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> this is not a linguist or a grade schooler, but a general purpose computer program This is sleight of hand. The training data almost certainly includes thous

by dvt 4y ago

> this is not a linguist or a grade schooler, but a general purpose computer program This is sleight of hand. The training data almost certainly includes thousands of grade schoolers and linguists. Your argument seems to be that this is all generated ad nihilum from first principles (it's "just" a computer program bro), but that's not how it actually came to be. Rather, it was trained on literally terrabytes and terrabytes of human-generated data. So, in a sense, it is actually a linguist. Just a really bad one.

fnordpiglet 4y ago
It’s still a computer program with some state attached. That’s literally all it is. There are no linguists in the program. That it is able to distill the knowledge and ability of a linguist by parsing ascii text into byte buffers and doing some fancy math on the bytes should be breathtaking. The sleight of hand would be if it had a mechanical Turk and there was a linguist. The fact that it collected knowledge to have knowledge and can apply that knowledge is no different than a linguist for sure, but that it’s a computer program distilling binary data into abstract concepts at the level of a grade schooler or a linguist (not sure who is more sophisticated) is mind bending. If you can’t see it, you’ve lost sight of things my friend. I hope you find it again. The world is a beautiful place.
- visarga 4y ago
  > There are no linguists in the program. I suppose intelligence actually resides in the culture, and we're like GPUs running it. Then both humans and AI have the same right to claim intelligence. https://youtu.be/YfXc4OBDmnM?t=883 https://youtu.be/YfXc4OBDmnM?t=883
allturtles 4y ago
Why is that relevant? Grade schoolers and linguists also learn from other people. A single computer system with the capabilities of a grade schooler (or beyond) across a huge variety of domains (poetry writing, computer programming, linguistics, joke writing, scientific knowledge, etc, etc.), is an amazing thing that is far beyond the capacities of the best AI systems even a few years ago. I'm perplexed to see all the people scoffing at it because it isn't as good as a Ph.D. in domain X at task Y (yet). Are we ready to declare that grade schoolers and median IQ people don't count as intelligent?
robmccoll 4y ago
But aren't most linguists trained similarly? Broad spectrum knowledge throughout their elementary education and specifics in higher education? Mostly regurgitating things they have either memorized or been shown repeatedly.

by dvt 4y ago

fnordpiglet 4y ago

It’s still a computer program with some state attached. That’s literally all it is. There are no linguists in the program. That it is able to distill the knowledge and ability of a linguist by parsing ascii text into byte buffers and doing some fancy math on the bytes should be breathtaking. The sleight of hand would be if it had a mechanical Turk and there was a linguist. The fact that it collected knowledge to have knowledge and can apply that knowledge is no different than a linguist for sure, but that it’s a computer program distilling binary data into abstract concepts at the level of a grade schooler or a linguist (not sure who is more sophisticated) is mind bending. If you can’t see it, you’ve lost sight of things my friend. I hope you find it again. The world is a beautiful place.

visarga 4y ago
> There are no linguists in the program. I suppose intelligence actually resides in the culture, and we're like GPUs running it. Then both humans and AI have the same right to claim intelligence. https://youtu.be/YfXc4OBDmnM?t=883 https://youtu.be/YfXc4OBDmnM?t=883

allturtles 4y ago

Why is that relevant? Grade schoolers and linguists also learn from other people. A single computer system with the capabilities of a grade schooler (or beyond) across a huge variety of domains (poetry writing, computer programming, linguistics, joke writing, scientific knowledge, etc, etc.), is an amazing thing that is far beyond the capacities of the best AI systems even a few years ago. I'm perplexed to see all the people scoffing at it because it isn't as good as a Ph.D. in domain X at task Y (yet). Are we ready to declare that grade schoolers and median IQ people don't count as intelligent?

robmccoll 4y ago

But aren't most linguists trained similarly? Broad spectrum knowledge throughout their elementary education and specifics in higher education? Mostly regurgitating things they have either memorized or been shown repeatedly.