5 ms·

I wonder if Blake lemoine is little embarrassed he got fired and contacted journos because he got catfished by some linear algebra.

formerly_proven 4y ago
No problem, there's a doctor built into emacs that'll make him feel better.
aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
He got his 15min of fame.
MWil 4y ago
This is just my opinion based on reviewing his past but I think not only is he not embarrassed but he's either 1) mentally incapable of recognizing what controversial terms of art mean or 2) he's after a payday ala some persecution complex The bigger story that I haven't really seen someone do an expose on (and not sure that it needs to be done other than to deter people like him if it is revealed to be the case) is that he did it on religious grounds as a sort of "conscientious objector" to the treatment of a sentient AI This is his SECOND stint with that term of art and he clearly does not understand it. The military jailed him for attempting to invoke that term when it did not apply to him - and as far as I can tell, they were well within their military justice system to do it. He either doesn't understand what "sentience" is or he doesn't understand what "conscientious objectors" are, or both.
- warning26 4y ago
  Eh, if you look at his history he's always been a bit of a kook, and this latest outburst appears in line with his prior behavior. I think he genuinely believes what he's saying, even if it's complete drivel.
  - deadbeeves 4y ago
    I think that worse than he believes it, he wants it to be true.
    - googlryas 4y ago
      The "I'm not making this claim as an engineer, I'm making this claim as a priest" was especially hilarious. As if being a priest gives you any kind of special insight into what is sentient and what isn't. Kind of confusing considering for hundreds of years priests in his religion were convinced that blacks and native Americans weren't sentient.
      - deadbeeves 4y ago
        That was very weird. I honestly didn't understand what he intended that to provoke. If anything it makes me doubt a claim more if it comes from a priest than from an engineer. Surely he should have known that.
        hnfong 4y ago
        An engineer is a profession that deals with things that (probably) don't have souls. A priest is a profession that deals with souls (allegedly, depending on your religious convictions). Lemoine is essentially claiming the neural network has a soul. Being a priest is a proper credential for that, even if you don't believe in priestly stuffs. IMHO, I wouldn't trust any engineer to lecture me about whether some AI has a soul. Not that I'd trust a random self-proclaimed priest, but that's another matter.
      - lupire 4y ago
        What religion do you think Lemoine holds? Lemoine has identified as a pagan and as a mystic Christian.
        GalahiSimtam 4y ago
        Think of a religion named like a chat software.
kernal 4y ago
>I wonder if Blake lemoine is little embarrassed he got fired Google should be embarrassed for hiring this person. Their hiring standards have deteriorated considerably.
- simonh 4y ago
  I don't think it's that easy. Even people who are highly intelligent, capable, and competent in many different ways can still hold one or two really weird outlier beliefs. Unless you ask them about those specific things, you really won't always be able to tell.
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    It's not just the outlier beliefs about sentience though, the man clearly did not understand how these models work. There's parts of the conversation where he seems to think he has taught the system 'transcendental meditation', which is nonsensical given that these transformer models don't learn interactively through individual conversation but are trained on sets of data, and they don't do anything unless you query them. It's not like Lambda sits around and ponders the nature of the universe when you're not talking to it.
    - toomanydoubts 4y ago
      >It's not like Lambda sits around and ponders the nature of the universe when you're not talking to it. But can we really be sure of that? We don't know much about the technology itself. What if google is ticking the model at a given framerate allowing the neural network to continuously "think"?
      - Jensson 4y ago
        It is a pure function, it has no memory or even short term state to think. Thinking implies you have some mental state that can change, these neural nets doesn't have that.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

formerly_proven 4y ago

No problem, there's a doctor built into emacs that'll make him feel better.

aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago

He got his 15min of fame.

MWil 4y ago

This is just my opinion based on reviewing his past but I think not only is he not embarrassed but he's either 1) mentally incapable of recognizing what controversial terms of art mean or 2) he's after a payday ala some persecution complex The bigger story that I haven't really seen someone do an expose on (and not sure that it needs to be done other than to deter people like him if it is revealed to be the case) is that he did it on religious grounds as a sort of "conscientious objector" to the treatment of a sentient AI This is his SECOND stint with that term of art and he clearly does not understand it. The military jailed him for attempting to invoke that term when it did not apply to him - and as far as I can tell, they were well within their military justice system to do it. He either doesn't understand what "sentience" is or he doesn't understand what "conscientious objectors" are, or both.

warning26 4y ago
Eh, if you look at his history he's always been a bit of a kook, and this latest outburst appears in line with his prior behavior. I think he genuinely believes what he's saying, even if it's complete drivel.
- deadbeeves 4y ago
  I think that worse than he believes it, he wants it to be true.
  - googlryas 4y ago
    The "I'm not making this claim as an engineer, I'm making this claim as a priest" was especially hilarious. As if being a priest gives you any kind of special insight into what is sentient and what isn't. Kind of confusing considering for hundreds of years priests in his religion were convinced that blacks and native Americans weren't sentient.
    - deadbeeves 4y ago
      That was very weird. I honestly didn't understand what he intended that to provoke. If anything it makes me doubt a claim more if it comes from a priest than from an engineer. Surely he should have known that.
      - hnfong 4y ago
        An engineer is a profession that deals with things that (probably) don't have souls. A priest is a profession that deals with souls (allegedly, depending on your religious convictions). Lemoine is essentially claiming the neural network has a soul. Being a priest is a proper credential for that, even if you don't believe in priestly stuffs. IMHO, I wouldn't trust any engineer to lecture me about whether some AI has a soul. Not that I'd trust a random self-proclaimed priest, but that's another matter.
    - lupire 4y ago
      What religion do you think Lemoine holds? Lemoine has identified as a pagan and as a mystic Christian.
      - GalahiSimtam 4y ago
        Think of a religion named like a chat software.

kernal 4y ago

>I wonder if Blake lemoine is little embarrassed he got fired Google should be embarrassed for hiring this person. Their hiring standards have deteriorated considerably.

simonh 4y ago
I don't think it's that easy. Even people who are highly intelligent, capable, and competent in many different ways can still hold one or two really weird outlier beliefs. Unless you ask them about those specific things, you really won't always be able to tell.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  It's not just the outlier beliefs about sentience though, the man clearly did not understand how these models work. There's parts of the conversation where he seems to think he has taught the system 'transcendental meditation', which is nonsensical given that these transformer models don't learn interactively through individual conversation but are trained on sets of data, and they don't do anything unless you query them. It's not like Lambda sits around and ponders the nature of the universe when you're not talking to it.
  - toomanydoubts 4y ago
    >It's not like Lambda sits around and ponders the nature of the universe when you're not talking to it. But can we really be sure of that? We don't know much about the technology itself. What if google is ticking the model at a given framerate allowing the neural network to continuously "think"?
    - Jensson 4y ago
      It is a pure function, it has no memory or even short term state to think. Thinking implies you have some mental state that can change, these neural nets doesn't have that.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]