
Jeff Dean interview: Machine learning trends in 2020 - panabee
https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/13/google-ai-chief-jeff-dean-interview-machine-learning-trends-in-2020/
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thundergolfer
The 2020 trends question is right at the end. Summary:

\- much more multitask learning and multimodal learning

\- more interesting on-device models — or sort of consumer devices, like
phones or whatever — to work more effectively.

\- AI-related principles-related work is going to be important.

\- ML for chip design

\- ML in robots

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rurban
This the first nonsense talk by Jeff Dean. AI doesn't help at all it battling
climate change, only politics do help. The models are accurate enough for
centuries, AI would only help in hard forecasting in the usual 2 weeks window
on local events. Long term on global scale there's no AI needed at all. So it
looks like he ran out of topics to entertain himself. Or he went politician.
Which would be a welcoming change.

~~~
thundergolfer
I’d agree that Jeff there is a man with only a hammer walking around telling
us that Climate Change is a nail. Engineers can’t fix everything.

Of course the engineering is important, but politics is 1000% the road block
on climate action and that is where efforts should be focused,

~~~
natalyarostova
> that is where efforts should be focused

Are all humans fungible? You don't think it's valuable to have some errant
geniuses trying to think of weird and creative ways to solve climate change
through unconvential engineering? It's not as though they'd be good
politicians.

~~~
thundergolfer
Of course yes, that's valuable. But the political focus shouldn't be lost in
the messaging. Google needs to take a political stand on Climate Change, first
and foremost. The engineering investment is secondary. We already have the
technology to solve our climate problems. We don't _need_ the fancy AI
solutions. We just need to implement what we have already _right now_.

That needs to be made abundantly clear to everybody.

If Google is asked "what are you doing to address Climate Change?" and we hear
predominantly engineering talk, then they're being disingenuous.

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Nashooo
Does anyone have tips on how a European based developer with machine learning
expertise can get involved with projects battling climate change like Jeff is
talking about here?

~~~
kot-behemoth
My current client is a sophisticated AI/ML startup/consultancy, Faculty
([https://faculty.ai](https://faculty.ai)). They have extensive experience in
a variety of areas, and do some cutting-edge stuff. If you're intested, either
ping me (email in the profile) and I can connect, or use the website.

~~~
ace32229
+1 for Faculty - very smart team

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summerlight
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05433](https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05433)

This paper seems relevant to the climate change part. This is more about what
to do rather than technologies.

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m0zg
I hope one of those trends will be fixing (or abandoning) TensorFlow, because
it's really disorganized, full of legacy and mysterious behaviors, and in some
places just plain badly engineered.

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mstokholm
Is this entire talk up on YouTube somewhere?

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narrator
Somebody tell Jeff about Jevon's Paradox, or actually don't bother.

~~~
rejschaap
Is Jevons paradox really a problem when your carbon footprint is zero?

> VentureBeat: One of the things that’s come up a lot lately, you know, in the
> question of climate change — I was talking with Intel AI general manager
> Naveen Rao recently and he mentioned this idea [that] compute-per-watt
> should become a standard benchmark, for example, and some of the organizers
> here are talking about the notion of people being required to share the
> carbon footprint of the model that they trained for submissions here.

> Dean: Yeah, we’d be thrilled with that because all the stuff we trained in
> our Google Data Center — the carbon footprint is zero.

~~~
account73466
>> all the stuff we trained in our Google Data Center — the carbon footprint
is zero

That is a lie unless Jeff Dean lives under different physics laws.

~~~
joatmon-snoo
It's a mix of (1) great work around sustainable processes and (2) nuances in
defining carbon footprint.

(disclaimer: work at G)

[https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-
sustainability.appspot.c...](https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-
sustainability.appspot.com/pdf/Google_2018-Environmental-Report.pdf)

[https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/renewable/](https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/renewable/)

~~~
account73466
Buying renewable energy does not make your footprint zero. You can twist the
definition until it suits your needs but if you properly count footprint of
the chain, it cannot be zero.

~~~
asdfasgasdgasdg
Google buys high quality carbon offsets, not just renewable energy. It's not
clear whether that makes the footprint zero. It surely depends on how you
count. But their approach is less naive than "just buy RECs."

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outside1234
Why is there never a Google talk entitled "Building profiles on people with
Machine Learning?"

~~~
option
Because you don’t disclose your core business practices at conferences

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symplee
Unrelated, but for those who have never seen the Jeff Dean facts, behold:
[https://www.quora.com/What-are-all-the-Jeff-Dean-
facts](https://www.quora.com/What-are-all-the-Jeff-Dean-facts)

Some highlights include:

-Jeff Dean's PIN is the last 4 digits of pi.

-He once shifted a bit so hard it ended up on another computer.

-He wrote an O(n^2) algorithm once. It was for the Traveling Salesman Problem.

-Jeff Dean once implemented a web server in a single printf() call. Other engineers added thousands of lines of explanatory comments but still don't understand exactly how it works. Today that program is known as GWS.

-There is no 'Ctrl' key on Jeff Dean's keyboard. Jeff Dean is always in control.

-Jeff Dean's watch displays seconds since January 1st, 1970. He is never late.

-Jeff's code is so fast the assembly code needs three HALT opcodes to stop it.

~~~
Keloo
\- After Graham Bell invented the phone he had a missed call from Jeff Dean

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GrryDucape
I don't like the idea of a computer that can think for itself, I don't like
the idea of computers will replace humans jobs, I don't like the way we are
heading.

~~~
cookie_monsta
I wouldn't like the way it was heading either if Netflix could manage to
recommend a movie that I might actually like. As is, I'm not that worried.

~~~
a_imho
Hype does not care about whether it works as advertised on the tin. As long as
it generates money you will be served _buzzword_ whether you like it or not
and you will pay for it. If lucky, the setback will only be financial.

