[ExI] AI and Innovation

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2025, 12:38 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> What I'm really asking is, if given a problem, can they come up with a
> solution that nobody has thought of before?
>

There have been genetic algorithm to discover previously-undiscovered
answers to problems in large-possible-answer spaces.  Does that mean
smarter-than-human or more thorough?  Neither, they literally breed through
the entire keyspace, lucking into either hill-climbing to maxima or
starting near ideal solutions and finding their own feet.

Can machines generate ideal solutions to narrowly-defined problems? Yes, of
course.  Do they have enough context to make generally best 'approach'
(algorithm)?  I don't think so.   Though,  to be fair to AI, humans believe
they have found algorithmic best-case approach to problems but only because
we give up pretty effectively.   Consider 'sort' - we think we have
discovered the best ways to put things in order,  but sometimes we assume
incorrectly.  ��

>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20251230/335be57e/attachment.htm>