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by killerstorm 46 days ago
Intelligence can be defined as an optimization problem: "find X which maximizes F(X, Y)" where X is the solution, Y is constraints, and F is optimality/fitness criterion. Most other definitions are inane. E.g. "invent an aircraft" can be described as optimization over possible build instructions under given constraints for base materials which optimizes its ability to fly. Absolutely any invention can be formulated as an optimization problem.

It's not like a calculator because LLM can solve very broad classes of problems - you'd struggle to define problems which LLM can't solve (given some fine-tuning, harness, KB, etc).

All this talk about "smartness" isn't even particularly cute...

2 comments

> It's not like a calculator because LLM can solve very broad classes of problems

I definitely buy this, as least somewhat. Personally I think it'd be a lot more helpful to talk about how "generalisable" a tool is, rather than "general intelligence". LLMs can definitely solve a much broader class of problems than a calculator.

I don't know that "artificial general intelligence" or even "general intelligence" has a very good definition, personally I feel like "solving problems generally" doesn't seem to capture what I mean when I use those kinds of terms. For one, it makes a swiss army knife seem more intelligent than a cat, which personally seems the opposite of what I'd want a good definition of general intelligence to do.

> It's not like a calculator because LLM can solve very broad classes of problems

So can computer programs. Are computer programs intelligent?

A specific program solves only a specific, narrow class of problems.

If you make a program which can solve many different classes of problems that's called AI.

> If you make a program which can solve many different classes of problems that's called AI.

What about Salesforce? That solves a ton of different problems!

And introduces a ton of new problems, too; which is strong evidence that Salesforce is intelligent!