Comment by bigyabai

16 hours ago

If you're not the customer, you're most likely the product.

I love the saying, but there's something of an exception here. Both companies very openly have singularity business models.

  • Business models make money. If your business model is theoretical, we call that "research" instead.

    Real research is done on prior art. We research things because prior studies tell us that they are feasible, otherwise you are wasting valuable time on a snipe chase. There is no reproducible or substantial evidence that AGI or singularities exist. It is another Big Tech marketing lie, no different from the reneged "don't be evil" or "privacy is a human right" mottos.

    • Thanks for the interesting response! I disagree on a few points, though:

        If your business model is theoretical, we call that "research" instead.
      

      Are/were Uber and Lyft "research" companies, then? Is Reddit a research company? Edison Electric?

        There is no reproducible or substantial evidence that AGI or singularities exist
      

      There is also no substantial evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow, that climate change will continue, or a million other things that are critical to science. Physical science is empirical in that it inherently requires physical experiments, but that is not the only cognitive tool in play by a long shot.

      Regardless: tell them, not me! I'm just reporting what I'd say is an objective fact: they are planning based on scientific predictions of an intelligence explosion -- at least a soft/cybernetic one if not a scarily-fast/purely-digital one.

        It is another Big Tech marketing lie
      

      I think there's a single fact that counters this common sentiment: there is no way in hell that they'd break ground on the largest private infrastructure projects in human history as a marketing stunt. Companies are woefully-shortsighted these days, but that would be another level of foolishness altogether.

      They very well may be wrong of course, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice to assume they're lying about it.

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