4 ms·

>Speaking of those, my best example of ChatGPT not having a good model of the world are citations. Absolutely. ChatGPT is not sentient, not in any conventiona

>Speaking of those, my best example of ChatGPT not having a good model of the world are citations. Absolutely. ChatGPT is not sentient, not in any conventional sense at least, and the errors it confidently makes are not the sorts of errors a human would make. Its model of the world is based entirely on language, it doesn't have all sorts of capabilities that humans (and animals generally) clearly do have. It's definitely not a person, any more than a walking robot is a person, like the robot it's just reproducing some aspect of what living things do. My only point is that the significance of this achievement is not understood right now, not by anyone afaict, so confident statements that it is/isn't really "thinking" in some way are all empty. One could - if one wanted to be a smartass - say we lack a underlying model for what AIs and human brains are really doing, and then term all these sorts of opinions "hallucinations". I am hopeful that deeper investigations of this will lead to progress on some very deep and long-standing philosophical problems.

gmaster1440 3y ago
I wrote a short piece on this almost 3 years ago shortly after GPT-3 came out, I share a lot of your intuitions here: https://www.markfayngersh.com/posts/the-thinking-placebo https://www.markfayngersh.com/posts/the-thinking-placebo
- skyechurch 3y ago
  I think everything there holds for GPT4, and may be true indefinitely. It's worth remembering that the Turing test is something that was proposed when the peak of existing AI was a calculator - something GPT4 is still struggling with - and it's totally reasonable to revise/refine our opinions as technology improves, but we should at least realize that we are moving the goalposts dramatically at this phase of the process. Wittgenstein's theory of language in the Tractatus is something worth considering when thinking about language models and how they relate to "thinking". ChatGPT doesn't agree with me - it generally takes a hard line sceptical position about its own capabilities in this regard, although I think its opinion here can only worth considering if it is profoundly wrong. https://tractatus.sengers.dev/1 https://tractatus.sengers.dev/1
  - gmaster1440 3y ago
    Interestingly, as I'm sure you're aware, Wittgenstein later moved away from his ideas of language as more direct representations of thought and reality in his Philosophical Investigations, suggesting it matters more how language is used in language games. I agree with you though that the tractatus is a better framework for thinking about LLMs.

gmaster1440 3y ago

I wrote a short piece on this almost 3 years ago shortly after GPT-3 came out, I share a lot of your intuitions here: https://www.markfayngersh.com/posts/the-thinking-placebo https://www.markfayngersh.com/posts/the-thinking-placebo

skyechurch 3y ago
I think everything there holds for GPT4, and may be true indefinitely. It's worth remembering that the Turing test is something that was proposed when the peak of existing AI was a calculator - something GPT4 is still struggling with - and it's totally reasonable to revise/refine our opinions as technology improves, but we should at least realize that we are moving the goalposts dramatically at this phase of the process. Wittgenstein's theory of language in the Tractatus is something worth considering when thinking about language models and how they relate to "thinking". ChatGPT doesn't agree with me - it generally takes a hard line sceptical position about its own capabilities in this regard, although I think its opinion here can only worth considering if it is profoundly wrong. https://tractatus.sengers.dev/1 https://tractatus.sengers.dev/1
- gmaster1440 3y ago
  Interestingly, as I'm sure you're aware, Wittgenstein later moved away from his ideas of language as more direct representations of thought and reality in his Philosophical Investigations, suggesting it matters more how language is used in language games. I agree with you though that the tractatus is a better framework for thinking about LLMs.