In 1997, machines defeated a World Chess Champion for the first time, using brute-force "dumb search." Critics noted that while "dumb search" worked for chess, it might not necessarily be a general strategy applicable to other cognitive tasks.[a]
In 2016, machines defeated a World Go Champion for the first time, using a clever form of "dumb search" that leverages compute, DNNs, reinforcement learning (RL), and self-play. Critics noted that while this fancy form of "dumb search" worked for Go, it might not necessarily be a general strategy applicable to other cognitive tasks.[a]
In 2024, machines solved insanely hard math problems at the Silver Medal level in an International Math Olympiad for the first time, using a clever form of "dumb search" that leverages compute, DNNs, RL, and a formal language. Perhaps "dumb search" over cleverly pruned spaces isn't as dumb as the critics would like it to be?
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[a] http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html
In 2016, machines defeated a World Go Champion for the first time, using a clever form of "dumb search" that leverages compute, DNNs, reinforcement learning (RL), and self-play. Critics noted that while this fancy form of "dumb search" worked for Go, it might not necessarily be a general strategy applicable to other cognitive tasks.[a]
In 2024, machines solved insanely hard math problems at the Silver Medal level in an International Math Olympiad for the first time, using a clever form of "dumb search" that leverages compute, DNNs, RL, and a formal language. Perhaps "dumb search" over cleverly pruned spaces isn't as dumb as the critics would like it to be?
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[a] http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html