[ololobus]

I'd totally agree with this point if we assume that efficiency/performance growth will flatten at some point. For example, if it gets logarithmic soon, then the progress will grow slowly over the next decades. And then, yes, it will likely look like that current software developers, engineers, scientists, etc., just got an enormously powerful tool, which knows many languages almost perfectly and _briefly_ knows the entire internet.

Yet, if we trust all these VC-backed AI startups and assume that it will continue growing rapidly, e.g., at least linearly, over the next years, I'm afraid that it may indeed reach a superhuman _intelligence_ level (let's say p99 or maybe even p999 of the population) in most of the areas. And then why do you need this top of the notch smart-ass human biologist if you can as well buy a few racks of TPUs?

[bilbo0s]

Because only the biologist knows what assays to ask the super human intelligence for. And how the results affect the biomolecular process you want to look at.

If you can’t ask the right questions, like everyone without a phd in biology, you’re kind of out of luck. The superhuman intelligence will just spin forever trying to figure out what you’re talking about.