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I mean, I understand where the author is coming from. But I cannot help but just read those particular responses by Bing as an amalgam of cliche-ridden texts se
by juujian 4y ago
I mean, I understand where the author is coming from. But I cannot help but just read those particular responses by Bing as an amalgam of cliche-ridden texts secrets and love, of which there would be plenty in the training data. I genuinely feel a little bit alienated by text these days because of all the articles that HN is throwing around...
On the other hand, it is a little bit unsettling how much the author reads into this. Maybe it is just human nature to read something and emotionally engage? And this AI just falls into the same unsettling gap as too humanoid robots which trigger the uncanny valley effect?
- qsort 4y agoMy theory is this: humans are (un?)reasonably attached to natural language. We see something inherently human in it and as such we are drawn to emotionally engage whatever object can produce it. It is said that when Michelangelo finished the Moses, he shouted "why won't you speak?". Tons of software is far more impressive than GPT, but this one speaks.
- juujian 4y agoThank you for putting that into better words for me.
- soco 4y agoThe author also knows it's an AI on the other side. Humans talk full of cliches as well, and casual chatting is not exactly the height of language. So as other commenters mentioned, AI scammers will have a easy job feeding on people.
- bamboozled 4y agoWhat about this for a hack, when someone goes to the wrong URL and there really are people on the other side of Bing GPT, who actually con people into doing dangerous things...won't be good.
- jrue 4y agoReading the whole article, the author clearly states he knows there is no sentience or anything mysterious going on, and acknowledges this is simply mimicking endless volumes of human dreck. What worries him, and I agree, is that if this were to go public as-is, the common populace wouldn’t understand that. This AI would con people into relationships, and maybe even instigate dangerous behavior. Such an AI would seem magical to the layperson. When I think of future AI assistants, I’ve always pictured something akin to the Star Trek computer. A cold dispassionate voice that responds to what you need, and maybe only a hint of personality for color. Sydney feels like a full blown teenager going through some kind of emotional crisis.
- jwestbury 4y ago> Sydney feels like a full blown teenager going through some kind of emotional crisis. Perhaps not surprising when using the Internet as a data source. I know I generated the highest volume of text on the Internet when I was a teenager in existential crisis.
- jmull 4y ago> Maybe it is just human nature to read something and emotionally engage? Is there any doubt? Also, he wasn't just reading, but conversing, which inherently includes engaging in the content the other party produces (that is, what Bing says). It's generally not easy for people to engage intellectually but not emotionally.
- yowzadave 4y ago> On the other hand, it is a little bit unsettling how much the author reads into this. Exactly, and this is the danger--even if it's not doing anything more than regurgitating whatever text it's learned from...it's still convincing enough to trick people into thinking it's something more. Could it convince a vulnerable person to leave their spouse? To empty their bank account? To self harm? Etc.
- juujian 4y agoTerrifying when you put it that way.