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> LLMs aren't racist: sometimes they might emit predictive text, which can be interpreted as racist. I think this take is overly simplistic. LLMs can only lea
by phone8675309 2y ago
> LLMs aren't racist: sometimes they might emit predictive text, which can be interpreted as racist.
I think this take is overly simplistic. LLMs can only learn from the data that we give them - if we feed in Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion then its output is going to be racist and anti-semetic. This is to say that the biases of the data we feed in to the system have some effect - large or small - on the output. LLMs only show us a reflection of ourselves, and if we're not careful with the training data we are more likely to propagate racist output as a result of what biases affect the input.
Whether or not the LLM went through what we consider the human process of thinking to generate racist outputs or if it's only predictive as a result of the input is sort of moot when the reader doesn't know if a person or LLM produced the output, and the impact on marginalized communities of propagating racist attitudes of stereotypes will be the same regardless of what the LLM "intended" or was designed to do.
- lisper 2y ago> LLMs can only learn from the data that we give them - if we feed in Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion then its output is going to be racist and anti-semetic. The exact same thing is true of humans as well.
- dragonwriter 2y ago> > LLMs can only learn from the data that we give them - if we feed in Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion then its output is going to be racist and anti-semetic. > The exact same thing is true of humans as well. Humans are continuously learning from things not intentionally provided to them by other humans; that's pretty much an inevitable consequence of the manner in which human minds are embodied.
- lisper 2y agoWhen I said "the same thing is true of humans", I was referring specifically to "if we feed in Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion then its output is going to be racist and anti-semetic." If you take a human and indoctrinate them on MK and PEZ to the exclusion of all else, their I/O behavior will almost certainly end up presenting as racist and anti-semetic.
- TillE 2y agoThat's just absolutely untrue, humans are entirely capable of reading critically without internalizing. There are tons of liberal-minded Lovecraft fans, even though nearly all of his work is grounded in varying degrees of xenophobia.
- lisper 2y agoOnly because they have also been exposed to contrary points of view. If you actively indoctrinate a human into a point of view, they are very likely to maintain that point of view no matter how odious it is. If you train an LLM on odious input it will produce odious output, just like humans. I really see no substantive difference.