On 2/5/2022 12:51 PM, Terren Suydam wrote:
On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 6:18 PM John Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 5:34 PM Terren Suydam
<[email protected]> wrote:
>> Look at thiscode for a subprogram and make something that
does the same thing but issmaller or runsfaster or both.
And that's not a toy problem, that's a real problem.
> "does the same thing" is problematic for a couple reasons.
The first is that AlphaCode doesn't know how to read code,
Huh? We already know AlphaCode can write code, how can something
know how to write but not read? It's easier to read a novel than
write a novel.
This is one case where your intuitions fail. I dug a little deeper
into how AlphaCode works. It generates millions of candidate solutions
using a model trained on github code. It then filters out 99% of those
candidate solutions by running them against test cases provided in the
problem description and removing the ones that fail. It then uses a
different technique to whittle down the candidate solutions from
several thousand to just ten. Nobody, neither the AI nor the humans
running AlphaCode, know if the 10 solutions picked are correct.
Just like we don't know which interpretation of quantum mechanics is
correct. But we use it anyway.
AlphaCode is not capable of reading code. It's a clever version of
monkeys typing on typewriters until they bang out a Shakespeare play.
Still counts as AI, but cannot be said to understand code.
What does it mean "to read code"? It can execute code, from github
apparently so it must read code well enough to execute it. What more
does it need to read? You say it cannot be said to understand code.
Can you specify what would show it understands the code?
I think you mean it tells you story about how this part to does that and
this other part does something else, etc. But that's just catering to
your weak human brain that can't just "see" that the code solves the
problem. The problem is that there is no species independent meaning of
"understand" except "make it work". AlphaCode doesn't understand code
like you do, because it doesn't think like you do and doesn't have the
context you do.
Brent
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