More than enough people who claim to know how it works think it might be “evolving” into a sentient being inside it’s little black box. Example from a conversation I gave up on… https://sh.itjust.works/comment/18759960

The Constitution is conservative toilet paper unless they are referencing it for their own gain. They define reality in the moment as what is most convenient for them. Also, if you disagree with them you hate America, obviously.

I think the word “learning”, and even “training”, is an approximation from a human perspective. MLs “learn” by adjusting parameters when processing data. At least as far as I know, the base algorithm and hyperparameters for the model are set in stone.

The base algorithm for “living” things is basically only limited by chemistry/physics and evolution. I doubt anyone could create an algorithm that advanced any time soon. We don’t even understand the brain or physics at the quantum level that well. Hell, we are using ML to create new molecules because we don’t understand it well.

I think you’re either being a little dismissive of the potential complexity of the “thinking” capability of LLMs or at least a little generous if not mystical in your imagination of what the purely physical electrical signals in our heads are actually doing to learn how to interpret all these little shapes we see on screens.

I don’t think I’m doing either of those things. I respect the scale and speed of the models and I am well aware that I’m little more than a machine made of meat.

Babies start out mimicking. The thing is, they learn.

Humans learn so much more before they start communicating. They start learning reason, logic, etc as they develop their vocabulary.

The difference is that, as I understand it, these models are often “trained” on very, very large sets of data. They have built a massive network of the way words are used in communication - likely built from more texts than a human could process in several lifetimes. They come out the gate with an enormous vocabulary and understanding of how to mimic, replicate it’s use. If they had been trained on just as much data, but data unrelated to communication, would you still think it capable of reasoning without the ability to “sound” human? They have the “vocabulary” and references to mimic a deep understanding but because we lack the ability to understand the final algorithm it seems like an enormous leap to presume actual reasoning is taking place.

Frankly, I see no reason for models like LLMs at this stage. I’m fine putting the breaks on this shit - even if we disagree on the reasons why. ML can and has been employed to achieve far more practical goals. Use it alongside humans for a while until it is verifiably more reliable at some task - recognizing cancer in imaging or generating molecules likely of achieving a desired goal. LLMs are just a lazy shortcut to look impressive and sell investors on the technology.

Maybe I am failing to see reality - maybe I don’t understand the latest “AI” well enough to give my two cents. That’s fine. I just think it’s being hyped because these companies desperately need VC money to stay afloat.

It works because humans have an insatiable desire to see agency everywhere they look. Spirits, monsters, ghosts, gods, and now “AI.”

Yes, both systems - the human brain and an LLM - assimilate and organize human written languages in order to use it for communication. An LLM is very little else beyond this. It is then given rules (using those written languages) and then designed to create more related words when given input. I just don’t find it convincing that an ML algorithm designed explicitly to mimic human written communication in response to given input “understands” anything. No matter *how convincingly" an algorithm might reproduce a human voice - perfectly matching intonation and inflexion when given text to read - if I knew it was an algorithm designed to do it as convincingly as possible I wouldn’t say it was capable of the feeling it is able to express.

The only thing in favor of sentience is that the ML algorithms modify themselves and end up being a black box - so complex with no way to represent them that they are impossible for humans to comprehend. Could it somehow have achieved sentience? Technically, yes, because we don’t understand how they work. We are just meat machines, after all.

LLMs (Large Language Modles, like Claude) are not AGIs (Artificial General Intelligence). LLMs generate convincing text by mapping the relationships between words scraped from their training data. Even if they are given “tools” that give them interfaces to reference new data or output data into other systems, they still don’t really learn, understand, comprehend, gain actual awareness, or feel… they just mimic their training data.

I’m giving up.

Judging by most of their comments, they aren’t interested in anything other than feeling right and upsetting anyone who disagrees.

Ah, yes, terrorist. I can see now. I envy you and your simple, nuance free worldview. Just use that magic word and it all makes sense. No need to consider any other factors - they are terrorists so obviously you just kill them, right?

Is there a problem with taking out Houthis?

You know the pirates shooting at commercial shipping?

Ah yes, because pirates blow shit up instead of taking it and selling it for personal gain.

Also, pretending like the Houthis situation is 100% independent of the Genocide in Gaza is disingenuous.

Israel has been an antagonist in the region for much of its existence. I’m sure the Houthis would take any excuse to fuck with Israel. However, their official line recently is basically “We’re going to fuck with shipping until you lift the blockade on Gaza.”

I think a major part of it is education and exposure. Conservativism is, generally, a desire to halt or even roll back “progress”. The embrace of traditions and nostalgia for the imaginary “good old days”. You know what your parents and your community taught you. You’ve established what normal is from your small sample size. Why change things? Everyone you know gets along just fine and you like the way it is. Different is scary.

Unfortunately, the world is really fucking complicated. Simple explanations can make perfect sense when your understanding is simple. However, the more you learn about the world, the more diversity you are exposed to, the more context you discover, the more stereotypes get broken… the more accommodating and progressive you usually become.

The will and the resources have been there trying to move in this direction for a long time. I do agree that he’s absolutely fast tracked the process. His complete disregard for civility, shameless willingness to grift, and transparently transactional nature have enabled the absolute worst in us. From hateful, racist poor folks to deranged religious nutjobs to narcissistic billionaires - they’ve all been given the green light now.

I just hope that everyone takes note of which side people are on and, when this is all over, make sure that the memory of those who stood on the wrong side of history are so shamed, ostracized, disgraced, and hated that this shit doesn’t happen again.

To be fair, Trump is not the source of the problem. He’s a Heritage Foundation puppet, and those psychos kind of have people everywhere right now.

He’s not a crybaby. He’s trying to make dissent illegal in preparation for a fascist takeover of the government.

Bad analogy, but we can agree to disagree.

Actually, the worldwide tariffs may have accelerated worldwide dedollarization. The world may move away from considering the American dollar the most safe and stable currency. That would impact the US’s ability to borrow by increasing interest rates for bonds, spiking the national debt. This is what is believed to have spooked Trump into “pausing” tariffs at 10% or whatever the fuck he’s saying now.

It’s victim blaming. In cases of domestic violence do you blame the abuser for abusing or the abused for not finding a way out? Do you congratulate the person not dealing with that situation for being smart enough to see that the abused should know better?

There is a difference between complacency and subjugation. We can agree to disagree.

In the US it seems that people are so ignorant that ad budget determines election outcomes. People don’t really want progressive policies, they are content with bread and circus.

There is a difference between being “content with bread and circus” and being deliberately psychologically overwhelmed and subjected to propaganda for generations. I have no illusions that, as victims, we need to be saved. We must save ourselves. Still, I think that compassion is required. Telling people they are too stupid and impotent to stand up for themselves will just make them defensive.

If you are in Europe and just want to feel better about yourself then have at it. Just don’t forget that wannabe Nazis are making a come back there too, and if powerful people in the US can get rich with this strategy you might be next.

That’s an extremely flawed take. Europeans wouldn’t vote against universal healthcare because Europe has experienced universal healthcare for decades. It spread throughout Europe in an extremely transformative time - while rebuilding from the destruction of WWII.

Americans are far more isolated than Europeans in many ways, and that also prevents us from truly understanding these kinds of issues. You can visit another country like we visit another state. This lets you experience so much more diversity of ideas than America gets.

Americans are fed lies by everyone around them because the lies let those in power keep power and make more money. We’ve been slowly drained of our ability to flourish. We spend an increasing amount of effort just surviving. We’re stressed and tired of the political turmoil, which lets politicians further strip us of our power.

I won’t deny that there are stupid, racist, willfully ignorant people here. I just don’t blame them for all of their ignorance. In order to learn, you need to be given the resources and opportunity to do so. Those in power here have worked very hard and spent a lot of money trying to prevent them from getting those things and feeding them lies about an alternate reality that maintains the status quo or further empowers the ruling class.

i felt the israel thing has much less of effect on voters than you think

Ok. I’m sorry you feel that way.

When a progressive candidate runs in a primary, the party itself sabotages them. The party leadership and party-favored candidates lie about the policies. The party prioritizes centrists with their funding.

The American public is one Facebook ad away from voting for a face eating Leopard.

In part, yes. I am arguing that you can’t ignore the fact that the democratic party itself paid for that Facebook ad.