Sutton pushes back on Bitter Lesson misuse: brute force alone won't yield intelligence
anshulkundaje · x · 2026-11-08
Richard Sutton himself responded to criticism of how "the Bitter Lesson" is applied: brute-force computation alone isn't enough for intelligence — clever new methods are still needed, and the science of AI is far from finished.
Researcher Jayden Teoh argued in a thread that invoking the Bitter Lesson routinely stifles academic research: promising ideas get dismissed as "not bitter lesson–pilled," a misreading of Sutton's original message. Research is circumstantial — ideas that look suboptimal in hindsight were often exactly what enabled progress at the time, and the community shouldn't dismiss them in the moment. Sutton's reply signals that scaling and methodological innovation aren't in conflict.
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