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I wonder if that is how our brain produces dreams? The guardrails are down so it will just start producing ridiculous and/or implausible things. Edit: It almos

I wonder if that is how our brain produces dreams? The guardrails are down so it will just start producing ridiculous and/or implausible things. Edit: It almost seems like you are anthropomorphizing it. It is just a program doing what it's supposed to be doing: to predict the next token based on its weights. Nothing more, nothing less. It does give the illusion of intelligence. Pretty soon, though, we may not be able to tell the difference.

JKCalhoun 4y ago
> It is just a program doing what it's supposed to be doing: to predict the next token based on its weights. Nothing more, nothing less. Every time I see a comment along these lines it gives me pause: there is a built-in assumption that each of us is somehow doing something more than this. I'm not convinced. I've heard people refer to some of our instinctive behaviors as due to "our lizard brain", suggesting that our brains are hierarchical, or comprised of a series of evolutionary steps, a more evolved order of brain wrapping the more primitive. I increasingly suspect that ChatGPT has more or less nailed one of those layers.
- hnfong 4y ago
  To add to your point, note that a language model that "predicts the next token" accurately (as in predicting what human text would say) would pass the Turing test by definition. One may argue what passing the Turing test means, but at least by definition it is mimicking human intelligence in some way.
- chankstein38 4y ago
  YES! I feel the same! I frequently see myself make the same kinds of mistakes I see ChatGPT make or I just go overly deep into thought and start thinking about the fact that, especially when communicating, I'm not prethinking my words or anything I'm just coming up with the next word on the fly. Sometimes I lose my train of thought mid conversation and end up seeing a sentence like "it makes me happy that.." and end up finishing it out of context before realizing I was talking about something else. It's the same with speech, sometimes if I'm looking for something nice to say to someone but nothing is top of mind I'll just seed myself by starting a sentence "You are great honestly I was just thinking about how..." and then just hope my brain finishes it for me. Usually it does but sometimes it ends in me explaining why I stopped haha

JKCalhoun 4y ago

> It is just a program doing what it's supposed to be doing: to predict the next token based on its weights. Nothing more, nothing less. Every time I see a comment along these lines it gives me pause: there is a built-in assumption that each of us is somehow doing something more than this. I'm not convinced. I've heard people refer to some of our instinctive behaviors as due to "our lizard brain", suggesting that our brains are hierarchical, or comprised of a series of evolutionary steps, a more evolved order of brain wrapping the more primitive. I increasingly suspect that ChatGPT has more or less nailed one of those layers.

hnfong 4y ago
To add to your point, note that a language model that "predicts the next token" accurately (as in predicting what human text would say) would pass the Turing test by definition. One may argue what passing the Turing test means, but at least by definition it is mimicking human intelligence in some way.
chankstein38 4y ago
YES! I feel the same! I frequently see myself make the same kinds of mistakes I see ChatGPT make or I just go overly deep into thought and start thinking about the fact that, especially when communicating, I'm not prethinking my words or anything I'm just coming up with the next word on the fly. Sometimes I lose my train of thought mid conversation and end up seeing a sentence like "it makes me happy that.." and end up finishing it out of context before realizing I was talking about something else. It's the same with speech, sometimes if I'm looking for something nice to say to someone but nothing is top of mind I'll just seed myself by starting a sentence "You are great honestly I was just thinking about how..." and then just hope my brain finishes it for me. Usually it does but sometimes it ends in me explaining why I stopped haha