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François Chollet on Human Adaptability and Intelligence
François Chollet on Human Adaptability and Intelligence
 ### François Chollet@fchollet
Let me explain what I mean using your chess analogy...
Imagine a world where chess doesn't exist. In this world, humanity encounters an alien species, and they say "let's play a game of Glurg, it's our traditional pastime. Here are the rules, see you tomorrow" -- and it's the rules of chess.
My claim is that following this interaction, a working group of the world's best minds, leveraging current externalized cognitive infrastructure (computers, the internet, etc.) would be able to analyze the rules and develop a working 3000 Elo chess engine within 24 hours, in time for the match. Give them an extra 3 weeks and they'd have a 3500 Elo engine that's 10x more compute efficient.
So human intelligence is already at a level where we can go from "here are the rules" to "I can play at 3000 Elo" immediately. Not optimal yet, but not too far off.Show More
#### Eliezer Yudkowsky
@allTheYud · 5h ago
On @fchollet's view (I'd summarize) the domain of real life is closer to chess than to Go, with human play already near-optimal and top machines giving only knight odds; rather than God having a 5-stone handicap, as thought to be true of Go. (He is being silly, of course.)
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Mar 29, 2026, 7:39 PM View on X
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34K Views  François Chollet @fchollet
One Sentence Summary
François Chollet argues that human intelligence, supported by modern cognitive infrastructure, can rapidly master new rule-based systems, challenging the notion of human inferiority to AI.
Summary
In response to a discussion regarding his views on human versus machine intelligence, François Chollet uses a thought experiment involving a hypothetical game 'Glurg' (which follows chess rules). He posits that humans, leveraging current cognitive tools, could analyze new rules and reach a 3000 Elo level within 24 hours. This argument highlights the adaptability of human intelligence in rule-based domains, contrasting it with the 'God-like' performance gaps often attributed to AI in games like Go.
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François Chollet
Human Intelligence
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Cognitive Infrastructure
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