4 ms·
We are all stochastic parrots. Currently, millions of years of evolutionary pressure have produced a better algorithm than a few years of optimization pressure
by streb-lo 25d ago
We are all stochastic parrots. Currently, millions of years of evolutionary pressure have produced a better algorithm than a few years of optimization pressure but we’ll see how long that remains true!
- goatlover 25d agoEvolution selects for fit organisms that have to survive and reproduce in the world, not language models waiting on prompts. The temptation to analogize technology to biology is just top hard to resist I guess. Problem with analogies and metaphors is they are never accurate, they are only similar in some respects.
- streb-lo 25d agoYes, thank-you for informing me I was using an analogy.
- strangecasts 25d agoI think it is worth asking whether anthropomorphization of LLMs does anything to contribute to a better understanding of them that isn't entirely post-hoc ("of course they were going to find CVEs, solve ARC-AGI...") or if it just ends up reinforcing simplified teleological views of neuroscience, evolution or psychology etc.
- streb-lo 25d agoSure, there are potential risks to anthropomorphizing language. There's also potential benefits, in terms of allowing us to talk about an emerging alien intelligence. FWIIW, I don't think I was anthropomorphizing. Stretching an analogy, yes. Optimization pressure is producing something with at least characteristics of intelligence. Obviously in a very different way than evolution produced the human brain, but the similarities are there.
- AndrewDucker 25d agoYou are not just a stochastic parrot. Your speech is not just "next likely word", but a product of your internal model of the world.
- streb-lo 24d agoEvidence suggests LLMs have internal models as well.
- hardbass 24d agoI would first like to ask, are you religious? Do you believe in souls? If the answer to both is "No", then I'd like to discuss further.
- AndrewDucker 24d agoThe answer to both is "No".
- hardbass 24d agoOk, then let us discuss what you define stochastic parrot as.
- AndrewDucker 24d agoHappy to go with the first paragraph from the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_parrot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_parrot
- hardbass 24d agoSuppose a "parrot" factors a product of two 2048 bit primes? Is it still an entity without understanding of the processes considering the search space size?
- AndrewDucker 24d ago