Ruth MottramMar 2, 2023

"But language — how it’s generated, what it means — is about to get very contentious. We’re already disoriented by the chatbots we’ve got. The technology that’s coming will be even more ubiquitous, powerful, and destabilizing. A prudent citizen, Bender believes, might choose to know how it works."

HT @ct_bergstrom this profile of Emily Bender is *amazing*. From now on we should call #AI, #SALAMI (Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences).

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Show threadRuth MottramMar 2, 2023

Also I've never heard of the #Octopus parable before but it's a really great analogy for what #SALAMI #LLMs actually do:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Show threadChris Hanretty
@Ruth_Mottram Wouldn't this also apply to human-to-human conversation where a previously unknown animal is encountered? (Compare: "I am being attacked by an echidna" said to someone in C17 Europe). FWIW, ChatGPT complains if you ask if "What should I do if I am attacked by a gavagai".
Mar 2, 2023 at 1:13pmWeb
Show threadRuth MottramMar 2, 2023
@chanret It's a good point, but a bear is a well known animal for both participants A & B, it has a cultural life - but not for O who has not come across them before, so while I think the analogy is a good one, it's not quite the same. I guess the important point though is, what did the Octopus say while pretending to be B?
Show threadChris HanrettyMar 2, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram ChatGPT complained that "gavagai" was a made-up word. I would hope the octopus would be a bit more modest and ask what a bear was first before deciding it was made up!
Show threadRuth MottramMar 2, 2023
@chanret Well yes, but that then raises another problem for it doesn't it? Because a bear is not an obscure animal (to most humans at least) so it's also effectively revealing it doesn't know something that most adults would expect each other to know..
Show threadChris HanrettyMar 2, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram That doesn't however seem to be a problem with language use. If aliens arrived, they might not know what bears are either (but we might be satisfied that they were good language users)
Show threadRuth MottramMar 2, 2023
@chanret No for sure! But the point in the octopus story is that the O is trying ot convince A + B that O is in fact one of them.