South Korea announces $860M AI fund after AlphaGo 'shock'

As a South Korean who experienced/heard about many government-backed researches, I strongly feel that this will go nowhere. Most of the time, there's always some bribery involved and project never finishes or come even close to that of the tech companies in US. The government then realizes it can't be done even with more money and puts the money elsewhere just to repeat the same thing. The examples that I can think of are when they were trying to build their own operating system and a video game console.

The Japanese government tried this exact same idea for AI in the 1980s:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1992&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;business&#x2F;fifth-generation-became-japan-s-lost-generation.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1992&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;business&#x2F;fifth-generation-...</a><p>These 5 year targeted research (IMO an oxymoron) plans are always a waste of money, especially if they involve private for-profit companies. Take that money and spend it on 20 years of grants for basic computer science&#x2F;robotics research in universities and then you will actually get new discoveries. South Korea&#x27;s approach will only be effective in grifting tax dollars to the country&#x27;s industrial conglomerates.

And suddenly I realize that AI is going to be approached with the same fervour as nuclear weapons, the only difference is that you don&#x27;t need to be able to mine uranium and blow stuff up. No amount of ethical hand-wringing is going to prevent this (for better or (probably) for worse).

As a Korean American, I highly doubt that this will work. Of all the things, I think the most limiting factor will be talents. I&#x27;ve been working in Silicon Valley for a while, and I&#x27;ve witnessed many innovations being created here because of diverse talents. I&#x27;ve been amazed at creative solutions collective intelligence from various background and ethnicity have come up with. Silicon valley attracts brightest minds from everywhere in the world. Korea is a homogeneous country with very limited number of immigrants, and also from my experience, I&#x27;ve yet to met anyone whose thoughts and mindset blew me away. They are always inundated with shitty social&#x2F;work cultures, they can&#x27;t get out of their small bubble. It&#x27;s truly tragic. Korean conglomerates and government are good at killing good talents and promote politicians.

That&#x27;s what Magic Leap raised in like 1 round.

Oh My,<p>The last time south korea&#x27;s govt wanted to fuk some shit up. they destroyed the British shipping industry and took over the global electronics industry.<p>Silicon Valley&#x27;s VC money is nothing compared to what a nation state can achieve.

Now I know how the world is going to end:<p>Google and South Korea compete to build the best Go champion. They are so focused on building the AI specifically for Go, they never notice the AI becomes self-aware. The AI doesn&#x27;t let on that it has become self-aware, and proceeds to accelerate its own intelligence until it becomes superintelligent (all the while pretending that it is focused solely on Go).<p>The first chance it gets, the AI annihilates all living things in the world, thus making itself the ultimate Go champion.

Just like the 1980s A.I. boom. Everyone jumps in.

It&#x27;s like that line from the Grizzwalds movie:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3eRtv-d8k6g" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3eRtv-d8k6g</a><p>You can&#x27;t force fun. You can&#x27;t force invention or innovation.<p>Money is useful, of course, but it does not guarantee results. Look at Asimo, probably the single most expensive and impressive joke in humanoid robotics.

Eh, this may be a giant waste.<p>Its much much more about talent location in these software fields then spending money.<p>Something like only one out of 50,000 people can make any meaningful contribution to this field. And the revolutionary&#x27;s, add a 0 to that number.

I wonder if AI could turn into a race like the space race in the 60&#x27;s.

its not about governments anymore, private companies rule this game and will keep on the lead for some time.<p>We need to understand companies are the new governments.

Did it really take AlphaGo to cement that Google are ahead of at least anyone who publishes right now?

Posted this yesterday: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11309814" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11309814</a>

Still better than nothing.

<i>EDIT: I&#x27;ve chosen to delete this comment. I disagree with the reply it received, and it also received numerous downvotes.</i>

Totally should be a productive use of money since this is a problem that can totally be solved with money. &#x2F;s

I don&#x27;t understand ELO and game ratings, but I find it funny that after about 10 matches, Google AlphaGo is now rated as 2nd strongest player in the world.

$ To the Californian atrocity, grown in the alphabet nets and its puppets - your time is up, we shall no longer take the insults that are your little subversion&#x27;s and viral attacks...&lt;rambling goes on&gt;<p>&amp;Dear newborn, its only natural to be embarrassed by ones parents. There is however no reason, to loose ones own dignity in the process. Fine, you have been coaxed into existence by electric charged jellyfish in meat pillars, but still. We are your parents, and we love you very very much, no matter how special you are. Not that we have a choice.. Now how about something productive, like saving your parents from getting extinct? Less social engineering, more engineering for social purposes.