Yudkowsky’s own prior statements seem to put him in this camp as well. E.g., here he explains why he doesn’t expect intelligence to emerge from neural networks (or more precisely, why he dismisses a brain-based analogy for coming to that conclusion)
I think you’re basically misunderstanding and misrepresenting Yudkowsky’s argument from 2008. He’s not saying “you can’t make an AI out of neural networks”, he’s saying “your design sharing a single feature with the brain does not mean it will also share the brain’s intelligence.” As well, I don’t think he’s arguing about how AI will actually get made; I think he’s mostly criticizing the actual AGI developers/enthusiasts that he saw at the time (who were substantially less intelligent and capable than the modern batch of AGI developers).
I think that post has held up pretty well. The architectures used to organize neural networks are quite important, not just the base element. Someone whose only plan was to make their ANN wide would not reach AGI; they needed to do something else, that didn’t just rely on surface analogies.
I think you’re basically misunderstanding and misrepresenting Yudkowsky’s argument from 2008. He’s not saying “you can’t make an AI out of neural networks”, he’s saying “your design sharing a single feature with the brain does not mean it will also share the brain’s intelligence.” As well, I don’t think he’s arguing about how AI will actually get made; I think he’s mostly criticizing the actual AGI developers/enthusiasts that he saw at the time (who were substantially less intelligent and capable than the modern batch of AGI developers).
I think that post has held up pretty well. The architectures used to organize neural networks are quite important, not just the base element. Someone whose only plan was to make their ANN wide would not reach AGI; they needed to do something else, that didn’t just rely on surface analogies.
There was an entire thread about Yudkowsky’s past opinions on neural networks, and I agree with Alex Turner’s evidence that Yudkowsky was dubious.
I also think people who used brain analogies as the basis for optimism about neural networks were right to do so.