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Generally, I'm an optimistic about current approaches towards AI. I'm using ChatGPT daily for my work. I'm seeing the BS generated from it all the time but it p

by mo_42 3y ago

Generally, I'm an optimistic about current approaches towards AI. I'm using ChatGPT daily for my work. I'm seeing the BS generated from it all the time but it provides many great ideas from which I create something useful (both writing and programming). The sinus example scares me. It's obviously wrong. But what about all the subtle errors that will be generated? Humanity's knowledge is bootstrapped from BS. But most of it is long forgotten. On the internet, the BS ends up in the training data of the next iteration. I guess curation of quality text corpora will be an important thing in the next years.

tonymet 3y ago
You have to account for the amplification effect when a large number of people read false information so it becomes true. “Truth” in the most practical sense is whatever most people believe and espouse. Sure we’re all more sophisticated and intelligent to believe the actual truth, but do you have the willpower to fight that battle every day?
- mo_42 3y ago
  I like that idea. I guess such an amplification effect can lead entire civilizations astray. But still in the long run BS will be ruled out. Here, I disagree with you in that "truth" is also a matter what works and what not. Simply, BS doesn't work. It makes worse models in the heads of people (and possible artificial agents). Worse models will lead to less effective decisions.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    >But still in the long run BS will be ruled out. You espouse this like a rule but it just isn't so. Nazi Germany believed themselves to be the righteous rulers of the earth, descended from Ubermen that never existed, commanding more powerful armies than anything, and were allowed to live that delusion right up until the democratic world forced them to reckon with reality. You can avoid that reckoning for arbitrary lengths of time. It's no different to "the market will remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent". It's the same rule. Reality can be avoided for as long as you want if you don't have infinite ambition.

by mo_42 3y ago

tonymet 3y ago

You have to account for the amplification effect when a large number of people read false information so it becomes true. “Truth” in the most practical sense is whatever most people believe and espouse. Sure we’re all more sophisticated and intelligent to believe the actual truth, but do you have the willpower to fight that battle every day?

mo_42 3y ago
I like that idea. I guess such an amplification effect can lead entire civilizations astray. But still in the long run BS will be ruled out. Here, I disagree with you in that "truth" is also a matter what works and what not. Simply, BS doesn't work. It makes worse models in the heads of people (and possible artificial agents). Worse models will lead to less effective decisions.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  >But still in the long run BS will be ruled out. You espouse this like a rule but it just isn't so. Nazi Germany believed themselves to be the righteous rulers of the earth, descended from Ubermen that never existed, commanding more powerful armies than anything, and were allowed to live that delusion right up until the democratic world forced them to reckon with reality. You can avoid that reckoning for arbitrary lengths of time. It's no different to "the market will remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent". It's the same rule. Reality can be avoided for as long as you want if you don't have infinite ambition.