3 ms·

Yes, and DALLE clearly knows what a giraffe is, maybe not in the same way as we do, but it has placed the giraffe in some latent space close to other animals li

Yes, and DALLE clearly knows what a giraffe is, maybe not in the same way as we do, but it has placed the giraffe in some latent space close to other animals like it but far away from say, cars. But yes, there is plenty it doesn't know about giraffes because it's only been fed images and captions, while we can watch documentaries about giraffes and apply knowledge we've acquired about other animals and the world through our senses.

drdeca 4y ago
I think I’d say that it knows what a giraffe looks like and some aspects of their behavior. I’m not sure if it (in a sense) “knows that a giraffe is an animal” though I wouldn’t be too surprised if it does. Though, I guess maybe that is all “knowing what a giraffe is” is?
- saynay 4y ago
  At some point, these discussions always get to some question like "what is 'knowing'?" Would a person who only ever read articles and looked at pictures of giraffes have a better understanding of them than Dall-e does? At some level, probably, in that every person will have a similar lived experience of _being_ an animal, a mammal, etc. that Dall-e will never share. Is having a lesser understanding sufficient to declare it has no real understanding?
- usrusr 4y ago
  I know what a giraffe looks like and some aspects of their behavior. I couldn't build a giraffe, I've never been a giraffe, I wouldn't even know what to talk about if I met a giraffe on a blind date.
  - Sakos 4y ago
    But there are things you can infer about a giraffe based on your knowledge of animals in general. You know that you don't know certain things about giraffes and you're capable of asking about these things and extending your understanding of giraffes (and other animals, or their environment). There is a multi-layered quality to knowing what a giraffe is that has nothing to do with having memorized minute details about behavior or physical properties. Maybe eventually DALL-E will be capable of this, but being able to reproduce images based on a word simply isn't indicative of anything other than it's good at identifying visual patterns and associating them with words and being able to reproduce a new pattern based on known patterns. This is basically on the same level as our visual cortex and some form of memory. But our visual cortex isn't sufficient to give us consciousness.

drdeca 4y ago

I think I’d say that it knows what a giraffe looks like and some aspects of their behavior. I’m not sure if it (in a sense) “knows that a giraffe is an animal” though I wouldn’t be too surprised if it does. Though, I guess maybe that is all “knowing what a giraffe is” is?

saynay 4y ago
At some point, these discussions always get to some question like "what is 'knowing'?" Would a person who only ever read articles and looked at pictures of giraffes have a better understanding of them than Dall-e does? At some level, probably, in that every person will have a similar lived experience of _being_ an animal, a mammal, etc. that Dall-e will never share. Is having a lesser understanding sufficient to declare it has no real understanding?
usrusr 4y ago
I know what a giraffe looks like and some aspects of their behavior. I couldn't build a giraffe, I've never been a giraffe, I wouldn't even know what to talk about if I met a giraffe on a blind date.
- Sakos 4y ago
  But there are things you can infer about a giraffe based on your knowledge of animals in general. You know that you don't know certain things about giraffes and you're capable of asking about these things and extending your understanding of giraffes (and other animals, or their environment). There is a multi-layered quality to knowing what a giraffe is that has nothing to do with having memorized minute details about behavior or physical properties. Maybe eventually DALL-E will be capable of this, but being able to reproduce images based on a word simply isn't indicative of anything other than it's good at identifying visual patterns and associating them with words and being able to reproduce a new pattern based on known patterns. This is basically on the same level as our visual cortex and some form of memory. But our visual cortex isn't sufficient to give us consciousness.