Can AI invent anything that is not based on anything in nature or previous work?
I posted this a while back.
I asked bing chat: "When and how was the wheel invented?"
"The wheel was invented sometime between 3500 and 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. The first wheel was not used for transportation, but for pottery. The first wheeled vehicle was a bullock cart, followed by war chariots and four-wheeled carts of the gods. The spoke wheel was invented in around 2000 BC, which considerably reduced the weight of the wheel. The wheel may have also been invented independently in China, around 2800 BC."
Me: "Could an AI have invented the wheel?"
"It is unlikely that an AI could have invented the wheel as it is not based on anything in nature. However, AI can be used to optimize the
design of wheels."
@randulo @ct_bergstrom @emilymbender
That makes sense to me, if you undertake data collection as to how and where wheels are used, then AI can analyse that and come up with better wheels.
However that may say have been replace wooden wheel with wooden wheel with metal rim. Would that improvement have included a better axel or perhaps suspension.?
@zleap @ct_bergstrom @emilymbender But it can't look at a pottery wheel and think "damn, that go make carts roll", could it? I guess unlimited power could randomize the 3D graphic of a wheel, turn it every possible way and maybe grok that it could roll?
@randulo @ct_bergstrom @emilymbender
I have been watching salvage hunters, classic cars. Some of the people they go to, for help can make anything, they have years of exeprience, in somecases they have worked for the very car company, who they make stuff for that car, cover seating for example.
A good engineer can use their decades of experience to achieve a task, but that experience also includes knowing others that can help, So improving a wheel performance, they can do that, making a component to help restore a vehicle they can do that too. could be a door handle or a small plug thing to hold something together, the other day they scanned one in, and 3d printed a replica.
I think AI has some way to go, it is not about going and find know how it is about experience.
I had a conversation on IRC last year, where a question was asked, and I remembered reading about the 'expect' script 20 years ago, went to look at up, it was a good solution to what this person was looking for.
@zleap @ct_bergstrom @emilymbender Good point about experience AND knowing others in your network (or not).