""Suppose you want to do one thing that would really kneecap a country that would really mean that in 20 years' time, that country is going to be behind instead of ahead," Hinton told Stewart when pressed on why he thinks the US will lose its AI advantage. "The one thing you should do is mess with the funding of basic science, attack the research universities, remove grants for basic science in the long run. That's a complete disaster.""
""If you look at, for example, this deep learning, the AI revolution we've got now that came from many years of sustained funding for basic research, not huge amounts of money," he said. "All of the funding for the basic research for that led to deep learning probably cost less than one B-1 bomber. Wow. But it was sustained funding of basic research. If you mess with that, you are eating the seed corn.""
The U.S. currently leads China in AI but that lead is smaller than commonly assumed. Weakening long-term support for basic science and attacking research universities would substantially damage future AI competitiveness. The recent deep learning revolution emerged from years of sustained, modest basic-research funding that produced outsized returns. The cumulative cost of foundational AI research was small compared with major military expenditures like a B-1 bomber. Removing grants and undermining institutional support risks depleting the 'seed corn' of future technological breakthroughs and shifting the competitive balance over decades.
Read at Business Insider
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