Attendees: JMM, Kris Stern, Alyssa, Rajiv, Yiming, Mukul Kumar, Sonali Rajput, Harsh Pratap Singh, Ashutosh Saxena
Agenda & Note:
- Mukul asks: Next steps in the selection process?
- Currently all mentors have given a grade of 1 to 5 to each proposal.
- We are trying to gauge which are the top proposals for each project statistics-wise and rank them.
- Goal is to come up with two top proposals per mentoring team.
- Next week we will consolidate all grades and shortlisted proposals, with rankings submitted to Google next week.
- Google will come back with a list of supported projects to Jenkins after 1 week.
- On May 4th, 2023 at 18:00 UTC, Google will announce the selected projects.
- Side notes: We have a huge number of proposals submitted this year. Some good, some bad. We will not be able to support some good proposals because of manpower issues. It does not mean rejected proposals are bad.
- JMM is open to give advice to those whose proposals will not be selected to continue contributing in the community, and a meeting will be arranged for this purpose.
- To those who are selected we will start the Bonding Period immediately after Google’s results announcements.
- Lead mentors will be guiding the contributors starting from the Bonding Period, which will last about 4 weeks. Every project will decide on a set of deliverables, before the actual coding / actual work will start.
- Reminder: Special GSoC Office Hour next next week on Friday, May 5th, 2023.
- Mukul asks: How are the proposals being graded?
- Seeing the amount of proposals, with over 60 submitted, each project is graded by at least 3 mentors, so that we have at least 3 valid grades for each proposal. Many proposals have 4 to 5 evaluations.
- We carry out the grading tasks “with a lot of heart” (in JMM’s words)
- Sonali asks: How do you (JMM) think all these AI assistive technologies (autonomous agents) will impact society?
- JMM gave some personal opinions on the matter…
- It will become something interesting and exciting while at the same time causing a lot of time, hence should be introduced gradually and carefully.
- You (the contributors) are the generation to seriously consider this question.
- Sonali adds: A book on AGI which discusses four possible scenarios where such technologies will evolve with different impacts unfold.
- JMM gave the comparison to nuclear power.
- Corporations may have short-sighted objectives to steer the direction of the development of such technologies.
- Is a great topic to discuss.
- Alyssa completely / 110% agrees with JMM, but adds that we have the responsibility to use these new technologies with regard to the consequences.
- Mukul adds speculations about the future of AGI, which could be dangerous to humanity.
- JMM agrees, and calls for the younger generations to learn and build things in a responsible way.
- We are not here to execute an order from some entities from higher up, so we have the mission to understand ourselves, think about the consequences, and act slowly instead of rushing into things.