Article by Ethan Siegel: “Why do machines learn? Even in the recent past, this would have been a ridiculous question, as machines — i.e., computers — were only capable of executing whatever instructions a human programmer had programmed into them. With the rise of generative AI, or artificial intelligence, however, machines truly appear to be gifted with the ability to learn, refining their answers based on continued interactions with both human and non-human users. Large language model-based artificial intelligence programs, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and more, are now so widespread that they’re replacing traditional tools, including Google searches, in applications all across the world.
How did this come to be? How did we so swiftly come to live in an era where many of us are happy to turn over aspects of our lives that traditionally needed a human expert to a computer program? From financial to medical decisions, from quantum systems to protein folding, and from sorting data to finding signals in a sea of noise, many programs that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are far superior at these tasks compared with even the greatest human experts.
In his new book, Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy explores all of these aspects and more. I was fortunate enough to get to do a question-and-answer interview with him, and here are the 10 most profound responses he was generous enough to give….(More)”