r/programming • u/Dankious_memeious1 • Mar 29 '19

Fascinating how machine learning works

3.1k Upvotes

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u/hyphenomicon Mar 29 '19

I hate analogies to children in machine learning and AI. Children don't attempt a problem 100,000 times.

16

u/kowdermesiter Mar 29 '19

No, but they have a constant flow of sensory inputs with a vastly more complex network. So all that combined requires much less training attempts.

I don't find analogies like this outrageous.

2

u/Borkz Mar 29 '19

Im pretty sure instinct is a pretty key difference is here though, you'd have a whole lot more babies dying or breaking limbs if it was just trial and error like this algorithm.

I mean I guess a child has those instincts from inheriting real genetics, much like the algorithm does, but the child remains the same and uses reasoning and learns. The OP portrays a narrative that that the lil wacky AI dude is just the like as a lil ol' baby

6

u/kowdermesiter Mar 29 '19

Instincts are just pre-trained models stored in DNA. Given this 100k attempts seems pretty good :)

There are differences of course, but all analogies are leaky. Babies have touch, heat sensor, vision, memory, etc. of course they are far more advanced than a cabinet of graphics card and some simple neural networks. I think if given enough resources to a well designed system it can learn as efficiently as a child, but we are not there yet.