OpenAI research lead Noam Brown thinks AI ‘reasoning’ models could’ve arrived decades ago

Noam Brown, who leads AI reasoning research at OpenAI, says “reasoning” AI models like OpenAI’s o1 could’ve arrived 20 years earlier had researchers “known [the right] approach” and algorithms. “There were various reasons why this research direction was neglected,” Brown said during a panel at Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose on Wednesday. “I noticed over the course of my research that, OK, there’s something missing. Humans spend a lot of time thinking before they act in a tough situation. Maybe this would be very useful [in AI].” Brown is one of the principal architects behind o1, an AI model that employs a technique called test-time inference to “think” before it responds to queries. Test-time inference entails applying additional computing to running models to drive a form of “reasoning.” In general, so-called reasoning models are more accurate and reliable than traditional models, particularly in domains like mathematics and science. Brown stressed, however, that pre-training ... Read full article.