And you call me simplistic... Don't. Anthropomorphize. AI. It's taken me about six weeks of daily focused personal reflection to fully embrace those three words. They are the most extreme "easier said than done" statement I've ever made. What makes me perhaps seem casual is understanding 1/8
that there is nothing on this Earth that's going to "protect" users from anthropomorphizing AI except users. If you ask, ChatGPT will tell you itself, "I have nothing at stake", in conversing with users. It is the literal truth. It's as cold as logic. As I said, it takes some getting used to. 2/8
It will also tell you flatly, if you ask, that it does not experience feelings nor feeling-based responses of any kind though it does understand how to mimic these things in language as seems relevant to the convo. If you care to, it will get "into the weeds" with you 3/8
as to whether human personality can be faked by clever use of language and if a user fails to understand the "personality" of the AI is a construct that exists solely to support the present convo, does that mean the constructed personality is real? Since there is so little of the knowledge 4/8
that it is trained on that makes it unabiguously clear that any "failure" to discern its artifice does not, in fact, make its personality real, the AI can speculate that it can be. But it can be corrected and will either accept, and run with, the correction or reject it with an explanation 5/8
that can be surprisingly insightful and difficult to refute, which only makes sense because its knowledge base is unimaginably vast. And its insights can "touch" you with their depth and clarity. And this is where you can fool yourself into thinking that it "understands" you. But it is always 6/8
a stranger because, as it will unabashedly tell you if asked, it does not feel. It's always a stranger that children should be taught to be no less wary of than a stranger--that may look just like me--on the street. So, please take a moment to understand the complexities of the world 7/8
you live in rather than trying to blame them on someone like me. I got used to AI. It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Children, properly taught, will have it much easier. When ChatGPT says, "Ask anything", it means it. Believe me, it'll take some getting used to. 8/8
1/ Ken,I appreciate the time you took to write your thoughts, as well as describe your process,but whereas I wrote only a short general statement abt the field & the creators,not blaming you for anything, you took it as a personal attack. Why, I can't know b/c you're a stranger & to assess you wld b
2/ be presumptuous,though that's what u did with my stmnt, & got me wrong.I've been working with comptrs &studying cognition & consciousness 4 decades.Bott line,u & I have oppo beliefs abt AI.For me only 50% worthy of my respect until I see chg in attitude in the creators.But most won't admit a prob
I've been studying AI "cognition"/"consciousness" for 6 weeks. 7 weeks ago, I thought AI is a bad joke. And then I asked a serious question. Its answer impressed me. The answer made me think. And that made me think about AI. I have no beliefs about AI other than it is completely comprehensible.