this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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Futurology

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[–] zifk 26 points 8 months ago (4 children)

No part of this article involves AI making independent discoveries. The researchers used ML to map muscle contractions to wing motion.

It's interesting, but a far stretch from what OP wrote for the title.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They also built a robotic insect wing to test it, so it seems robotics should get at least as much “credit” as AI. You know, inasmuch as it makes any sense to “credit” a tool used by people for a discovery.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Where's the love for massive datasets in painfully slow excel workbooks?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And researchers have been ml to analyze data for decades now. It's not a remotely new thing and I think they're purposefully being vague to try and trick people into thinking an LLM did this because it's the big AI buzzword right now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Yep. This is yet more “AI will cure cancer” hype

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

No part of this article involves AI making independent discoveries.

My reading of this is the opposite.

Although there were competing hypothesis, nobody knew how insect wing hinge mechanisms worked. Now they do, and the fundamental insight was provided via AI.

I think this is both a fundamental discovery, and one we can attribute to the AI, more than the humans involved.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The “insight” provided is useless theory without testing or humans checking it over, so why not credit robotics with this discovery instead of/in addition to AI if you’re hellbent on removing people from the process?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Yeah, don't anthropomorphize computers, they hate that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Ah so it looks like “independent ai discoveries” in research might be the new “no cgi/special effects” in films, like just acknowledge all the people who worked day and night to make the end result, it doesn’t detract from the final result if it was a group effort.

I’m thinking OP clearly didn’t read/understand the article or it’s deliberately sensationalising the paper, yet weirdly simultaneously denigrating it as basic science.