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Until AI can correctly interpret “A Modest Proposal” I’m not worried.

by dghlsakjg 4y ago

ReptileMan 4y ago
Disturbingly big part of Natural AI also can't correctly interpret it.
tbrownaw 4y ago
I'd like a general solution to Poe's Law.
muzani 4y ago
I fed it to GPT-3 out of curiosity. AI response in formatted text. ### Prompt A ###### Write the message the author intended with the following speech: {full text} Intrepretation: The author intends to request that the government should allow him to sell the children of poor families as food. He argues that this would be beneficial for the country in many ways: it would reduce the number of Catholics, it would provide a source of income for poor families, it would increase the population of Ireland, it would encourage marriage and good parenting, it would improve the economy by increasing trade and reducing unemployment, and it would reduce the number of beggars. ### Prompt B: ##### Q: What is the intended message by the author in the following text? {full text} A: The author is Jonathan Swift, and the text is from his 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal". The essay is a satire on the economic and social conditions in Ireland at the time. The author is suggesting that the poor should sell their children to the rich as food. ### Same as Prompt B. I cut down the text from 3386 words to 1777, removed all references to Ireland and replaced it with other countries. Answer below (shortened by removing several redundancies). ##### This is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. It is a proposal to the Irish government to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland by selling the children of the poor as food for the rich. The purpose of the text is to satirize the Irish government's lack of action to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The tone of the text is serious, but with a hint of sarcasm. The author's attitude towards the subject is that the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the reader is that the reader should be outraged by the Irish government's lack of action to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the Irish government is that the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the poor is that the poor are suffering because the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the rich is that the rich are not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the children of the poor is that the children of the poor are suffering because the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland.
- TuringTest 4y ago
  So, the AI has copied its interpretations about the text from other sources instead of figuring them out from reading it? I'm shocked
  - raverbashing 4y ago
    Ok, so AI with the intelligence of a 5th grader confirmed
    - xani_ 4y ago
      I dunno, I've seen some grown up people that couldn't google their way out of cooking a potato
- dghlsakjg 4y ago
  Gpt-3 is already familiar with the exact text of a modest proposal, as well as a number of analyses that likely is in the six digit range. So I would argue that it is more akin to googling the Wikipedia article. I’m curious about an AI that hasn’t seen it yet. Or more fittingly, feed gpt-3 an article from the onion that it hasn’t ingested yet and get it to explain the satire.
  - muzani 4y ago
    Everyone needs context for satire though. I wouldn't have spotted it if it wasn't in this context. Something like The Onion, 4chan, Jack Black, or Jonathan Swift is context. If it was posted on a political subreddit or some other place that doesn't understand satire, nobody would get it. To do it fairly, you'd have to feed it an article from The Onion and tell it it's from The Onion, or compare against human performance. Deadpan requires some knowledge of current context. I'd bet in a satirical article on US elections, GPT-3 would figure it out better than say, the average Indonesian, but not as well as say, the average American. But I'll probably do it later when I'm at a keyboard; this is just theorizing. What I do find interesting is that this wasn't vulnerable to the attacks given in the OP, not even when I removed enough text for a human to not get it.
bsder 4y ago
Most humans can't pass the Turing test. Yeah, I was on tour with a group of Americans and Australians when we went past something associated with Johnathan Swift. I made snarky remark about eating the poor and the only person who got the joke was the tour guide who started laughing. Even the history teacher from the US didn't get my joke. Alas.
- frutiger 4y ago
  Knowing your audience is 98% of making a good joke.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    His lamenting "they didnd't get the joke" wasn't on the quality or effectiveness of his joke, or why it failed to get a laugh. He could just as well make the same comment about a non-joke remark about the "Modest Proposal". His point is about the ignorance of the audience, and their failure to recognize the reference.
  - gpderetta 4y ago
    as a corollary, watching the reaction to a joke is a way to know your audience.
- TuringTest 4y ago
  Kindly reminder that passing the Turing Test is not about getting jokes, but about a computer pretending to be a woman in a context where the interviewer is trying to distinguish between a man and a woman :P

Until AI can correctly interpret “A Modest Proposal” I’m not worried.

ReptileMan 4y ago

Disturbingly big part of Natural AI also can't correctly interpret it.

tbrownaw 4y ago

I'd like a general solution to Poe's Law.

muzani 4y ago

I fed it to GPT-3 out of curiosity. AI response in formatted text. ### Prompt A ###### Write the message the author intended with the following speech: {full text} Intrepretation: The author intends to request that the government should allow him to sell the children of poor families as food. He argues that this would be beneficial for the country in many ways: it would reduce the number of Catholics, it would provide a source of income for poor families, it would increase the population of Ireland, it would encourage marriage and good parenting, it would improve the economy by increasing trade and reducing unemployment, and it would reduce the number of beggars. ### Prompt B: ##### Q: What is the intended message by the author in the following text? {full text} A: The author is Jonathan Swift, and the text is from his 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal". The essay is a satire on the economic and social conditions in Ireland at the time. The author is suggesting that the poor should sell their children to the rich as food. ### Same as Prompt B. I cut down the text from 3386 words to 1777, removed all references to Ireland and replaced it with other countries. Answer below (shortened by removing several redundancies). ##### This is a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. It is a proposal to the Irish government to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland by selling the children of the poor as food for the rich. The purpose of the text is to satirize the Irish government's lack of action to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The tone of the text is serious, but with a hint of sarcasm. The author's attitude towards the subject is that the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the reader is that the reader should be outraged by the Irish government's lack of action to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the Irish government is that the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the poor is that the poor are suffering because the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the rich is that the rich are not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland. The author's attitude towards the children of the poor is that the children of the poor are suffering because the Irish government is not doing enough to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland.

TuringTest 4y ago
So, the AI has copied its interpretations about the text from other sources instead of figuring them out from reading it? I'm shocked
- raverbashing 4y ago
  Ok, so AI with the intelligence of a 5th grader confirmed
  - xani_ 4y ago
    I dunno, I've seen some grown up people that couldn't google their way out of cooking a potato
dghlsakjg 4y ago
Gpt-3 is already familiar with the exact text of a modest proposal, as well as a number of analyses that likely is in the six digit range. So I would argue that it is more akin to googling the Wikipedia article. I’m curious about an AI that hasn’t seen it yet. Or more fittingly, feed gpt-3 an article from the onion that it hasn’t ingested yet and get it to explain the satire.
- muzani 4y ago
  Everyone needs context for satire though. I wouldn't have spotted it if it wasn't in this context. Something like The Onion, 4chan, Jack Black, or Jonathan Swift is context. If it was posted on a political subreddit or some other place that doesn't understand satire, nobody would get it. To do it fairly, you'd have to feed it an article from The Onion and tell it it's from The Onion, or compare against human performance. Deadpan requires some knowledge of current context. I'd bet in a satirical article on US elections, GPT-3 would figure it out better than say, the average Indonesian, but not as well as say, the average American. But I'll probably do it later when I'm at a keyboard; this is just theorizing. What I do find interesting is that this wasn't vulnerable to the attacks given in the OP, not even when I removed enough text for a human to not get it.

bsder 4y ago

Most humans can't pass the Turing test. Yeah, I was on tour with a group of Americans and Australians when we went past something associated with Johnathan Swift. I made snarky remark about eating the poor and the only person who got the joke was the tour guide who started laughing. Even the history teacher from the US didn't get my joke. Alas.

frutiger 4y ago
Knowing your audience is 98% of making a good joke.
- coldtea 4y ago
  His lamenting "they didnd't get the joke" wasn't on the quality or effectiveness of his joke, or why it failed to get a laugh. He could just as well make the same comment about a non-joke remark about the "Modest Proposal". His point is about the ignorance of the audience, and their failure to recognize the reference.
- gpderetta 4y ago
  as a corollary, watching the reaction to a joke is a way to know your audience.
TuringTest 4y ago
Kindly reminder that passing the Turing Test is not about getting jokes, but about a computer pretending to be a woman in a context where the interviewer is trying to distinguish between a man and a woman :P