I came across this very excellent article (AI related) about large language models (LLMs). It provides insights into over-reactions by many as to the capabilities of computers all along, and I think this Q&A shows that what used to be considered "intelligence" has been forced to evolve by people, as humans find out that machines really aren't thinking as of yet. (But we have put together some very powerful algorithms.)
More illumination is needed on this topic, and a lot less heat. This article provides a great deal of illumination.
I like this quote: "I like to tell people that
everything an LLM says
is actually a hallucination. Some of the hallucinations just happen to be true because of the statistics of language and the way we use language." (Boldface added by me.)
And I like this quote also: "Rather than the dramatic AI narrative about what’s just happened with ChatGPT, I think it’s important to point out that
the real revolution, which passed relatively unheralded, was around the year 2000 when everything became digital. That’s the change that we’re still reckoning with. But because it happened 20 to 30 years ago, it’s something we take for granted." (Boldface added by me.)
And this too: "Handing off our decision-making to algorithms has hurt us in some ways, and we’re starting to see the results of that now with the current state of the world."
And I like this quote as well: "I think it’s fair to say that the consensus among people who study human intelligence is that there’s a much bigger gap between human and artificial intelligence, and that
the real risks we should pay attention to are not the far-off existential risks of AI agents taking over but rather
the more mundane risks of misinformation and other bad stuff showing up on the internet." (Boldface by me.)
As many here on this thread have been outspoken about, it's the enshittification of our communications and decision-making spaces that is the most imminent threat we face right now from these AIs. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have our "radar" up for more existential risks, but we got a lot on the plate right now as businesses try to apply these (my opinion) half-formed/incompletely-thought-out algorithms to current everyday culture and commerce.
Here's the URL link for the article:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article...tion-with-alison-gopnik-and-melanie-mitchell/.
