Discovery Loop - Hacker News

Posted by xtreak29 10 hours ago

Discovery Loop(www.discoveryloop.com)

590 points | 380 commentspage 7

omederos 6 hours ago||

What a team.

xnx 9 hours ago||

I've seen tiny tiny hints from the outside that Jeff Dean was dealing with too much internal BS. Two examples that come to mind: Having to deal with Timnit Gebru fiasco, and even chips in the TPU series getting marketing names (Trillium and Ironwood) before switching back to more standard numbering.

compiler-guy 9 hours ago|

I have no doubt that internal Google friction is one of the reasons they are moving. But the Gebru incident was almost seven years ago now. It is very unlikely to be a proximate cause.

I doubt numbering vs names on TPU releases even crosses Jeff's radar. It's not the kind of thing he cares about.

xnx 6 hours ago||

Yes. I'm not privy to any real insider gossip, but I read all his tweets and watch all his public speeches. He made an offhand comment about the TPU naming. I probably overinterpreted that, but I took it as a sign. There should have been a team around Jeff Dean that acted as an absolute shield for any BS. If Jeff disagrees with anyone at Google outside Sundar/Sergey, the strong onus should be on the other person to justify their stance.

1970-01-01 9 hours ago||

I'm skeptical of any Engineering loop that doesn't include reality (as in touch grass) feedback. Pure logic and reasoning is the domain of Maths and Science (philosophy). Surely it will work, but it will not "be able to solve any learning loop".

LarsDu88 8 hours ago||

I'm almost certain the goal of this startup is to make physical automated research labs guided by RL

XenophileJKO 9 hours ago||

How is that different than video input?

1970-01-01 9 hours ago||

There are over 2 dozen known senses to reality. Video input is a fraction of a sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense#Artificial_sensation_and...

numbers_guy 9 hours ago||

When they say experiments, do they mean using physics simulators?

danielmarkbruce 8 hours ago|

in AI/ML, no. They are just going to automate AI/ML research to start with. Totally doable.

For some of the other things, undoubtably yes.

searine 9 hours ago||

Computation is not the hard part of discovery.

cwoolfe 8 hours ago||

"The speed of light in a vacuum used to be about 35 mph. Then Jeff Dean spent a weekend optimizing physics."

bezko 9 hours ago||

So Ralph Wiggum in a suit?

sidcool 9 hours ago||

I am available for hire.

AIorNot 8 hours ago|

Another way to see this is: a bunch of renowned google engineers realized they can grab some of the VC pie for themselves

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/the-startup-idea-that-convince...

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