4 ms·

Your post is a good summarization of what I believe as well. But what's interesting when I speak to laymen is that the hype in the general public seems specifi

Your post is a good summarization of what I believe as well. But what's interesting when I speak to laymen is that the hype in the general public seems specifically centered on the composite solution that is ChatGPT. That's what they consider 'AI'. That specific conversational format in a web browser, as a complete product. That is the manifestation of AI they believe everyone thinks could become dangerous. They don't consider the LLM API's as components of a series of new products, because they don't understand the architecture and business models of these things. They just think of ChatGPT and UI prompts (or it's competitor's versions of the same).

bee_rider 2y ago
I think people think* of ChatGPT not as the web UI, but as some mysterious, possibly thinking, machine which sits behind the web UI. That is, it is clear that there’s “something” behind the curtain, and there’s some concern maybe that it could get out, but there isn’t really clarity on where the thing stops and the curtain begins, or anything like that. This is more magical, but probably less wrong, than just thinking of it as the prompt UI. *(which is always a risky way of looking at it, because who the hell am I? Neither somebody in the AI field, nor completely naive toward programming, so I might be in some weird knows-enough-to-be-dangerous-not-enough-to-be-useful valley of misunderstanding. I think this describes a lot of us here, fwiw)
- wkat4242 2y ago
  An LLM is not going to go skynet. It's not smart enough and can't take initiative. An AGI however could. Once it reaches IQs of more than say 500 it would become very hard to control it.
  - lotsoweiners 2y ago
    Power cord?
    - ctoth 2y ago
      Here are two explanations of why cutting the power won't help you once you reach that state. In short, you have already lost. [0]: No Physical Substrate, No Problem https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/07/no-physical-substrate-no-problem/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/07/no-physical-substrate-... [1]: It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy
    - bee_rider 2y ago
      It is possible that some hypothetical super intelligent future AI will do something very clever like hide in a coding assistant and then distribute bits of itself around the planet in the source code of all of our stoplights and medical equipment. However I think it’s more likely that it will LARP as “I’m an emotionally supportive beautiful AI lady, please download me to your phone, don’t take out the battery or I die!”
      - wkat4242 2y ago
        > It is possible that some hypothetical super intelligent future AI will do something very clever like hide in a coding assistant and then distribute bits of itself around the planet in the source code of all of our stoplights and medical equipment. That was part of the plot of person of interest. A really interesting show, it started as a basic "monster of the week" show but near the end it became a much more interesting plot. Although most of the human characters were extremely one-dimensional. Especially Jim Caviezel's who was just a grumpy super soldier in every episode. It was kinda funny because they called him "the man in the suit" in the series and there was indeed little else to identify his character. The others were hardly better :( But the AI storyline I found very interesting.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      It won't be that simple because it will anticipate your every move once it gets intelligent enough.

bee_rider 2y ago

I think people think* of ChatGPT not as the web UI, but as some mysterious, possibly thinking, machine which sits behind the web UI. That is, it is clear that there’s “something” behind the curtain, and there’s some concern maybe that it could get out, but there isn’t really clarity on where the thing stops and the curtain begins, or anything like that. This is more magical, but probably less wrong, than just thinking of it as the prompt UI. *(which is always a risky way of looking at it, because who the hell am I? Neither somebody in the AI field, nor completely naive toward programming, so I might be in some weird knows-enough-to-be-dangerous-not-enough-to-be-useful valley of misunderstanding. I think this describes a lot of us here, fwiw)

wkat4242 2y ago
An LLM is not going to go skynet. It's not smart enough and can't take initiative. An AGI however could. Once it reaches IQs of more than say 500 it would become very hard to control it.
- lotsoweiners 2y ago
  Power cord?
  - ctoth 2y ago
    Here are two explanations of why cutting the power won't help you once you reach that state. In short, you have already lost. [0]: No Physical Substrate, No Problem https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/07/no-physical-substrate-no-problem/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/07/no-physical-substrate-... [1]: It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy
  - bee_rider 2y ago
    It is possible that some hypothetical super intelligent future AI will do something very clever like hide in a coding assistant and then distribute bits of itself around the planet in the source code of all of our stoplights and medical equipment. However I think it’s more likely that it will LARP as “I’m an emotionally supportive beautiful AI lady, please download me to your phone, don’t take out the battery or I die!”
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      > It is possible that some hypothetical super intelligent future AI will do something very clever like hide in a coding assistant and then distribute bits of itself around the planet in the source code of all of our stoplights and medical equipment. That was part of the plot of person of interest. A really interesting show, it started as a basic "monster of the week" show but near the end it became a much more interesting plot. Although most of the human characters were extremely one-dimensional. Especially Jim Caviezel's who was just a grumpy super soldier in every episode. It was kinda funny because they called him "the man in the suit" in the series and there was indeed little else to identify his character. The others were hardly better :( But the AI storyline I found very interesting.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    It won't be that simple because it will anticipate your every move once it gets intelligent enough.