> Mitchell in her paper compares modern AI to alchemy. It produces dazzling, impressive results but it often lacks a deep, foundational theory of intelligence.
> It’s a powerful metaphor, but I think a more pragmatic conclusion is slightly different. The challenge isn't to abandon our powerful alchemy in search of a pure science of intelligence.
But alchemy was wrong and chasing after the illusions created by the frauds who promoted alchemy held back the advancement of science for a long time.
We absolutely should have abandoned alchemy as soon as we saw that it didn't work, and moved to figuring out the science of what worked.
Yet alchemists developed and refined many important chemical processes including crystallization, distillation, evaporation, synthesis of acids/bases/salts, etc., as well as many useful substances and compounds from gunpowder to aqua regia. Also various dyes, drugs, and poisons. Their ranks included the likes of Paracelsus, Tycho Brahe, Boyle, and Newton.
> Mitchell in her paper compares modern AI to alchemy. It produces dazzling, impressive results but it often lacks a deep, foundational theory of intelligence.
> It’s a powerful metaphor, but I think a more pragmatic conclusion is slightly different. The challenge isn't to abandon our powerful alchemy in search of a pure science of intelligence.
But alchemy was wrong and chasing after the illusions created by the frauds who promoted alchemy held back the advancement of science for a long time.
We absolutely should have abandoned alchemy as soon as we saw that it didn't work, and moved to figuring out the science of what worked.