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> It's honestly embarrassing for the OP I don't get this. People can use mathematical terminology in non-precise ways, they do so all the time, to get rough id

by johnfn 4y ago

> It's honestly embarrassing for the OP I don't get this. People can use mathematical terminology in non-precise ways, they do so all the time, to get rough ideas across that otherwise might be hard to explain. Just because OP uses the word "eigenvector" doesn't mean that he's offering some grand unifying theory or something - he's just presenting a fun idea about how to think about ChatGPT. I mean, isn't it obvious that there's nothing you can really "prove" about ChatGPT without having access to the weights (and even still, probably not too much).

astrange 4y ago
Yeah, but generally when you're doing that you shouldn't. Isn't it annoying when people say "order of magnitude" when they mean "a lot"?
- LightMachine 4y ago
  No? Order of magnitude conveys the notion of something being 100x bigger, at minimum. A lot can mean much less than that.
  - pixl97 4y ago
    You mean 10x bigger. One order of magnitude is 10x.
    - astrange 4y ago
      And my point was people are saying it when they don't mean 10x!
- rossnordby 4y ago
  I think a lot of people might be missing some cultural context, or something. At the risk of killing the joke, a bunch of this post is worded as it is specifically for the opportunities for absurdity. It's an excuse to write sentences like: Recall that the waluigi simulacra are being interrogated by an anti-croissant tyranny. The post is also trying to make an actual point, but while having fun with it. When you read "... and as literary critic Eliezer Yudkowsky has noted..." just place your tongue firmly in your cheek.