I’ve gone down a rabbit hole here.

I’ve been looking at lk99, the potential room temp superconductor, lately. Then I came across an AI chat and decided to test it. I then asked it to propose a room temp superconductor and it suggested (NdBaCaCuO)_7(SrCuO_2)_2 and a means of production which got me thinking. It’s just a system for looking at patterns and answering the question. I’m not saying this has made anything new, but it seems to me eventually a chat AI would be able to suggest a new material fairly easily.

Has AI actually discovered or invented anything outside of it’s own computer industry and how close are we to it doing stuff humans haven’t done before?

  • Archpawn@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    Are AIs we have at our disposal able and allowed to self-improve on their own?

    Yes. That’s what training is. There’s systems for having them write their own training data. And ultimately, an AI that’s good enough at copying a human can write any text that human can. Humans can improve AI by writing code. So can an AI. Humans can improve AI by designing new microchips. So can an AI.

    These are of course tongue-in-cheek examples of what a human brain can, but - from the persepctive of neuroscience, psychology and a few adjacent fields of study - it is absolutely incorrect to say that AIs can do what a human brain can, because we’re still not sure how our brains work, and what they are capable of.

    We know they follow the laws of physics, which are turing complete. And we have pretty good reason to believe that their calculations aren’t reliant on quantum physics.

    Individual neurons are complicated, but there’s no reason to believe they exact way they’re complicated matters. They’re complicated because they have to be self-replicating and self-repairing.

    • Maharashtra@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yes. That’s what training is.

      I’m not talking about building a database of data harvested from external sources. I’m not talking about the designs they make.

      I’m asking whether AIs are able and allowed to modify THEIR OWN code.

      We know they follow the laws of physics, which are turing complete.

      Scientists are continuously baffled by the universe - very physical thing - and things they discover there. The point is that the knowledge that a thing follows certain specific laws does not give us the understanding of it and the mastery over it.

      We do not know the full extent of what our brains are capable of. We do not even know where “the full extent” may end. Therefore we can’t say that AIs are capable to do what our brains can, even if the underlying principle seem “basic” and “straightforward”.

      It’s like comparing a calculator to a supercomputer and claiming the former can do what the latter does, because “it’s all 0s and 1s, man”. 😉