Terence Tao about AI

Terence Tao is an Australian-American mathematician, UCLA professor and 2006 Fields Medallist. In Big Think’s video The paradox at the heart of AI and science (embedded below), he describes science as a hike, and it’s the best explanation I’ve heard of what we risk losing when AI takes us straight to the answer: One analogy I’ve given in the past is that science is a little bit like going on a hike. You’ve heard there’s some interesting waterfall, some beautiful waterfall out there. So, you decide to go hike with some friends to find it, but you need to make a map. You get lost a little bit, but maybe while getting lost, you discover something else which is interesting, and you make a note of it. On the way to to this waterfall, you find an even more spectacular waterfall in the distance. You can’t get there yet, but maybe some future hiker will figure out a way to get there, too. And so there’s a whole process to get to your goal, which is also very valuable. But these tools, these…