TagChatGPT
LLMs Are Still Faux Intelligence
Large language models are remarkable but it's a huge mistake to think they're "intelligence" in any meaningful sense of the word.Lawsuit Champions Human Creativity Over AI Mimicry
Copyright laws can protect against sophisticated plagiarism.Why Are We Obsessed With How Smart AI Is?
The people with the most specific knowledge should be assessing applications for AI and their risks.Authors Guild Sues OpenAI For Unlawful Copying of Creative Works
Did ChatGPT make physical copies of copyrighted books and articles?So AI is “Slightly Conscious” Now?
The AI optimists can't get away from the problem of consciousness.The idea that artificial intelligence could ever become actually “intelligent” is a minority view, but it’s espoused by some brilliant minds, including Jason Lemoine, an ex-Google employee who claimed the company’s developing AI system was sentient. Lemoine isn’t alone. According to Futurism, OpenAI’s top researcher, Ilya Sutskever, claimed in a Tweet this week that “large neural networks are slightly conscious.” Noor Al-Sibai writes, He’s long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the AI documentary “iHuman,” for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will “solve all the problems that we have today” before warning that they will also present “the potential to create Read More ›
New Poll Says Most People Don’t Want “Super AI”
Not all problems can be solved through techDespite tech companies’ search to create an artificial “super-intelligence,” a recent poll suggests ordinary citizens want no such thing to be set loose into the world. Sigal Samuel, writing for Vox, talks about technological “solutionism, ” the idea that all the world’s problems, moral or otherwise, can be solved through mere technological progress. This ideology, he notes, extends to the current craze and hype surrounding AI. Sigal writes, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) enthusiasts promise that the coming superintelligence will bring radical improvements. It could develop everything from cures for diseases to better clean energy technologies. It could turbocharge productivity, leading to windfall profits that may alleviate global poverty. And getting to it first could help the US maintain an edge over China; Read More ›
The Strike is Over
After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America's (WGA) strike against Hollywood has ended.After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) strike against Hollywood has ended. WGA and Hollywood came to an agreement that includes higher employee wages and limitations in the ways artificial intelligence (AI) can be employed. AI has been at the forefront of the moviemaking conversation for the past few months, and for good reason. TV and movie writers are concerned with how the technology might take away their jobs or otherwise cheapen the quality of TV scripts. Ryan Faughnder writes for the Los Angeles Times, The new WGA contract includes language that regulates the studio’s use of AI but also provides flexibility to the guild’s members. Companies must disclose to writers if any material given to a Read More ›
If ChatGPT Had Children, Would They Be Geniuses or Blubbering Idiots?
It would seem that when AI begets more AI, the result is nonsense.When ChatGPT Talks Science
Can AI ever transcend its trained biases?Novelists Against AI
17 authors are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement17 prominent authors including George R.R. Martin and John Grisham are suing OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, for copyright infringement and “theft,” according to the Associated Press (AP). The authors are among many in the creative field who are expressing concern over the ethics of AI use. A spokesperson for the Authors Guild said that it’s imperative to stop AI’s theft to preserve America’s “incredible literary culture,” according to the AP. Hillel Italie reports, The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin that alleges the program generated “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline for a prequel” to “A Game of Thrones” that was titled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and used “the same characters Read More ›
Inferring the Best Explanation Using Artificial Intelligence
With its wealth of information at hand, how well can AI make accurate inferences?ChatGPT is Getting More Impressive
Nonetheless, human intelligence remains qualitatively different from artificial intelligence.Revisiting Marks, Lemoine, on AI and Consciousness
What is AI? In what sense can it be said to be "intelligent"? Could it ever be sentient, or conscious?ChatGPT is Losing Momentum
Is the "hype curve" starting to flatten out?ChatGPT’s traffic has declined for the third month in a row, according to Reuters. The Large Language Model (LLM) AI tool took the world by storm in November of 2022 when it was released by OpenAI, posing questions of academic integrity, and urging a host of tech giants to incorporate LLMs into their own platforms and search engines. Anna Tong writes, Worldwide desktop and mobile website visits to the ChatGPT website decreased by 3.2% to 1.43 billion in August, following approximately 10% drops from each of the previous two months. The amount of time visitors spent on the website has also been declining monthly since March, from an average of 8.7 minutes on site to 7 minutes on site in Read More ›
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 3)
The claim that all things are conscious (including AI) misunderstands the meaning of the termArtificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 2)
A machine no more “does things on its own” than a catapult flings by itself.Revisiting “Non-Computable You”
New podcast episode reviews the key ideas and insights of the book "Non-Computable You"If you’re a regular reader of Mind Matters, you’ve probably heard us applaud and discuss the book by computer scientist and professor Robert J. Marks, Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. The book is well worth reading and sheds much needed insights on our current technological moment where AI is either seen as the “greatest thing ever” or the tool that will enslave and destroy humanity, Terminator style. However, if you’re more of an audiobook kind of person, maybe you’ll just want to listen to a new podcast episode in which Dr. Marks discusses the key themes of his book with various hosts. You can listen to the podcast or download it for free here: Why Read More ›
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 1)
The cherished fiction of conscious machines is an impossibilityGoogle + AI Feature = Chaos
Google SGE is producing nonsensical word salads. Is this really supposed to replace traditional search engines?“Even with access to all the information in the digital world, AI can still be very, very stupid,” writes Maggie Harrison at Futurism. She’s referencing Google’s AI search feature, Google SGE, that “doesn’t understand geography” or the alphabet. When Harrison and her peers noticed someone complain about a glitch in the AI search feature, which purported that there were no countries in Africa that started with the letter “K” (ahem, Kenya, anyone?) they decided to test it out for themselves. Sure enough, the verdict is in. Google’s AI doesn’t know how to parse out blatantly false information. Harrison writes, When asked to provide a list of “countries in North America that start with the letter M,” for instance, Google SGE Read More ›