3 ms·

AI skepticism is like a religion at this point. Weird it's so prominent on a tech site. (The Apple paper has had many serious holes poked in it.)

b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
Well, if the thing is truly capable of reason, then we have an obligation to put the kibosh on the entire endeavor because we're using a potentially intelligent entity as slave labor. At best, we're re-inventing factory farming and at worst we're re-inventing chattel slavery. Neither of those situations is something I'm personally ok with allowing to continue
- klank 1y ago
  I concur. I also find the assumption that tech-savvy individuals would inherently be for what we currently call AI to itself, be weird. Unfortunately I feel as though being knowledgable or capable within an area is conflated with an over-acceptance of that area. If anything, the more I've learned about technology, and the more experienced I am, the more fearful and cautious I am with it.
  - b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
    the biggest techno-pessimists I know are all in the tech industry. On the other hand, most of the "blindly accept every new technique or gadget" folks I know are also tech workers so maybe there's nothing going on there. Wonder if there's study on this
- elcritch 1y ago
  Reason can be distinct from sapience.
  - b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
    can it? the only example we have of something reasoning on this level is humans and we are most definitely sentient despite our best efforts to sometimes appear otherwise. And even if the two could theoretically be separated, how sure are we that these AI agents are in that category? I'm pretty sure they are neither, but that doesn't mean it isn't a pretty abhorrent possibility that should be addressed.
devmor 1y ago
Skepticism cannot, by definition, be religious. You should re-think the bias that led you to this belief.
- rcxdude 1y ago
  small-s skepticism, perhaps. 'Skeptics' can fall foul of the same kind of groupthink, magical and motivated reasoning, and fallacies as everyone else, which are often characterized as 'religious'. Not believing in a god doesn't make you immune to being wrong. (FWIW, I do think there's some very unhealthy attitudes to AI and LLMs going around, like people feel the only two options are 'the singularity is coming' and 'they're useless scams', which tends to result in a large quantity of bullshit on the topic)
  - mrguyorama 1y ago
    >like people feel the only two options are 'the singularity is coming' and 'they're useless scams' No, you are turning a few loud people into a false dichotomy. The vast majority of people are somewhere between "LLMs are neat" and "I don't think LLMs are AGI" The vast majority of people do not comment. Using only the comments that people go out of their way to make as your data source is a huge sampling error.
- ninetyninenine 1y ago
  Consider that the accuser of lack of bias is often the most biased himself.

b00ty4breakfast 1y ago

Well, if the thing is truly capable of reason, then we have an obligation to put the kibosh on the entire endeavor because we're using a potentially intelligent entity as slave labor. At best, we're re-inventing factory farming and at worst we're re-inventing chattel slavery. Neither of those situations is something I'm personally ok with allowing to continue

klank 1y ago
I concur. I also find the assumption that tech-savvy individuals would inherently be for what we currently call AI to itself, be weird. Unfortunately I feel as though being knowledgable or capable within an area is conflated with an over-acceptance of that area. If anything, the more I've learned about technology, and the more experienced I am, the more fearful and cautious I am with it.
- b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
  the biggest techno-pessimists I know are all in the tech industry. On the other hand, most of the "blindly accept every new technique or gadget" folks I know are also tech workers so maybe there's nothing going on there. Wonder if there's study on this
elcritch 1y ago
Reason can be distinct from sapience.
- b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
  can it? the only example we have of something reasoning on this level is humans and we are most definitely sentient despite our best efforts to sometimes appear otherwise. And even if the two could theoretically be separated, how sure are we that these AI agents are in that category? I'm pretty sure they are neither, but that doesn't mean it isn't a pretty abhorrent possibility that should be addressed.

devmor 1y ago

Skepticism cannot, by definition, be religious. You should re-think the bias that led you to this belief.

rcxdude 1y ago
small-s skepticism, perhaps. 'Skeptics' can fall foul of the same kind of groupthink, magical and motivated reasoning, and fallacies as everyone else, which are often characterized as 'religious'. Not believing in a god doesn't make you immune to being wrong. (FWIW, I do think there's some very unhealthy attitudes to AI and LLMs going around, like people feel the only two options are 'the singularity is coming' and 'they're useless scams', which tends to result in a large quantity of bullshit on the topic)
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  >like people feel the only two options are 'the singularity is coming' and 'they're useless scams' No, you are turning a few loud people into a false dichotomy. The vast majority of people are somewhere between "LLMs are neat" and "I don't think LLMs are AGI" The vast majority of people do not comment. Using only the comments that people go out of their way to make as your data source is a huge sampling error.
ninetyninenine 1y ago
Consider that the accuser of lack of bias is often the most biased himself.