat chess ais now-a-days.

    • Scarblacan hour ago
      "The question of whether computers can think is about as interesting as the question whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra.
  • felixhammerl2 hours ago
    In the news we seem to have reached Schrödinger's AI: Too dumb to do anything properly, but coming for everyone's jobs due to being too powerful.