The Thinking Game Film – Google DeepMind Documentary
19 comments
·November 30, 2025incognito124
mattlondon
The chatbots and image editors are just a side-show. The real value is coming in e.g. chemistry (Alpha fold etc all), fusion research, weather prediction etc.
jeffbee
DeepMind's new weather forecast model is similar in architecture to the toys that generate videos of horses addressing Congress or cats wearing sombreros. The technology moves forward and while some of the new applications are not important, other applications of the same technology may be important.
dwarfpagent
I find it funny that the YouTube link takes you to the film, but like an hour into it.
ChrisArchitect
Streaming on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQ
ChrisArchitect
Hard to discount the impact of AlphaFold in science work but submitting this to a number of film festivals like Tribeca seems a bit AI-washing.
DrierCycle
AlphaFold is optimization, not thinking. Propaganda 'r us.
fredoliveira
Did you watch the documentary? Would probably fare better if you did, because it'd give you the context for the film title.
DrierCycle
I'm an hour into it, unconvinced.
The illusion that agency 'emerges' from rules like games, is fundamentally absurd.
This is the foundational illusion of mechanics. It's UFOlogy not science.
fredoliveira
Well, two things: it's the last sentence of the film; being on hour into something you're calling propaganda is brave.
Anyways. I thought the documentary was inspiring. Deepmind are the only lab that has historically prioritized science over consumer-facing product (that's changing now, however). I think their work with AlphaFold is commendable.
MattRix
Is there a fundamental difference between it and true agency/thought? I’m not so sure.
dwa3592
what is thinking?
DrierCycle
Sharp wave ripples, nested oscillations, cohering at action-syntax. The brain is "about actions" and lacks representations.
__patchbit__
Creatively peeling the hyper dimensional space in the scope of simplectic geometry, markhov blanket and helmholtz invariance????
Watched it a while ago. Made me seriously think about AI and what we should use it for. I feel like all the entertainment use cases (image and video gen) are a complete waste.