Sandra! This is so life-affirming that I have no words other than my deep gratitude for your kind words and encouragement all the way along. And you saying that my essay is worthy of reading again? This is the highest compliment for realz. Thank you! <3
I remember sitting in a lecture about morality and the law. (My memory doesn't serve me well, but here it goes).
The professor lectured about natural law, and how rationality derives from morality and conscious, which only humans can experience. I've been asking myself "are AI language models rationale?" And I know the answer is no, but it's been difficult for me to explain why this is.
Your thought experiment helps me find the words. Language AIs recognize patterns. But it's up to us humans to exercise our agency to question the patterns, to recognize the lines between good and evil. I still cannot give an eloquent answer, but I'll use my own brain instead of ChatGPTing the words ;)
Ahhh thank you Rachael! You are absolutely right and you put it so eloquently! And totally true, chatGPT is a good tool for certain purposes, but outsourcing our thinking to it? Nah thanks no thanks. Our brain still functions when there is no electricity or internet, unlike the AI tools we have now ;) And it's us to call the shots when AIs (rational or irrational) try to coax us into doing things. AI is a tool, not a religion, so we should use it as we use any other regular tools and not put it on a pedestal and attribute human characteristics to it.
Lovely essay! I'd also add that the fact that LLMs "lie" can lead us to weird conclusions if we think of them as sentient beings, where lying is seen as bad, whereas if we think of them as indeterministic processors, this is something that can be solved by adding more layers (eg get another LLM call to ask if this is truthful, to check it vs sources etc).
Hi Rohit! Thank you for your kind words, and so very happy to see you here -- absolutely love Strange Loop Canon! Haha totally, there is a big gap between sentience and stochastic processes, and they provide vastly different framings, and by extension, "solutions" to the problem at hand.
Packard Goose is so perfect as theme song here it makes me weep! :)
Another awesome piece out of this series, Helen. And the best thing is, there's no end in sight! This is such a complex, intricate, obscure space that your writing is going to serve as a feeble flame to light the way around it.
You keep surprising me with both your content AND your music choices. :)
As Zappa put it in the same song, "music is the best!" ;) It's my way to keep my standard up and raise the bar for whatever I create. And wow, that pale fire analogy! These kind words from you will make me sleepless for some days!
I can only hope that my work will live up the standard I set for myself, raise more awareness, and usher in a new era of thinking about the destiny of both humanity and technology.
"I know this sounds corny, but I still feel the urge to say it:
The only truth engine we have, for now and perhaps ever, is ourselves."
Um, no. That's definitely not corny. I found myself nodding along to so much of what you were saying. This was a BANGER of an essay.
I'll be coming back to read it again because it was such a joy for my brain 😌
And digging the Zappa song
Sandra! This is so life-affirming that I have no words other than my deep gratitude for your kind words and encouragement all the way along. And you saying that my essay is worthy of reading again? This is the highest compliment for realz. Thank you! <3
I remember sitting in a lecture about morality and the law. (My memory doesn't serve me well, but here it goes).
The professor lectured about natural law, and how rationality derives from morality and conscious, which only humans can experience. I've been asking myself "are AI language models rationale?" And I know the answer is no, but it's been difficult for me to explain why this is.
Your thought experiment helps me find the words. Language AIs recognize patterns. But it's up to us humans to exercise our agency to question the patterns, to recognize the lines between good and evil. I still cannot give an eloquent answer, but I'll use my own brain instead of ChatGPTing the words ;)
Ahhh thank you Rachael! You are absolutely right and you put it so eloquently! And totally true, chatGPT is a good tool for certain purposes, but outsourcing our thinking to it? Nah thanks no thanks. Our brain still functions when there is no electricity or internet, unlike the AI tools we have now ;) And it's us to call the shots when AIs (rational or irrational) try to coax us into doing things. AI is a tool, not a religion, so we should use it as we use any other regular tools and not put it on a pedestal and attribute human characteristics to it.
Lovely essay! I'd also add that the fact that LLMs "lie" can lead us to weird conclusions if we think of them as sentient beings, where lying is seen as bad, whereas if we think of them as indeterministic processors, this is something that can be solved by adding more layers (eg get another LLM call to ask if this is truthful, to check it vs sources etc).
Hi Rohit! Thank you for your kind words, and so very happy to see you here -- absolutely love Strange Loop Canon! Haha totally, there is a big gap between sentience and stochastic processes, and they provide vastly different framings, and by extension, "solutions" to the problem at hand.
Packard Goose is so perfect as theme song here it makes me weep! :)
Another awesome piece out of this series, Helen. And the best thing is, there's no end in sight! This is such a complex, intricate, obscure space that your writing is going to serve as a feeble flame to light the way around it.
You keep surprising me with both your content AND your music choices. :)
As Zappa put it in the same song, "music is the best!" ;) It's my way to keep my standard up and raise the bar for whatever I create. And wow, that pale fire analogy! These kind words from you will make me sleepless for some days!
I can only hope that my work will live up the standard I set for myself, raise more awareness, and usher in a new era of thinking about the destiny of both humanity and technology.