Subscribe now

Letter: AIs can still rule even if they can't add up

Published 23 October 2024

From Wade Schuette, Columbia, Missouri, US

You note that “AIs get worse on simple questions as they get bigger” and that they have trouble adding two large numbers. Remember that Henry Ford built a great automobile company not by becoming an expert, but by drawing on experts (5 October, p 14).

If AI can solve how to iteratively create a team of experts to solve a problem it faces, that is all it needs to do to address any shortcomings. It can delegate adding large numbers to a classical computer. It can use databases and classical “rules-based expert systems” to work through lists. It can write Python computer code, or hire someone who can. It can assemble a team of diverse advisers who can tell it when it is going astray. It can ask 20 people and compare their answers.

Issue no. 3514 published 26 October 2024

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop