Ask HN: Can anyone name anything new that AI has done?
We're two years into the current AI wave, and I'm still looking for something that an AI did entirely by itself that is genuinely new. Everything I've seen so far still involves a human identifying the new thing, or the model is just aggregating existing data from disconnected sources that were never tied together. I plan to keep asking this every month until someone wows me or the topic dies at a societal level.
https://github.com/openai/math among many others
It created a novel form of psychosis.
Yep, it is all over. Nihil novi and all that. It it is totally pointless. No sane person uses AI. Can you step a little closer over there? Don't worry. It is totally not a trap.
That's AI for ya. What you are seemingly looking for is AGI and that we do not yet have.
- rpdillon
I think it makes sense to start the discussion by identifying something that a human has done that is "actually new", and then we can use that as an anchor to discuss things that AI has accomplished. If we don't set the framing around the question before we start discussing it, I'm afraid the goalposts will be moving all over the place.
- simonw
Can you provide a completely made up example of something that would fit your definition of something that "is actually new" here?
I'm finding this question difficult to answer without a concrete example of what would pass the bar.
- scosman
https://github.com/openai/math among many others
- rockostrich
> the model is just aggregating data that is already there from disconnected sources that never got tied together.
Ignoring if it can do anything "new" by itself, is it not worth it as a tool if it can turn hours of work that a human would normally have to do synchronously into an async session done in minutes?
There's plenty of valid criticisms for the uses of LLMs, but you pointed out an unbelievably useful case for the tool that you're trying to question.
- petercooper
"Actually new" seems worth defining. What is an example of something (even human created) that is "actually new" and does not have any origin in "data" (in the most general sense, like one's memories or knowledge) being aggregated in some way?