When does the Singularity begin? Many experts refer to the moment of the Singularity as the time when machines start to improve themselves. So far, only science fiction, but Google’s Deepmind team is working on exactly that with AlphaCode.
According to a recent blog post, the team at Alphabet’s Deepmind lab has reached a whole new level of coding. With their artificial intelligence, they are said to have managed to bring critical thinking and logic to the AI-powered programming process. To prove this, the article continues, Alphabet had their AI compete in programming competitions to solve problems.
“I can safely say the results of AlphaCode exceeded my expectations. I was sceptical because even in simple competitive problems it is often required not only to implement the algorithm, but also (and this is the most difficult part) to invent it. AlphaCode managed to perform at the level of a promising new competitor. I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!” – Mike Mirzayanov, Founder Codeforces
AlphaCode showed a very precise way of solving problems and demonstrated approaches of “critical thinking”. In total, the artificial intelligence competed in ten contests and automatically generated codes for the problems of Wagglecollide, Angularnumeric and Selectorunlimited.
The software did not beat the participating programmers, but at least reached the midfield. In doing so, it accomplished something previously unheard of; it created an independent solution approach based solely on a problem statement.
Despite all this, Deepmind’s study is also critical, because they too see the dangers of an AI that writes code and could thus improve itself. What do you think? Is it a great help if machines start optimizing their code themselves or rather a danger?
