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rob_c

241 karma · joined January 27, 2021

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rob_c··on Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
> because the AI's lack axiomatic systems beyond much manually constructed machinery.

Oh god, that is massively under-selling their learning ability. These models are able to extract and reply with why jokes are funny without even knowing basic vocab, yet there are pure-code models out there with lingual rules baked in from day one which still struggle with basic grammar.

The _point_ of LLMs arguably is there ability to learn any pattern thrown at it with enough compute. With an exception to learning how logical processes work, and pure LLMs only see "time" in the sense of a paragraph begins and ends.

At the least they have taught computers, "how to language", which in regards to how to interact with a machine is a _huge_ step forward.

Unfortunately the financial incentives are split between agentic model usage (taking the idea of a computerised butler further), maximizing model memory and raw learning capacity (answering all problems at any time), and long-range consistency (longer ranges give better stable results due to a few reasons, but we're some way from seeing an LLM with a 128k experts and 10e18 active tokens).

I think in terms of building the perfect monkey butler we already have most or all of the parts. With regard to a model which can dynamically learn on the fly... LLMs are not the end of the story and we need something to allow the models to more closely tie their LS with the context. Frankly the fact that DeepSeek gave us an LLM with LS was a huge leap since previous model attempts had been overly complex and had failed in training.

rob_c··on Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
so your message is to short OpenAI before it implodes and gets absorbed into Cortana or equivalent ;)
rob_c··on Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
You're basically describing the knowledge problem vs model structure, how to even begin to design a system which self-updates/dynamically-learns vs being trained and deployed.

Cracking that is a huge step, pure multi-modal trained models will probably give us a hint, but I think we're some ways from seeing a pure multi-modal open model which can be pulled apart/modified. Even then they're still train and deploy not dynamically learning. I worry we're just going to see LSTM design bolted onto deep LLM because we don't know where else to go and it will be fragile and take eons to train.

And less said about the crap of "but inference is doing some kind of minimization within the context window" the better, it's vacuous and not where great minds should be looking for a step forwards.

rob_c··on Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
most papers are also written in the same language, what's your point?
rob_c··on Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
tbf, transformers from more of a developmental perspective are hugely wasteful. they're long-range stable sure, but the whole training process requires so much power/data compared to even slightly simpler model designs I can see why people are drawn to alternative complex model designs down-playing the reliance on pure attention.
rob_c··on How to Train an LLM: Part 1
so, exactly how much code/content is new/borrowed?
rob_c··on Time to start de-Appling
The fact you're answering rather than ignoring shows the problem I'm very sorry to say
rob_c··on Time to start de-Appling
yes, and they're totally not fighting on multiple fronts against central govt, those in the areas they're trying to run deciding that the civil service can now be a political arm of the left or from having to boot the actual racists in sheep's clothing from the party. I'm not defending any party here, I'm even highlighting some of reforms worse issues. But you have to admit it's not apples and oranges when comparing their performance so far with a cushy little on-the-Thames millionaires cul-de-sac.
rob_c··on Time to start de-Appling
tell me, did they install and set this up themselves or you?
rob_c··on Time to start de-Appling
no, no, you can't that's just a factually vacuous and obviously incorrect statement...
rob_c··on EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages
This, I hope, is close to multi-modal in lingual terms. There's potentially a lot to learn from examining where this works/fails :D
rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
I didn't say he knows a little, he knows a _lot_ clearly.

I just think he puts on very rose tinted glasses when looking to the future rather than seeing the problems hitting ML model design/implementation now. We had a great leap forward with Attention, it woke an entire industry up by giving them something solid to lean on. But it also highlights we should see a _lot_ more pollination of ideas between maths, sciences, stats and comp-sci rather than re-inventing the wheel in every discipline.

rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
4 years of going through the algebra of back-propagation with maths and physics undergrads, it's not that difficult :). The main challenge is combining it with stats and almost infinite dimensions of freedom which makes implementation extremely painful. hats off to the guys behind pytorch and tf for making it possible without having to rely on minuit or the promises of minuit2
rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
> The problem is — nobody commits code that fails tests.

Hah, if that were true the industry would be a better place. Or a worse place. Or a slower place but exactly the same. I should build a test for that...

I've worked on many projects where tests get disabled as nobody can tell why it's failing (or why it was even written in some cases).

I've rewritten test systems from scratch in the past to drag projects out of the dumpster fire by getting them into a state of passing simple startup/shutdown safely routines and then watched as I pass the project onto others how it rots until some "genius" young coder comes along and "removes the slow test-suite because it takes 2hr+ to run on my way out of spec laptop".

rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
> The code itself no longer matters.

Good luck explaining that when you get hacked out of oblivion.

This is like saying the fine-print of contracts don't matter so I get "AI" to regurgitate them all for me as a lawyer. It's so wrong as to be beyond laughable.

Put the coffee down and go for a walk, preferably to a library, and LEARN SOMETHING.

rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
How tf else did you honestly expect black-boxes to get built, by self-mangling machine code spit out by a sentient AI god?

Karpathy is bullish on everything bleeding edge, and unfortunately it kinda shows when you know the material better than he does. (source, I've been lecturing on all of it for a few years now). I'm not saying this is bad. It's great to see people who are engaging and bullish, it's better than most futurists waving their hands and going "something, something warp drive".

But when you take a step back and really ask what is going on behind the scenes, all we have is massive statistical tools performing neato tricks at statistical probability to predict patterns. There's no greater understanding or ability to learn or mimic. YET. The transformer for-instance can't easily learn complex mathematical operations. There's a google paper on "learning" multiplication and I know people working on building networks to "learn" sin/cos from scratch. But given these basic limitations and pretty much, every, single, paper, out of Apple "intelligence" crapping on the buzz. We've pretty much hit a limit beyond being the first company to allow for multi-trillion token parsing (or basic, limited, token parsing memory) for companies to capture and retrieve information.

rob_c··on The new calculus of AI-based coding
Trust but verify. It's not hard.

The corollary being. If you can't (through skill or effort) verify don't trust.

If you break this pattern you deserve all the follies that become you as a "professional".

rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
tomorrow never dies
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
be careful, did you fill in the correct form to be able to make that post?
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
no, ofcom don't need to be picking the fights they are, they're choosing to support the political arm under the claims of "hate speech" and "ungood bad think"
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
it's asif we need to reform the system and find a better way...
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
it's been mulled over and keeps getting brought up again and again, the Overton window has shifted from "go away and come back when you're serious to", "christ how would we comply with that?" https://nordvpn.com/blog/tech-world-angry-with-theresa-mays-...

If you live here how can you not spot how every govt since they kicked out brown has been pushing for this?

rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
If only
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
Not likely
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
Thanks for lumping me in with the great unwashed.
rob_c··on Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act
Under the UK goodness knows in principle yes but they have a protected status in terms of id and tax history (I, wish I was joking) which makes it problematic enough to even discuss...
rob_c··on No science, no startups: The innovation engine we're switching off
I thought this was going somewhere rather than aiming to be a dictionary with pictures or am I missing a key paragraph?
rob_c··on Show HN: I've built a tiny hand-held keyboard
Yeah that brings new definition to pebkac...
rob_c··on New nanotherapy clears amyloid-β, reversing symptoms of Alzheimer's in mice
If it's the removal of the proteins not the plaque I wonder if that's the cause of people chasing the plaque for years? Classic correlation causation problem if so... Time to go read
rob_c··on Why Self-Host?
Only worth paying if you actually need it though.

And if it's a hobby, no you don't, that should be part of it, the fun is getting nocked out from orbit and figuring out how and why and how to avoid it. Stand back up again and you've learned from that mistake :p

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