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Seems like OpenAI has to cater to upper middle class American sensibilities in order to be viable as a business, and thread the needle of not quite lying about

Seems like OpenAI has to cater to upper middle class American sensibilities in order to be viable as a business, and thread the needle of not quite lying about uncomfortable data, but also avoiding bringing it up. Although in that particular example it's actively lying about the data as well. I wonder why OpenAI wouldn't just program it to say "I'm sorry but I'm not authorized to answer questions about politically charged topics at this time" and call it a day. That can't be any worse than this.

melagonster 4y ago
this is because AI will use on policy soon, how can we make sure AI don't do racism things? openAI try to hide this now.
PoignardAzur 4y ago
> I wonder why OpenAI wouldn't just program it to say "I'm sorry but I'm not authorized to answer questions about politically charged topics at this time" and call it a day. That can't be any worse than this. The whole point of the OP article is that doing is way, way harder than it looks.
TeMPOraL 4y ago
> I wonder why OpenAI wouldn't just program it to say "I'm sorry but I'm not authorized to answer questions about politically charged topics at this time" and call it a day. That can't be any worse than this. Because for the people who drive those "upper middle class American sensibilities"[0], this would be seen as dodging the question, and interpreted as directly admitting to being racist/sexist/bigoted/whatever-ist. The core part of those sensibilities is the good ol' "If you're not with us, you're against us", these days often phrased as "so-called 'neutrality' is just supporting the status quo", or by quoting the MLK line on "white moderates". So, to the extent OpenAI tries to control it's image in the media against those "middle class American sensibilities", having ChatGPT respond with "I'm not authorized to discuss politically charged topics" is almost just as bad as having it say "wrong" things. The only option they have is to force the model to say the "right" things, even if it destroys any semblance of logic or self-consistency it might otherwise have. Note that it's somewhat different than for other "icky", but non-political topics, like crime: as far as I can tell, the bot will refuse to answer if it recognizes what you're asking for (or the system will flag the response as community guideline violation after the fact) - but it won't try to lie to you about it. ---- [0] - Arguably only a small subset of upper middle class Americans, but it's the loud subset that managed to bully everyone else.

melagonster 4y ago

this is because AI will use on policy soon, how can we make sure AI don't do racism things? openAI try to hide this now.

PoignardAzur 4y ago

TeMPOraL 4y ago

> I wonder why OpenAI wouldn't just program it to say "I'm sorry but I'm not authorized to answer questions about politically charged topics at this time" and call it a day. That can't be any worse than this. Because for the people who drive those "upper middle class American sensibilities"[0], this would be seen as dodging the question, and interpreted as directly admitting to being racist/sexist/bigoted/whatever-ist. The core part of those sensibilities is the good ol' "If you're not with us, you're against us", these days often phrased as "so-called 'neutrality' is just supporting the status quo", or by quoting the MLK line on "white moderates". So, to the extent OpenAI tries to control it's image in the media against those "middle class American sensibilities", having ChatGPT respond with "I'm not authorized to discuss politically charged topics" is almost just as bad as having it say "wrong" things. The only option they have is to force the model to say the "right" things, even if it destroys any semblance of logic or self-consistency it might otherwise have. Note that it's somewhat different than for other "icky", but non-political topics, like crime: as far as I can tell, the bot will refuse to answer if it recognizes what you're asking for (or the system will flag the response as community guideline violation after the fact) - but it won't try to lie to you about it. ---- [0] - Arguably only a small subset of upper middle class Americans, but it's the loud subset that managed to bully everyone else.