5 ms·

You can just ask it which subreddit would be good to post on in order to find out more details on this tablet from a subject matter expert.

oh_sigh 3y ago
Or it could just spit out Mark Worthington's email address
ineedasername 3y ago
Actually-- though I love the attempt to use AI on this problem-- you could probably get an answer in a fairly straightforward manner by contacting the museum. Curators (and knowledge organizers & cataloguers of all sorts like professional librarians) tend to very much enjoy the curiosity of the public into obscure niches. It might take time in terms of foot-speed, but the current staff could likely track down the records of all displays from that time period and thereby narrow down the field significantly. When I was at University the reference librarians were always extremely enthusiastic to help with any request, especially those that went beyond something like "could you point me towards material about the foundations of modern psychology?" or some other straightforward request. As a side-anecdote to this, I once requested of a reference librarian where I might find a copy of a (US) state's budget appropriations. They stayed with me for more than an hour as we explored various documents in more granular detail & historical trends, ending only when my own endurance gave out.
- kragen 3y ago
  their patience with biblical literalists who tout chatgpt hallucinations as evidence of biblical inerrancy may be limited
  - neltnerb 3y ago
    I'm mystified that there would be an expectation of accuracy based on it knowing a response that happened to be accurate to a question about the one word they knew off the top of their head. The one word they remembered.
    - kragen 3y ago
      the one word that was most represented in not only their own personal training set but chatgpt's
      - neltnerb 3y ago
        At that point I could no longer tell if the author was just trolling. Is it not obviously absurd? We have actual translation tools that are trained to be accurate instead of just return a likely response to a query of that type.
    - ineedasername 3y ago
      I’m more thinking that a curators could provide a list of items on display in that particular exhibit during the short period of time the author could narrow things down, with corresponding descriptions like would be accompanied by the exhibit. Museums, like libraries, are organizers of information. Think of them somewhat as databases. Of course some are better than others at this. I once had cause to track down a beautiful statue I’d seen in the MoMa some years earlier because I wanted to find a reproduction. It was gone. I found a local docent and asked, describing it (bronze color, a few feet high, sweeping curves that led to points and formed a vaguely human shape) They weren’t sure but went to inquire. I waited maybe half an hour before they came back and said it was titled “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space”, but it was not currently on display. I asked if it was somewhere in storage that would allow a quick viewing (sometimes possible) but unfortunately it wasn’t. But being given the title, it enabled me to buy a small reproduction, which sits on my desk :)
      - neltnerb 3y ago
        What does that have to do with poor evidence of accuracy? I was only talking about how silly it is to train an AI with specifically what to respond if someone asks what a particular word means, then ask what that word means and think it means anything when it spits out the answer. I agree that you should just talk to people, it sounds like this person is underestimating librarians (and museum curators, who I will avoid calling "museum librarians" because it seems impolite), who are far better at parsing incomplete details into a coherent search methodology. It's amazing how far they can get with very very bad descriptions.
  - ineedasername 3y ago
    I don't know. A natural biproduct of my my job that every few days I have to trace down information related to someone's "gut feeling", no matter how much of a non sequitur their reason would be, and even knowing that sometimes they don't care because they're just trying to fish for any evidence to push forward their agenda, even the more absurd questions are interesting in a puzzle-solving-game fashion in pulling together the informational pieces to make the question go away.

oh_sigh 3y ago

Or it could just spit out Mark Worthington's email address

ineedasername 3y ago

Actually-- though I love the attempt to use AI on this problem-- you could probably get an answer in a fairly straightforward manner by contacting the museum. Curators (and knowledge organizers & cataloguers of all sorts like professional librarians) tend to very much enjoy the curiosity of the public into obscure niches. It might take time in terms of foot-speed, but the current staff could likely track down the records of all displays from that time period and thereby narrow down the field significantly. When I was at University the reference librarians were always extremely enthusiastic to help with any request, especially those that went beyond something like "could you point me towards material about the foundations of modern psychology?" or some other straightforward request. As a side-anecdote to this, I once requested of a reference librarian where I might find a copy of a (US) state's budget appropriations. They stayed with me for more than an hour as we explored various documents in more granular detail & historical trends, ending only when my own endurance gave out.

kragen 3y ago
their patience with biblical literalists who tout chatgpt hallucinations as evidence of biblical inerrancy may be limited
- neltnerb 3y ago
  I'm mystified that there would be an expectation of accuracy based on it knowing a response that happened to be accurate to a question about the one word they knew off the top of their head. The one word they remembered.
  - kragen 3y ago
    the one word that was most represented in not only their own personal training set but chatgpt's
    - neltnerb 3y ago
      At that point I could no longer tell if the author was just trolling. Is it not obviously absurd? We have actual translation tools that are trained to be accurate instead of just return a likely response to a query of that type.
  - ineedasername 3y ago
    I’m more thinking that a curators could provide a list of items on display in that particular exhibit during the short period of time the author could narrow things down, with corresponding descriptions like would be accompanied by the exhibit. Museums, like libraries, are organizers of information. Think of them somewhat as databases. Of course some are better than others at this. I once had cause to track down a beautiful statue I’d seen in the MoMa some years earlier because I wanted to find a reproduction. It was gone. I found a local docent and asked, describing it (bronze color, a few feet high, sweeping curves that led to points and formed a vaguely human shape) They weren’t sure but went to inquire. I waited maybe half an hour before they came back and said it was titled “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space”, but it was not currently on display. I asked if it was somewhere in storage that would allow a quick viewing (sometimes possible) but unfortunately it wasn’t. But being given the title, it enabled me to buy a small reproduction, which sits on my desk :)
    - neltnerb 3y ago
      What does that have to do with poor evidence of accuracy? I was only talking about how silly it is to train an AI with specifically what to respond if someone asks what a particular word means, then ask what that word means and think it means anything when it spits out the answer. I agree that you should just talk to people, it sounds like this person is underestimating librarians (and museum curators, who I will avoid calling "museum librarians" because it seems impolite), who are far better at parsing incomplete details into a coherent search methodology. It's amazing how far they can get with very very bad descriptions.
- ineedasername 3y ago
  I don't know. A natural biproduct of my my job that every few days I have to trace down information related to someone's "gut feeling", no matter how much of a non sequitur their reason would be, and even knowing that sometimes they don't care because they're just trying to fish for any evidence to push forward their agenda, even the more absurd questions are interesting in a puzzle-solving-game fashion in pulling together the informational pieces to make the question go away.