The metaphors of artificial intelligence

2024/11/14 by Melanie Mitchell · 3 voices · 10 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Medicine · #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education

paper · doi:10.1126/science.adt6140

Abstract

A few months after ChatGPT was released, the neural network pioneer Terrence Sejnowski wrote about coming to grips with the shock of what large language models (LLMs) could do: "Something is beginning to happen that was not expected even a few years ago. A threshold was reached, as if a space alien suddenly appeared that could communicate with us in an eerily human way.…Some aspects of their behavior appear to be intelligent, but if it's not human intelligence, what is the nature of their intelligence?"

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• Why sycophantic LLMs may imperil interactive norms between humans
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Discussions

• Nice piece by @melaniemitchell.bsky.social on metaphors in AI. Too often, scientists see metaphors as avoidable and problematic. But metaphors do--and must--structure how we conceive, design, and leg [bsky, 44 points, 1 comments]
• This piece by @melaniemitchell.bsky.social is absolutely essential for thinking clearly about LLMs. doi.org/10.1126/scie... [bsky, 7 points, 1 comments]
• And more reading from @melaniemitchell.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1126/scie... [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

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