Ask HN: Does GPT-4 signal the start of the singularity? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does GPT-4 signal the start of the singularity?

4 pointsyehosef13 comments

Technological singularity is very precisely located at the point in time when technology can / could continue to exist and develop without humans. This is clearly not the case right now.

The invention of LLMs is surely closer to that hypothetical point in time than the invention of steam machines or iron swords, but even nowadays technology is still very dependent on a working human society to continue functioning.

I've never heard of this definition of the singularity. Wikipedia (for whatever that's worth) defines it as follows:

"The technological singularity—or simply the singularity[1]—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization."

Humans could still be in the loop but the AI enables changes that exceed our ability to predict or contain them.

I agree with the Wikipedia definition, but I assume once technology has the ability to develop without humans, it will develop without humans.There won't be much elapsed time between these two events.

I assume that humans will still play a role for a while - but it still seems as if going to cause massive changes to society.

Why? Humans are useful. Razing entire ecosystems isn’t.

Here's an article that seems to indicate yes:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-unpredictable-abilities-e...

https://nonzero.substack.com/p/ok-its-time-to-freak-out-abou...

HN discussion about the topic https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35214985

I don’t know but I’m in disguise as a paperclip just in case.

Has there been any indication that it's better at designing models than its designers?

What's the singularity?

cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Reply on news.ycombinator.com