I think this is a pretty good and fair roundup, but I want to add as very lazy bit of personal context short of actually explaining my takes:
Both when I read the FOOM debate, and skimming over it again now, in my personal opinion Yudkowsky largely comes off better. Yudkowsky makes a few major mistakes that are clearly visible now, like being dismissive of dumb, scaled, connectionist architectures, but the arguments seem otherwise repairable. Contra, I do not know how to well defend Hanson’s position.
I don’t state this to claim a winner, and for sure there are people who read the arguments the other way, but only to suggest to the reader, if you have the time, consider taking a look and forming your own opinion.
Yudkowsky makes a few major mistakes that are clearly visible now, like being dismissive of dumb, scaled, connectionist architectures
I don’t think that’s a mistake at all. Sure, they’ve given us impressive commercial products, but no progress towards AGI, so the dismissiveness is completely justified.
This doesn’t feel like a constructive way to engage with the zeitgeist here. Obviously Yudkowsky plus most people here disagree with you on this. As such, if you want to engage productively on this point, you should find a place better set up to discuss whether NNs uninformatively dead-end. Two such places are the open thread or a new post where you lay out your basic argument.
I think this is a pretty good and fair roundup, but I want to add as very lazy bit of personal context short of actually explaining my takes:
Both when I read the FOOM debate, and skimming over it again now, in my personal opinion Yudkowsky largely comes off better. Yudkowsky makes a few major mistakes that are clearly visible now, like being dismissive of dumb, scaled, connectionist architectures, but the arguments seem otherwise repairable. Contra, I do not know how to well defend Hanson’s position.
I don’t state this to claim a winner, and for sure there are people who read the arguments the other way, but only to suggest to the reader, if you have the time, consider taking a look and forming your own opinion.
I don’t think that’s a mistake at all. Sure, they’ve given us impressive commercial products, but no progress towards AGI, so the dismissiveness is completely justified.
This doesn’t feel like a constructive way to engage with the zeitgeist here. Obviously Yudkowsky plus most people here disagree with you on this. As such, if you want to engage productively on this point, you should find a place better set up to discuss whether NNs uninformatively dead-end. Two such places are the open thread or a new post where you lay out your basic argument.