Manifold Letter from Reykjavik: Genomics, Chess, Hyperscaling genAI, and Quantum Black Holes — #67
Aug 29, 2024
Bobby Fischer, the legendary chess player, leaves a lasting legacy as the podcast explores his influence on the game and its connection to scientific pursuits. Reflect on the innovative work at deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik and how it reshapes big data genomics. Delve into the intersection of chess and AI, discussing the challenges of scaling models and the limits of current architectures. The conversation also touches on the quest for artificial general intelligence, highlighting the intriguing interplay between science and intellectual disciplines.
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Chess and Physics
- Steve Hsu recounts his childhood experience with chess, sparked by Bobby Fischer's 1972 victory.
- He ultimately chose physics over chess, finding its intellectual return unbounded.
Jonathan Yedidia's Path
- Hsu discusses his friend Jonathan Yedidia, a physicist and chess player who believed chess deserved university departments.
- Yedidia briefly pursued chess professionally before transitioning to AI research.
Hyperscaling in AI
- Hyperscaling in AI involves increasing compute, model size, and training data to improve model performance.
- Companies are investing billions, and scaling laws suggest a need for significantly more data.