I loved his critique of the recent hyperventilation about AI taking over the world--
"I don't work on preventing AI from turning evil for the same reason that I don't work on combating overpopulation on the planet Mars."
As he points out later in the interview, much of the recent gains have been due to a great increase in data and computational power. The history of AI is replete with incredibly overoptimistic predictions of achieving Strong AI. Andrew's focus on the current, important problems of the field bodes well for the future of Baidu's AI work.
"I don't work on preventing AI from turning evil for the same reason that I don't work on combating overpopulation on the planet Mars."
As he points out later in the interview, much of the recent gains have been due to a great increase in data and computational power. The history of AI is replete with incredibly overoptimistic predictions of achieving Strong AI. Andrew's focus on the current, important problems of the field bodes well for the future of Baidu's AI work.