Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagConfirmation bias

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Group of jurors sitting together in jury box during trial

The Large Language Model (LLM) “Superpower” Illusion Dies Hard

Historic confirmation bias around ESP and spirit cabinets makes for an interesting comparison with the current need to believe in the abilities of LLMs
Someone blinded by confirmation bias might believe that robots and Go victories are evidence that ChatGPT would be a reliable lawyer. Read More ›
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canine astronaut, with his paw on button to activate rocket thrusters, in the cockpit of spacecraft, created with generative ai

Do Cool Floor Buttons Really Cause Dogs To Talk?

The latest fad in “Talk to the animals” appears to be a classic in confirmation bias
We’ve been through this before. If we are looking for someone to really talk to, that someone must still really be a human. Read More ›
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Labyrinth

Are We Humans Getting Smarter or Have We Peaked?

The really surprising thing, science writer David Robson notes, is that it may not matter as much as we think

The Flynn effect — where tested intelligence increased over past generations due to better health and more education — is said to be slowing. Of course, such findings are difficult to assess because they are subject to value judgments. But David Robson, author of The Intelligence Trap: Why smart people make dumb mistakes (2019), offers some useful observations, including asking what does the Flynn effect really measure?: James Flynn himself has argued that it is probably confined to some specific reasoning skills. In the same way that different physical exercises may build different muscles – without increasing overall “fitness” – we have been exercising certain kinds of abstract thinking, but that hasn’t necessarily improved all cognitive skills equally. And some Read More ›