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Michael Jordan gave a very interesting interview on big data, singularity, Turing test, P=NP, and artificial intelligence. Yann LeCun's reaction: "Michael Jordan, like some of us, has strong opinions about certain things."

Below I summarize what seem to be the main points made by Michael Jordan (item 7 is my favorite):

  1. We don’t know how neurons learn.
  2. Neurons in artificial neural networks do not mimic real neurons: "Anyone in electrical engineering would recognize those kinds of nonlinear systems. Calling that a neuron is clearly, at best, a shorthand. It’s really a cartoon."
  3. The number of hypothesis is enormous. Thus, a multiple comparison/testing problem can be really an issue in large-scale data mining.
  4. He predicts a " ... big-data winter. After a bubble, when people invested and a lot of companies over-promised without providing serious analysis, it will bust. "
  5. Solving the problems will take decades during which we will improve steadily. Yet, there has not been a significant technological breakthrough made.
  6. "Despite recent claims to the contrary, we are no further along with computer vision than we were with physics when Isaac Newton sat under his apple tree."
  7. If I had an unrestricted $1 billion grant, I would work on natural language processing.
  8. Singularity is not an academic discipline.
  9. On the Turing test: "there will be a slow accumulation of capabilities, including in domains like speech and vision and natural language. " In that, the Turing test does not seem to be "... a very clear demarcation."