Uselessness of Useful Knowledge

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The Uselessness of Useful Knowledge: 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/science-has-entered-a-new-era-of-alchemy-good-20211020/

Today’s powerful but little-understood artificial intelligence breakthroughs echo past examples of unexpected scientific progress.

By Robbert Dijkgraaf, Contributing Columnist

Is artificial intelligence the new alchemy? That is, are the powerful algorithms that control so much of our lives — from internet searches to social media feeds — the modern equivalent of turning lead into gold? Moreover: Would that be such a bad thing?

According to the prominent AI researcher Ali Rahimi and others, today’s fashionable neural networks and deep learning techniques are based on a collection of tricks, topped with a good dash of optimism, rather than systematic analysis. Modern engineers, the thinking goes, assemble their codes with the same wishful thinking and misunderstanding that the ancient alchemists had then mixing their magic potions.

It’s true that we have little fundamental understanding of the inner workings of self-learning algorithms, or of the limits of their applications. These new forms of AI are very different from traditional computer codes that can be understood line by line. Instead, they operate within a black box, seemingly unknowable to humans and even to the machines themselves.

Quantized

A regular column in which top researchers explore the process of discovery. This month’s columnist, Robbert Dijkgraaf, is director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

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This discussion within the AI community has consequences for all the sciences. With deep learning impacting so many branches of current research — from drug discovery to the design of smart materials to the analysis of particle collisions — science itself may be at risk of being swallowed by a conceptual black box. It would be hard to have a computer program teach chemistry or physics classes. By deferring so much to machines, are we discarding the scientific method that has proved so successful, and reverting to the dark practices of alchemy?  ...