Deep Learning and the End of Social Science

To date, it might well be the most effective and useful algorithm -- or family of algorithms -- that humanity ever invented. Ever-improving methods for erecting models of how the world works and then testing those models against evidence make it possible to distinguish good ideas from bad. Step-by-step, humanity's understanding of the universe, the world, and itself, has grown. The Artificial Intelligence revolution, however, could well overturn how good ideas are sifted from bad and subvert science's ultimate goal of understanding. The claim that AI could undermine scientific understanding, or even make it obsolete, is far from new.