> Still, it’s impossible for me to shake the feeling that [Gary Marcus] just likes to hear himself talk and doesn’t want to see progress in AI.
He says he wants to see progress in AI. He wants people to get their heads out of the neural network cul-de-sac and use other tools, too. His quote:
"Imagine a world in which iron makers shouted “iron,” and carbon lovers shouted “carbon,” and nobody ever thought to combine the two [to make steel]; that’s much of what the history of modern artificial intelligence is like." [1]
An adjustment will happen when the limitations of these purely statistical methods play out and burn a few self-driving car investors. Unfortunately, it will also probably taint the entire field of AI and start another AI winter for a decade or so.
[1] https://nautil.us/deep-learning-is-hitting-a-wall-238440/