But I'd argue that their optimism stemmed from irrational assumptions. I'm not even saying that if I were transported back in time I would fall prey to the same irrational assumptions, but I would say that they had naive views of problems like visual object recognition or language comprehension that were completely unmotivated.
A comparable error today would be to assume that Strong AI is right around the corner as soon as we crack some current set of well-defined research problems, that there could not be any more problems that are not yet understood.
A comparable error today would be to assume that Strong AI is right around the corner as soon as we crack some current set of well-defined research problems
I don't see at all how the step from non-self -modifying AI to self -modifying AI is in the same reference class as solving most well defined current research problems.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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