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> It is always easier to troll and derail than it is to employ such techniques for good. Curious-- what possible good comes with the ability to generate gramma
by jstarfish 8y ago
> It is always easier to troll and derail than it is to employ such techniques for good.
Curious-- what possible good comes with the ability to generate grammatically correct text devoid of actual meaning?
Sure, you could generate an arbitrary essay, but it's less an essay about anything and more just an arrangement of words that happen to statistically relate to each other. Markov chains already do this and while the output looks technically correct, you're not going to learn or interpret anything from it.
Same goes with things like autocomplete. You could generate an entire passage just accepting its suggestions. It would pass a grammar test but doesn't mean anything.
Chatbots are an obvious application, but how is that "good," or any different than the Harlow experiment performed on humans? Fooling people into developing social relationships with an algorithm (however short or trivial) is cruel and unethical beyond belief.
A photoshopped image might be pleasant or stimulating to look at, and does have known problems in terms of normalizing a fictitious reality. But fake text? What non-malicious use can there possibly be?
- dannyw 8y agoWe incubate harmful viruses and bacteria so we can learn how they work, experiment, and test them. Having the output of the full model could allow analysis of structural weaknesses, or the building of GANs to detect fake text. The technology is obviously going to go out there, why give well funded actors (nation states, troll farms) a head start, instead of giving everyone (researchers, hobbyists) an opportunity to prevent it?
- princeofwands 8y agoCurrent application: Better character - and token completion helps make it easier for people with physical disabilities to interact with computers. http://www.inference.org.uk/djw30/papers/uist2000.pdf http://www.inference.org.uk/djw30/papers/uist2000.pdf (pdf) Research progress: Better compression measures the progress to general intelligence. http://mattmahoney.net/dc/rationale.html http://mattmahoney.net/dc/rationale.html Future application: Meaningful completion of questions, leading to personalized learning material for students all over the world. If only there was an OpenQuora.