Comment by andsoitis
1 day ago
it turns out that AI at this level is very expensive to run (capex, energy). my bet is that AI itself won't figure out how to overcome these constraints and reach escape velocity.
1 day ago
it turns out that AI at this level is very expensive to run (capex, energy). my bet is that AI itself won't figure out how to overcome these constraints and reach escape velocity.
Perhaps this will be the incentive to finally get fusion working. Big tech megacorps are flush with cash and could fund this research many times over at current rates. E.g. NIF is several billion dollars; Google alone has almost $100B in the bank.
Mainframes are the only viable way to build computers. Micro processors will never figure out how to get small and fast enough for personal computers to reach escape velocity.
Why do you think the analogy hold?
Hardware typically gets faster and cheaper over time. Unless we hit hard a wall because of physics then I don't see any reason that won't continue to be true.
1 reply →
Well it's an analogy, that's a water-tight argument.
> it turns out that AI at this level is very expensive to run (capex, energy)
If it's CapEx it's -- by definition -- not a cost to run. Energy costs will trend to zero.
Why will energy costs trend to zero?
Renewables will keep getting more efficient and cheaper to install, batteries will continue to get cheaper, at some point they'll crack fusion. Prices go negative or zero in several places already (West Texas wind energy overnight, solar in Chile). The question seems less "when will we get abundant, virtually free clean energy" and more "will we do it in time to avoid climate collapse".
our minds are incredibly energy efficient, that leads me to believe it is possible to figure out, but it might be a human rather than an AI that gives us something more akin to a biological solution.
This could fix my main gripe with The Matrix. ”Humans are used as batteries” always felt off, but it totally would make sense if the human brains have uniquely energy efficient pattern matching abilities that an emerging AI organism would harvest. That would also strengthen the spiritual humanist subtext.
Thats because the original script did actually have the human farms being used for brainpower for the machines. They changed it to "batteries" because they thought audiences at the time wouldnt understand it!
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That bugged me too! I decided that they actually meant "source of creativity" which made more sense.