I think we can say by now that we should not listen to the early nay-sayers and just wait a bit. With every trend, not just "AI". They still have some points (the ethics and environment etc), but the we don't hear from the Stochastic Parrot folks anymore.
Of course it's good to have the discussion... So maybe, we listen to the nay-sayers, but defer judgement on the matter... That's wisdom.
Edit, to be clear, I consider Tao to be the wisdom provider, not an early nay-sayer!
If anything he is very pro-AI and far from a naysayer. Labelling anyone who doesn't isn't Linkedin style "stoked" "excited" about AI is not helpful.
This is a technology not like prior technologies. Are we okay if the technology discourages a whole generation of Mathematicians? If the technology leads to 10x fewer mathematicians -- what impact does that have on the field? These are the questions Tao is asking. And I don't think he himself claims to have all the answers, he just doesn't wanna see the math _community_ die.
Oh, sorry, misinterpreted you! Although I am not sure I agree with your dismissal of nay-sayers. We can equally dismiss the opinions of early proponents. Perhaps maybe we should be hedging on all early opinions regardless.
Yeah agree with you, and perhaps both are even important in our public opinion forming... Recently I've been hearing people like Grant Sanderson on AI, and they are all very "wise" and informed, neither dismissive nor mindlessly (p/b)ro, but really thinking implications of this technology through. Like Tao does here. I love it, these people provide real direction.
Yann LeCun's criticisms are at least balanced with an alternative approach he has teams actively working on and showing good progress in areas LLMs are weak.
Of course it's good to have the discussion... So maybe, we listen to the nay-sayers, but defer judgement on the matter... That's wisdom.
Edit, to be clear, I consider Tao to be the wisdom provider, not an early nay-sayer!