Goalposts

Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?

2025 MayAIPedant

About what it would take to convince a skeptic that machines are intelligent.

I will not be convinced a machine demonstrates intelligence until someone demonstrates a robot that can navigate 3D space as intelligently as, say, a cockroach. AFAICT we are still many years away from this, probably decades. A bunch of human language knowledge and brittle heuristics doesn't convince me at all.

This ad hominem is really irritating. People have complained since Alan Turing that AI research ignores simpler intelligence, instead trying to bedazzle people with fancy tricks that convey the illusion of human intelligence. Still true today: lots of talk about o3's (exaggerated) ability to do fancy math, little talk about its appallingly bad general quantitative reasoning. The idea of "jagged AI" is unscientific horseshit designed to sweep this stuff under the rug.

A robot navigates 3D space as intelligently as a cockroach.

Has this happened?

Yes 51 (32%)Not sure 59 (37%)No 51 (32%)

Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.