If the people arguing that there is an AI bubble turn out to be correct and the bubble pops, to what extent would that change people’s minds about near-term AGI?
I strongly suspect there is an AI bubble because the financial expectations around AI seem to be based on AI significantly enhancing productivity and the evidence seems to show it doesn’t do that yet. This could change — and I think that’s what a lot of people in the business world are thinking and hoping. But my view is a) LLMs have fundamental weaknesses that make this unlikely and b) scaling is running out of steam.
Scaling running out of steam actually means three things:
2) Each new 10x increase in compute is getting harder to pull off because the amount of money involved is getting unwieldy.
3) There is an absolute ceiling to the amount of data LLMs can train on that they are probably approaching.
So, AI investment is dependent on financial expectations that are depending on LLMs enhancing productivity, which isn’t happening and probably won’t happen due to fundamental problems with LLMs and due to scaling becoming less valuable and less feasible. This implies an AI bubble, which implies the bubble will eventually pop.
So, if the bubble pops, will that lead people who currently have a much higher estimation than I do of LLMs’ current capabilities and near-term prospects to lower that estimation? If AI investment turns out to be a bubble, and it pops, would you change your mind about near-term AGI? Would you think it’s much less likely? Would you think AGI is probably much farther away?
If the people arguing that there is an AI bubble turn out to be correct and the bubble pops, to what extent would that change people’s minds about near-term AGI?
I strongly suspect there is an AI bubble because the financial expectations around AI seem to be based on AI significantly enhancing productivity and the evidence seems to show it doesn’t do that yet. This could change — and I think that’s what a lot of people in the business world are thinking and hoping. But my view is a) LLMs have fundamental weaknesses that make this unlikely and b) scaling is running out of steam.
Scaling running out of steam actually means three things:
1) Each new 10x increase in compute is less practically or qualitatively valuable than previous 10x increases in compute.
2) Each new 10x increase in compute is getting harder to pull off because the amount of money involved is getting unwieldy.
3) There is an absolute ceiling to the amount of data LLMs can train on that they are probably approaching.
So, AI investment is dependent on financial expectations that are depending on LLMs enhancing productivity, which isn’t happening and probably won’t happen due to fundamental problems with LLMs and due to scaling becoming less valuable and less feasible. This implies an AI bubble, which implies the bubble will eventually pop.
So, if the bubble pops, will that lead people who currently have a much higher estimation than I do of LLMs’ current capabilities and near-term prospects to lower that estimation? If AI investment turns out to be a bubble, and it pops, would you change your mind about near-term AGI? Would you think it’s much less likely? Would you think AGI is probably much farther away?
I’m really curious what people think about this, so I posted it as a question here. Hopefully I’ll get some responses.