Nobody, to my knowledge, sincerely believes that we are right around the corner from superintelligent, self-improving AGI built out of deep neural networks [...]
Actually, no, I can think of one person who believed that: a radically underinformed layperson on reddit who, for some strange reason, believed that LessWrong is the only site with people doing “real AI” and that “[machine-learning researchers] build optimizers! They’ll destroy us all!”
Hopefully he was messing with me. Nobody else has ever made such ridiculous claims.
This is deeply ironic to read in 2025, less than ten full years after this comment was written. But I suppose it does provide a window into what already feels like a completely different era.
This is deeply ironic to read in 2025, less than ten full years after this comment was written. But I suppose it does provide a window into what already feels like a completely different era.