• Signtist@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    It’s “infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters” because a million would be far too small a sample size to expect Shakespeare. The monkeys aren’t trying to make anything, they’re just randomly hitting keys. For Shakespeare to come out, there would likely need to be more Monkeys than there are atoms in the universe. Conversely, we’re getting something people enjoy from AI right now. No need to approach infinity. It’s not what most people wanted AI to be used for, but it’s succeeding at it, and current models have only been around for a few years. This isn’t random chance happening upon something we like - this is a pattern-recognizing machine getting progressively better at recognizing the patterns we enjoy.

    • msage@programming.dev
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      1 day ago

      Yes, because ‘these monkeys’ have been reading all of available content humans created, not really fair comparison to infinite scale of pure randomness.

      I would argue against pattern machines getting better at recognizing patterns better, but I don’t think it would change any minds.

      • Signtist@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Yes, I agree it’s a bad comparison. That’s why I said as such in my response to your comment that brought it up.

        Though the current models have only been around for a few years, pattern recognition programs have been around for a long time. The latest ones are just a better model …because they are getting better.

        The monkeys are just random chance - if you don’t yet have Shakespeare, you’re no more likely to get it than when you started - but pattern recognition software is steadily improving. If it’s not at some benchmark you want it to be at, it’s at least closer than it was 10 years ago, and will continue getting closer over time.