Rather than follow the trend of the past 30 years of trying to crack games using computing power, DeepMind has reverted to mimicking human-like knowledge, albeit by training, rather than by being programmed, he says. The feat also shows the power of deep learning, which is going from success to success, says Coulom. “Deep learning is killing every problem in AI.”
Source: Google AI algorithm masters ancient game of Go : Nature News & Comment
The times I feel I’ve made most difference to our team’s effectiveness is when I find ways to not build things.
Let’s not build that feature. Is there existing software that could be used instead?
Let’s not add this functionality. Does the complexity it will introduce really justify its existence?
Let’s not build that product yet. Can we first do some small things to test the assumption that it will be valuable?
Let’s not build/deploy that development tool. Can we adjust our process or practices instead to make it unnecessary?
Let’s not adopt this new technology. Can we achieve the same thing with a technology that the team is already using and familiar with?“The best tool for the job” is a very dangerous phrase.
Let’s not keep maintaining this feature. What is blocking us from deleting this code?
Let’s not automate this. Can we find a way to not need to do it all?
“For a long time we wondered why more people didn’t major in computer science,” Aiken reflects. “Everyone in the field believed it was the future and that [it] represented an important way of thinking. Now the world believes us, and we have an overwhelming number of students.”
Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T., laid the foundation for the field of artificial intelligence by demonstrating the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers.
“Marvin was one of the very few people in computing whose visions and perspectives liberated the computer from being a glorified adding machine to start to realize its destiny as one of the most powerful amplifiers for human endeavors in history,” said Alan Kay, a computer scientist and a friend and colleague of Professor Minsky’s.
Source: Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88 – The New York Times
Anyone that claims they are “good at multitasking” is flat-out lying.
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs, according to businessdictionary.com. As such when engineers are unproductive, it…
Source: 10 Habits that Kill an Engineer’s Productivity – Livecoding.tv Blog
“On r/programming was this post called “How to C (as of 2016)“. It has some useful advice, but also some bad advice. I thought I’d write up comments on the topic. As somebody mentioned while I was writing this, only responsible programmers should be writing in C. Irresponsible programmers should write other languages that have more training wheels. These are the sorts of things responsible programmers do.”
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I’ve interviewed hundreds of aspiring developers over the past several years and heard echoes of the same story again and again. My goal for this post is that you approach the learner’s journey with both eyes open and enough of a plan that you can avoid the common pitfalls of those who have come before you.”
“This underlying quandary—attempting to define “thought”—is sometimes referred to as the hard problem, and the results of understanding it called strong AI. People engaged in commercial AI remain sceptical that it will be resolved any time soon, or that it is necessary or even desirable for practical benefits. There is no doubt that artificial intelligences are beginning to do very meaningful work, and that the speed of change of technology will continue to shunt things along, but full-blown sentience still seems very far-fetched.”
