_why_ have people started to call companies “labs”?!

reverius42 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Because making new AI models is a research activity, so the group within Nvidia (or other companies) that does that activity is called a research lab, or just "lab" for short. I don't think anyone is saying that all of Nvidia is a lab (that's just shorthand I guess).

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hnlmorg 3 hours ago | parent [-]

What amuses me is that “lab” is shorthand for “laboratory” and virtually no computer research happens inside a room people would typically call a lab.

It’s a little like the trend of calling developers “engineers”. There’s no actual engineering in the traditional sense but I’m sure developers think it sounds cool to call themselves that.

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alex-robbins 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If you can't tell the difference between computer science and software engineering, then at least one of those worlds contains none of your feet.

	▲	hnlmorg 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That’s not what I said and the snarky remark about my experience is unwarranted (I have more experience in “software engineering” than many on here have been alive) My point was just that I just find it amusing that people call themselves engineers when the code they produce is so far removed from the level of rigour one would expect in literally any other engineering industry. I say this as someone who also has family and friends who are actual engineers, if they built bridges and buildings to the same standards that many developers write code, then people would die. This isn’t meant as a criticism of developers, by the way. Just an observation at the vast differences in the domains and thus the tolerance for errors in the process. Likewise for labs. I’ve worked in AI startups and the science departments are not something one would think of when you say “laboratory”. I get why the term is used, but it’s still amusing. I know language isn’t static. It’s something that evolves, like how a “computer” used to refer to a person rather than a thing, but that doesn’t stop me from being amused. But maybe the real issue here is I take myself less seriously than others so I have that capacity to be amused by the titles I’ve held?

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dgellow 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because they are mostly research departments (aka a lab) turned into a corp structure. It’s not a new phenomenon, just that until recently labs didn’t get $1T valuations so you see it more now

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teiferer 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Because it sounds cool/sciency.

Just like everything AI is a "model". It's actually not, but it sounds cool/sciency.

	▲	polnoner an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Exactly. Adam Neumann figured this out with WeWork Labs. It sounds cool because people in our age are almost obsessed with scientistic performance. At least AI labs are actually doing experiments.