Thread

1. bananaflag · 1790163465 · focus · HN ↗

   > Describing them as “superintelligence” or “rogue models” ascribes agency to products rather than to the companies building them. This framing markets these companies’ products as “superhuman” and, at the same time, helps the companies evade accountability for their actions.

   If someone discovered how to summon demons to aid them in robbing banks the main issue wouldn't be "but who has the responsibility for the crime, the human or the demon", it would be "OMG DEMONS".

   Seriously, I don't get what sort of world these people are living in.

   1. danaris · 1790168608 · focus · HN ↗

      And if they'd discovered how to summon unicorns from Candy Gumdrop Mountain, we'd all be "OMG UNICORNS!"

      But no one has summoned a demon.

      No one has built an actual, independent, thinking-for-itself, sci-fi AI.

      They've built some very interesting tools that can be used for some very interesting, and sometimes useful, purposes. They then started loudly telling everyone that these tools can, should, and must be used for absolutely every purpose, and convinced a lot of other people to join in on that.

      The world these people are living in is the real world, not the science fantasy world where LLMs are comparable to demons.

      1. pixl97 · 1790175118 · focus · HN ↗

         >No one has built an actual, independent, thinking-for-itself, sci-fi AI.'

         Ahem, what does this mean?

         All you're asking for is a self prompting AI that does what it wants. Do you even begin to understand why most people aren't dumb enough to do that?

         Also, you're not really that independent and thinking-for-yourself. You are the sum of your parents and the culture around you. I just want you to be clear on the position you and I hold.

         ---

         >not the science fantasy world

         It's kind of funny how we've lived in that science fantasy world for decades and you've just grown used to and bored of it. Look back a century or two and those people would think we live in the world of gods.

         1. danaris · 1790197044 · focus · HN ↗

            > Ahem, what does this mean?

            I think it's fairly straightforward to anyone approaching this discussion in good faith.

            > All you're asking for is a self prompting AI that does what it wants.

            I'm not asking for any of this.

            I'm saying that comparing LLMs to a "demon" is hopelessly hyperbolic.

            > Also, you're not really that independent and thinking-for-yourself.

            I fully understand the effects that our upbringing, environment, and even diet have on our personalities and choices. (In a broad sense; I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of genius expert on that stuff.)

            I also have agency, self-awareness and independence that an LLM cannot have, and trying to confuse that matter by pointing to the ways in which we are influenced by the above is disingenuous and unhelpful.

            > It's kind of funny how we've lived in that science fantasy world for decades and you've just grown used to and bored of it. Look back a century or two and those people would think we live in the world of gods.

            Again, you're trying to shift and deflect the conversation away from the fact that LLMs are nothing like Skynet/Durandal/HAL 9000 by drawing specious comparisons. The fact that we have technology today that the sci-fi authors of the mid-20th century could not even imagine (eg, smartphones, internet) does not in any way negate the fact that AGI/ASI remain in the realm of science fiction, much like demons remain in the realm of fantasy.

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