From dc16b5988a790db21f6210df7870b57b50af5b90 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Nicol=C3=A1s=20Ortega=20Froysa?= Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 13:57:15 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Blog: update AI post --- src/blog/draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.html.php | 72 +++++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/blog/draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.html.php b/src/blog/draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.html.php index ee1a0cc..61e676f 100644 --- a/src/blog/draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.html.php +++ b/src/blog/draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.html.php @@ -4,31 +4,64 @@ require 'draft_ai-is-in-the-cave.cfg.php'; require 'templates/blog-header.php'; ?>

-In spite of being a software developer and knowing how much of modern digital -technologies actually work under-the-hood, I'm also aware that for most people a -lot of this can seem like magic. Somehow a bunch of ones and zeros can be -transformed into a movie which is streamed over cables and even thin-air until -it reaches my tablet and is transformed to something actually recognizable on -the screen. Luckily, after years of having to explain to my elderly grandparents -how many of these technologies work, I've been blessed with an ability to make -up analogies which make these things more understandable. +For your average technological layman most digital technologies seem to pretty +much be magic. Somehow a bunch of ones and zeros can be transformed into a movie +which is streamed over cables and even thin-air until it reaches my tablet and +is transformed to something actually recognizable on the screen. So it should +come as no surprise that when it comes to Large Language Models (LLMs, a.k.a. +AI) the usual amazement and mystification of technology reached new peaks as +folks started speculating that perhaps this is truly the point where computers +can pass the Turing Test, and the more enthusiastic among these would go +further and say that perhaps even the machines could gain +conciousness(1) if they have not already, all +ultimately raising the question of whether we have reached the point of +Singularity.(2) In fact, we could say that the +capabilities of LLMs are so amazing that even some of the CEOs of these +companies are suggesting they either have or may soon truly achieve +consciousness.[1] However, if you were to ask +these people how we can know that LLMs have reached this point the test +provided is generally a very unsophisticated one: if it can ape human behavior, +it must have an intellect at the same level as a human.

-When it comes to Large Language Models (LLMs, a.k.a. AI) the usual amazement and -mystification of technology reached new peaks as folks started speculating that -perhaps this is truly the point where computers can pass the Turing -Test,[1] and the more enthusiastic among these -would go further and say that perhaps even the machines could gain -conciousness(1) if they haven't already, all -ultimately raising the question of whether we've reached the point of -Singularity.[2] +Now, for anyone who has some familiarity with Pro-Life apologetics, this kind +of reasoning to determine personhood sounds extremely familiar, but is now +being applied in the reverse. It is the attribution of personhood on the basis +of what the thing can do in a specific stage of its development rather +than on the basis of what kind of being the thing is. In the case of +the unborn it is used to claim they do not have personhood because at that +stage of their development they cannot do certain things, while in the case of +LLMs it is used to claim they do have personhood because they can do these +things (at least those things which we associate with the intellect). All this +because our modern materialist culture cannot actually understand the concept +of a kind of being, for all being is merely an assortment of atoms +that just so happen to organize themselves in such a way that a conscious being +is formed. Thus, to form other conscious beings all you have to do is put the +same kinds of atoms together in the same pattern and you can reproduce life! +And not any sort of life, but rational life at that. Furthermore, in the case +of LLMs, it would seem that it is not even necessary for it to be the same +kinds of atoms in the same pattern at all, but instead we can replace neurons +and alike with transistors and other electronic elements, coded to interact +with each other to do the same thing human beings have been doing for tens of +thousands of years, and what pretty much most animals have been able to do as +well: pattern recognition and replication. +

+ +

+The fact of the matter is that LLMs may seem, from a purely superficial +standpoint, like a child who is slowly learning to speak. In the past few years +we have seen drastic improvements as many of the tell-tale signs have been +smoothed out of the algorithms. But even as they become indistinguishable from +the product of actual human work,

The Man Who "Learned" Chinese

Here be Demons

+

Hammers Are for Nails

+

Resources

Notes

    @@ -39,11 +72,14 @@ Singularity.[2] tell whether they are talking to another human or a machine, usually via a text prompt. +
  1. + Singularity in this context is understood as a point-of-no-return past + which the advances of technological complexity are beyond our control. +

References

    -
  1. Turing test - Wikipedia
    2. -
  2. Technological singularity - Wikipedia
    3. +
  3. Anthropic CEO floats idea of giving AI a “quit job” button, sparking skepticism - Ars Technica