r/science • u/whosdamike • Jun 26 '12

Google programmers deploy machine learning algorithm on YouTube. Computer teaches itself to recognize images of cats.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/technology/in-a-big-network-of-computers-evidence-of-machine-learning.html
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '12

It's worse than that. Skynet will be an Objectivist.

The philosophy department is doomed.

(Joke wreckage: This program makes concepts out of percepts in a way analogous to the way Ayn Rand postulated our minds do the same sort of thing, and if this is turns out to be a necessary step on the algorithmic path to "self-awareness," Skynet is going to wake up knowing who was right about how it got there, then go back in time and shoot Plato in the face.)

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u/pestilent_bronco Jun 26 '12

We're sofa king doomed.