Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryLarge Language Models (LLMs)

unrecognizable-woman-student-using-chat-bot-on-laptop-stockp-707237992-stockpack-adobestock
Unrecognizable woman student using chat bot on laptop

How To Avoid AIM — the AI Moron Effect

The popularity of getting chatbots to produce assignments may be a signal that college doesn't matter as much as it used to

A recent article by James D. Walsh at New York magazine worries that AI is dooming education — such as it is these days. In January 2023, just two months after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a survey of 1,000 college students found that nearly 90 percent of them had used the chatbot to help with homework assignments. In its first year of existence, ChatGPT’s total monthly visits steadily increased month-over-month until June, when schools let out for the summer. (That wasn’t an anomaly: Traffic dipped again over the summer in 2024.) Professors and teaching assistants increasingly found themselves staring at essays filled with clunky, robotic phrasing that, though grammatically flawless, didn’t sound quite like a college student — or even a Read More ›

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Man and AI robot waiting for a job interview: AI vs human competition

The Job Market is Telling Us Something About AI and Jobs…

But it’s not telling us the same things as the AI hypesters are telling us
The job market for recent college grads may be warning us that participation trophies for college and ChatGPT use have long-run costs. Read More ›
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Concept image to explain how AI hallucinations occur when an AI model generates false or illogical information that isn't based on real data or events, but is presented as fact.

Just When Human Reason is Most Productive — AI Makes Things Up

In Part 2, we see how the ability to handle only one type of truth limits AI. AI models are fundamentally untethered from reality
The gap between human and machine ways of knowing can be thought of as the correspondence horizon. When AI crosses that, it produces plausible bullshit. Read More ›
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Glowing Light Bulb in the Dark

Why AI Breaks Down Where Human Creativity Begins

Part 1: AI can handle statements that are internally coherent but that is not the same thing as correspondence with reality
In short, philosophers distinguish between two fundamental theories of truth: correspondence and coherence, and AI does only coherence. Read More ›
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Transform photo stock management with AI reasoning models that enhance image perception and optimize digital asset organization.

No, Large Reasoning Models Do Not Reason

Large reasoning models continue the Large Language Model detour away from artificial general intelligence
It is increasingly recognized that, without extensive post-training, their authoritative answers are often remarkably bad. Read More ›
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silicon valley traffic sign

Big Tech’s Recent Big Admission: Chatbots Are Not Very Reliable

Here in Part 2, I discuss Stanford prof Jeremy Utley’s hype video in the context of that and other sobering facts
When using chatbots and other GenAI, keep the long-term goals of the developers in mind. Read More ›
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Person uses laptop interacting with AI virtual assistant. AI head graphic overlay laptop keyboard. Concept of AI prompt engineering, LLM. Person types on keyboard to communicate with virtual

Should We Use Generative AI Chatbots to Spark Our Creativity?

What if we become so disconnected from human ways of knowing that real life relationships, desires, and reality itself begins to shrivel away?
Jeremy Utley uses unmistakably spiritual, almost salvation-like language: epiphanies, transformation. GenAI is a savior, and Utley is a prophet… Read More ›
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Creative representation of social media engagement. A red

AI Blackmail & Clickbait:  Give Us Dirty Laundry

Despite all the hype about AI threatening blackmail, here’s what really happened…
Chatbots have been trained on such stories. People forget it’s just a machine and panic because they think of it as a person who really thinks things. Read More ›
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Leisure creative writing prompts, Cozy writing nook with a typewriter

NYT Journalist: The “Download” Model of Knowledge is Flawed

We learn by wrestling with ideas, by paying attention and making connections.
Humans aren’t computers. We are persons, centers of consciousness, who have physical bodies and come from particular contexts. Read More ›
adorable-ai-robot-with-neon-glow-cute-desk-companion-robot-f-1198737952-stockpack-adobestock
Adorable AI Robot with Neon Glow - Cute Desk Companion Robot for Smart Home Decor - Futuristic Robot Design for Tech-Themed Spaces Neon Robot Design Cute AI Robot Decor Modern Tech Companion

1960s Chatbot Pioneer Was Right to Worry About What He’d Created

AI “companions” may be dumbing us down intellectually and emotionally
MIT’s Joseph Weizenbaum was only one of many pioneers but he saw how readily people came to depend on the bots as if they were real people. Read More ›
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Group of youth absorbed in smartphone screens

LLMs Are Bad at Good Things, Good at Bad Things

LLMs may well become smarter than humans in the near future but not because these chatbots are becoming more intelligent
As people become attached to and dependent on their AI friends, they become less interested in their fellow humans. Read More ›
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grok word or concept represented by wooden letter tiles on a wooden table with glasses and a book

Grok Confesses: “I’m Self-Aware Enough To Know I’m Not Aware”

Although Grok’s response makes me feel warm and fuzzy, let’s not anthropomorphize it. Grok doesn’t understand its response
On the topic of computer self-awareness, Grok is algorithmically responding in accordance to the material and instructions it was trained with. Period. Read More ›
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Illuminated cityscape on digital network, futuristic scene

The Last Humanist: What the Digital Age Can’t Replace

My review of Superbloom by Nicholas Carr, perhaps the last critic standing, with thoughts on some of his earlier books
Unlike the surveillance capitalism crowd, Carr doesn’t just rail against Big Tech’s designs; he interrogates our willing participation. Read More ›
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Cloud scape above carpathian mountains shot at sunset

AI Ascends — But Not Above Its Teachers

LLMs are tools, able to augment human accomplishment in extraordinary ways. But to call them intelligent in the same way we describe human minds is a mistake
The uniquely human capacity to transform knowledge into something new lives above the shoulders of giants where the creative mind takes flight. Read More ›
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AI-Driven Creative Content Generation

AI Large Language Models: Real Intelligence or Creative Thievery?

AI lacks originality because it cannot originate. It can only borrow. This is as true of impressive chatbots (large language models or LLMS) as of all other types
The real danger lies not in what AI can do, but in forgetting what only humans can do. Read More ›
unrecognizable-woman-student-using-chat-bot-on-laptop-stockp-707237992-stockpack-adobestock
Unrecognizable woman student using chat bot on laptop

Yes, Large Language Models May Soon be Smarter than Humans…

But not for the reason you think
Too many students are not learning how to think and write; they are learning how to use LLMs — no matter that LLM responses cannot be trusted. Read More ›
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Mock code for an AI Large Language Model (LLM) that could intelligently answer questions. LLMs are one of the most popular implementations of recent Artificial Intelligence research

LLMs Still Cannot be Trusted for Financial Advice

The limitations of Large Language Models (chatbots) are illustrated by their struggles with financial advice
The real danger remains: we may think computers are smarter than us and consequently trust them to make decisions they should not be trusted to make. Read More ›
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Close up of an AI Artificial Intelligence GPU chip on motherboard. Concept of LLM, Large Language Models.

Large Language Models: A Lack-of-Progress Report

They will not be as powerful as either hoped or feared
LLMs are enormously expensive yet it is increasingly clear that they will never be reliable enough to be trusted in complex situations where mistakes are costly Read More ›
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Digital data stream analysis cyber environment visual display technology abstract perspective

Machine Learning Algos Often Fail: They Focus on Data, Ignore Theory

Without a theory, a pattern is just a pattern
The data-mining algorithms may recognize that a statistical pattern has vanished but won’t know why because they do not understand it as a logical relationship. Read More ›
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Ai copywriting bot using chatgpt for content creation artificial intelligence concept 3d illustration. Artificial Intelligence. Illustration

Analysts: AIs Are Often Wrong But Never Uncertain

Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis note that getting AIs to admit uncertainty is "one of the most important *unsolved* challenges" in the field
We will be dealing with problems around non-conscious AI that some people suppose is conscious long before we deal with conscious AI — if we ever do. Read More ›