A.I. - is bigger better?

The world is rushing to build ever bigger computation ‘farms’, with little regard to sustainability, environmental costs, or even efficacy.
Is this a gold rush or just hype?

There are many SF stories about A.I. at both ends of the size scale. I sometimes miss Asimov’s quaint positronic tales from 75+ years ago. They seemed closer to the mark somehow.

1 Like

I think one of the funniest answers to this question was in When HARLIE was One, by David Gerrold. And the answer came from an AI.

2 Likes

Haven’t read it (yet), but Wikipedia tells me enough to be interested. David Gerrold includes the idea of A.I. ‘growing up’ like a person (like David Brin’s ideas), and a very early mention of a computer virus (like Gregory Benford’s ideas). I’m guessing that you can’t get to HARLIE with generative A.I.

Greg Costikyan’s The West is Red takes the idea that bigger is always better for computers, planning and organization to create a world in which the Soviet Union is succeeding and America is failing, with West Germans fleeing to the East and other reversals.