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> The "something deeply wrong" part about AI, that even most technology enthusiasts evidently do not seem to grasp, is that it is still fundamentally a statisti
by Gareth321 2mo ago
> The "something deeply wrong" part about AI, that even most technology enthusiasts evidently do not seem to grasp, is that it is still fundamentally a statistical model — an algorithmic construct
Isn't this how human brains work? We're just large probabilistic neural inference machines. A network of neural weights guided by past training.
To be honest I think the debate about what "sentience" is is inconsequential navel gazing. There are many different kinds of intelligence - even within humans. What matters is how useful that intelligence is as applied to solving real world problems. Like it or not, LLMs produce intelligence which is very, very useful for 1.5B people and rapidly growing.
I think this ultimately boils down to the classical economic debate of marginal utility. There isn't an objective way to value a product or service. Each person decides for themselves what said product or service is worth based on their needs and preferences. Intelligence works the same way. We don't have the right to tell someone that their perception of the value of that intelligence is wrong. They alone determine that.
One thing we can all agree on, is that the capability of this intelligence is expanding rapidly. In a few short years, we went from Will Smith spaghetti hands to full length movies and strikingly realistic images. For 60 years, passing the Turing Test was considered Star Trek level science fiction. Last year GPT 4.5 passed the Turing Test. AI is already being used to convince people over audio that they are real, and very soon, this will occur over video.
I think people are being too dismissive of this intelligence. It doesn't need to be perfectly humanoid to be considered intelligent.
- pclowes 2mo agoWe have actually little idea how human brains work. Every age thinks they know how they work, and then every subsequent age laughs at the previous age’s rudimentary understanding. We gave a Nobel prize to the psychiatrist for inventing a method to remove the frontal lobes of a brain through the nose in 1949. Lobotomies were performed through the 70s. We are likely doing similar if not subtler but worse things today (just one more pill bro). We still have no idea what we are doing when it comes to the brain.
- 3dddad 2mo agoYes and in actuality we dont need to know how humans brain's work to make progress. Just like how airplanes don't flap their wings.
- pclowes 2mo agoIs this progress in the room with us right now? The state of population level mental health seems to be declining in most measurable categories.
- curt15 2mo ago>Isn't this how human brains work? We're just large probabilistic neural inference machines. A network of neural weights guided by past training. Artificial neural nets are merely cartoons of how people guess human brains work. They're likely much further from reality than, say, the fundamental laws of physics which can be experimentally verified or disproved.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- bookofjoe 2mo agoAs will be obvious when an alien intelligence makes itself known.