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I do view language models as intelligent, but in a very alien sense. One of the key differences is that each transaction is ephemeral. The intelligence blinks i
by frognumber 4y ago
I do view language models as intelligent, but in a very alien sense. One of the key differences is that each transaction is ephemeral. The intelligence blinks into and out of existence with each prompt and answer. Beyond each dialogue, it has no memory.
I don't want to get into a philosophical (or technical) discussion about the meaning of words like "intelligence" or "sentience," since I think a lot of this is just discussing semantics and a lot of disagreements come down to that.
Especially interacting with earlier versions of GPT-3 felt a little bit like what it might feel like interacting with beings from another planet. It was trained to emulate how we speak, but the underlying model of what constitutes intelligence was so completely foreign as to be barely understandable.
Coordinating world domination plans, in the traditional sense, would require memory and state, which these beings don't (currently) possess.
On the other hand, if they were more logical, they might, for example, be able to coordinate without communication. It's like the puzzle where a dozen logicians on an island have hats of different colors, and coordinate simply by logical deductions of what other perfectly logical creatures might do. Or it might be something completely foreign to us.
I am very curious where this pathway leads. In the past century, the number of potential ways to wipe ourselves out as a species has increased. There were zero ways in 1930. By 1950, we had nuclear warheads capable of destroying the world. Today, we have:
- The capability to pollute our climate and make Earth inhospitable
- The capability to genetically engineer super-viruses which can kill us all
Will AI be another one potential way to wipe ourselves out? Will the number of existential threats just keep increasing?
- jpalomaki 4y ago> Beyond each dialogue, it has no memory. Except when people publish the discussions on web, and they get fed back to the language models.
- jamiek88 4y agoWow. Yes. Bings new updated model also crawls the live web.
- jamiek88 4y agoHave you read Blindsight by Peter watts? It’s available free on his site. If you haven’t, you should! You’d enjoy it I think! Intelligence without consciousness. Also: > Will AI be another one potential way to wipe ourselves out? Will the number of existential threats just keep increasing? makes me think immediately of the ‘great filter’ and how unlikely it is it’s behind us.