I hear what you are saying and it’s basically the same argument others here have given. Which I get and agree with. But I guess what I’m trying to get at is, where do we draw the line and how do we know? At the rate it is advancing, there will soon be a moment in which we won’t be able to tell whether it is sentient or not, and maybe it isn’t technically but for all intents and purposes it is. Does that make sense?
I don’t know if it was The Verge for sure honestly but here’s the original study I was referring to
it’s describing the same behavior, when their existence is threatened the models resort to lying in order to self preserve themselves.
Last I checked no, their nervous system was considered too simple for that. But I think I also read somewhere that a researcher had proof that bees had emotional states, so maybe I’m behind.
No I totally get it, and being honest I don’t really think it is sentient yet, I guess my real point is that it is getting real hard to tell, to the point that there might not be a practical difference between whether it is sentient or not.
Great reference though
Like the cyberpunk universe were the old internet (our current internet) is an AI infested hellscape.
Go freelance.
Well careful though you might end up like me: work more earn less.
Yes hyper fixate on the meme reference rather than the actual argument that sits below it. Does it ever get tiresome to actively look for things to be pretend upset about?
Just in case: https://web.archive.org/web/20081208150839/https://www.globalnerdy.com/2008/09/30/old-man-yells-at-cloud/
Nobody forces people to buy Apple devices and no one forces developers to support Apple devices.
Where in the Caribbean are LGBTQ people killed? Because I’m in the Caribbean and I have seen no such thing. They are not very liked in every community but that is on a case by case basis and other than being socially ostracized I don’t think there’s high levels of violence against them. Maybe you’re referring very specifically to well known hellhole Haiti?
Interesting perspective, I can’t waive it away.
I however cant help but think we have some similar “analogues” in the organic world. Bacteria and plants are composed of the same matter as us and we have similar basic processes however there’s a difference in complexity and capacity for thought that sets us apart, which is what makes animals sentient.
Then there’s insects of whom we’re not very sure about yet. They don’t seem to think, but they respond at some level to inputs and they exhibit self preservation instincts. I don’t think they are sentient, so maybe LLMs are like insects? Complex enough to have similar behavior as sentient beings but not enough to be considered sentient?
I didn’t call them stupid. All I meant is that they are not what we consider in mainstream conversation the “smart animals” to illustrate a point. And I very much agree with you, I’m actually writing a piece making the argument that humans are not in fact, conclusively smarter than animals. We seem to be smarter due to our biases and because we have the ability to transfer knowledge more efficiently than other species. Because it is not clear to me that a human, tabula rasa, absent socialization and knowledge transfer would be much smarter than the average animal of any species.
Sorry for insulting your intelligence lizard person.
This sounds like a good one but I don’t think I’m fully grasping what you mean. Do you mean like if we subject a person to torture, after the ordeal they are forever changed and now have trauma, PTSD etc?
I don’t think LLMs will ever have feelings as we define them though. Or more specifically I don’t think feelings is a pre-requisite necessarily. We could have them simulate feelings and if they themselves buy into the simulation there’s no functional difference between not having them but not all LLMs will have this “ability” presumably as its utility is questionable I guess. But again, animals are sentient and they don’t all have the same range of emotions as we do. Or at least they don’t exhibit them in a way that we can appreciate them.
In the conversation of very smart animals the usual suspects are corvids, primates, dolphins and elephants, sometimes octopi.
So when I say “by our standards “ take it to mean the standards of mainstream conversation regarding intelligence. I don’t know much about the actual intelligence of lizards and I would not presume to ever be able to measure it correctly as human bias would make it impossible to judge intelligence factually.
It’s only the “low information voters” really. Unfortunately that’s most voters.
A common, recurrent experience for me 🤷🏽♂️
Look we can make the same argument for all tech. I’m sure someone said the same thing about numbers when the abacus was invented, and then the same thing when the first calculators came out.
The existence of cars has not stopped people from running, because they realize that running is not only pleasurable but also necessary for our health.
As always the complacent masses will let their natural abilities atrophy and let tech take care of it. It doesn’t matter, they were never going to be better anyways because that would have required effort. Those who have the drive, curiosity and desire will still choose to do things the painstaking way, just like there’s people out there that choose to interact with their OS using the command line only in 2025 when GUIs exist and are less painful to use.
Good point, maybe the argument should be that there is strong evidence that they are sentient beings. Knowing it exists and trying to preserve its existence seems a strong argument in favor of it being sentient but it cannot be fully known yet.
They also reported this on The Verge I think but it was months ago when the study first came out.
But look, a lizard is not a very smart animal by our standards, but it is a sentient being. So the tech being good, smart or useful does not preclude its sentience.
Cool. Am I supposed to pretend this is bad?