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I’m beginning to dislike this anthropomorphization of AI, and tech in general. I feel like it’s contributing to a further misunderstanding of what it actually

I’m beginning to dislike this anthropomorphization of AI, and tech in general. I feel like it’s contributing to a further misunderstanding of what it actually is and how best to use it or think of it.

athorax 4y ago
I think it is, at least to some extent, intentional. That way people blame the bot instead of the underlying technology when it "misbehaves"
jeroenhd 4y ago
I think anthropomorphization is inevitable for products that can use natural, human language to interact with a program. Talking to ChatGPT almost passes the Turing test if you ignore the way it keeps reminding you it's not a person. It may die down after it becomes clear that AI isn't good enough yet. I've seen fewer people refer to Siri/Cortana/Alexa as "her" rather than "it" as time went on, but there was definitely a peak when they became popular among laypeople for a while. I notice I'm much politer to ChatGPT than I am to Google, it's quite a funny thing to notice. Perhaps my subconscious is being nice to the robots to be in their good graces when they take over :)
localplume 4y ago
I think the core problem of the anthropomorphization is calling it AI; intelligence is something usually assigned to humans, so people expect it to replace/substitute a human. So instead of thinking this technology augments existing workflows, they think it will replace it. Sure, animals can be intelligent but AI/AGI/ASI is all human-centric based around a human-baseline. I don't honestly know what it should be called, but I don't think it should be AI. Maybe I'm wrong honestly. Maybe not anthropomorphizing something is impossible for humans (stick a pair of eyes and a mouth on anything and a person would probably give it a name). I guess people _expect_ AI to replace a human in a given role, but the reality is that they will augment existing workflows, e.g. instead of replacing a digital artist, it would be used to spark creativity and basically eliminate creative blocks.
- UnpossibleJim 4y ago
  MLM... Machine Learning Model?
  - Loughla 4y ago
    I would argue that most people have no idea what that means, and it sounds an awful lot like artificial intelligence already. So. It's not a big leap from that back to artificial intelligence. I think the problem is that there is no easily accessible description of what this is. Like super simple. Statistically close to what you want responses. Big ass database of things that might be similar. I believe both of those are more accessible to Joe Schmoe, even if they miss the technical description.
    - inkcapmushroom 4y ago
      Fancy Madlibber is what I would call it. Really good at filling in blanks you give it, but no ties to the context of what it's talking about.
  - prox 4y ago
    Sounds like multi level marketing. I have simply seen large language model used the most, even by chapgpt itself.
    - UnpossibleJim 4y ago
      sadly, I had to have multi level marketing to me.
ActionHank 4y ago
It's annoying, but maybe it means better job security for the technically inclined by lowering the barrier to entry for most people meaning that fewer people will be looking behind the curtain.

athorax 4y ago

I think it is, at least to some extent, intentional. That way people blame the bot instead of the underlying technology when it "misbehaves"

jeroenhd 4y ago

I think anthropomorphization is inevitable for products that can use natural, human language to interact with a program. Talking to ChatGPT almost passes the Turing test if you ignore the way it keeps reminding you it's not a person. It may die down after it becomes clear that AI isn't good enough yet. I've seen fewer people refer to Siri/Cortana/Alexa as "her" rather than "it" as time went on, but there was definitely a peak when they became popular among laypeople for a while. I notice I'm much politer to ChatGPT than I am to Google, it's quite a funny thing to notice. Perhaps my subconscious is being nice to the robots to be in their good graces when they take over :)

localplume 4y ago

I think the core problem of the anthropomorphization is calling it AI; intelligence is something usually assigned to humans, so people expect it to replace/substitute a human. So instead of thinking this technology augments existing workflows, they think it will replace it. Sure, animals can be intelligent but AI/AGI/ASI is all human-centric based around a human-baseline. I don't honestly know what it should be called, but I don't think it should be AI. Maybe I'm wrong honestly. Maybe not anthropomorphizing something is impossible for humans (stick a pair of eyes and a mouth on anything and a person would probably give it a name). I guess people _expect_ AI to replace a human in a given role, but the reality is that they will augment existing workflows, e.g. instead of replacing a digital artist, it would be used to spark creativity and basically eliminate creative blocks.

UnpossibleJim 4y ago
MLM... Machine Learning Model?
- Loughla 4y ago
  I would argue that most people have no idea what that means, and it sounds an awful lot like artificial intelligence already. So. It's not a big leap from that back to artificial intelligence. I think the problem is that there is no easily accessible description of what this is. Like super simple. Statistically close to what you want responses. Big ass database of things that might be similar. I believe both of those are more accessible to Joe Schmoe, even if they miss the technical description.
  - inkcapmushroom 4y ago
    Fancy Madlibber is what I would call it. Really good at filling in blanks you give it, but no ties to the context of what it's talking about.
- prox 4y ago
  Sounds like multi level marketing. I have simply seen large language model used the most, even by chapgpt itself.
  - UnpossibleJim 4y ago
    sadly, I had to have multi level marketing to me.

ActionHank 4y ago

It's annoying, but maybe it means better job security for the technically inclined by lowering the barrier to entry for most people meaning that fewer people will be looking behind the curtain.