It makes sense that professional sports would serve as a recurring motif when discussing the goings-on in AI at the moment. If you squint, the sector’s “race toward AGI”—short for artificial general intelligence, which refers to the attainment of true human-level-or-smarter capabilities—isn’t structured all too differently from the journeys teams make to jockey for a Super Bowl or a Formula One title.
So many colorful, obstinate personalities and idiosyncratic infrastructures to manage! Everyone always talking about chips! Such temperamental swings between swagger and doom! (James and Ohtani may not have personally threatened to destroy livelihoods/fully upend society just yet, but there’s still plenty of time.)
The various companies operating on the frontier of AI research can feel like pro sports franchises sometimes, with their unique strengths and absurd failings and their staffers who have known (and/or despised) one another for the better part of a lifetime, AAU-ball style.