site banner
magic9mushroom  If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me  3mo ago (thezvi.wordpress.com)   1802 thread views

Danger, AI Scientist, Danger

thezvi.wordpress.com

Zvi Mowshowitz reporting on an LLM exhibiting unprompted instrumental convergence. Figured this might be an update to some Mottizens.

9
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Yes diffusion models work for text too. The difference between a collated set of pixels (ie an image) and a collated set of letters (ie a word or sentence) is purely conceptual. From an algorithmic perspective it's all just "tokens". However, this overlap in operation doesn't mean that they are not very different beasts under the proverbial hood.

By way of analogy, a conventional piston engine, a turbine engine, and an electric motor attached to a battery may all accomplish the base task of "make the vehicle go" but they have different trade-offs, use cases, and operating principles. Point being that similar output does not equal similar function.

As someone who has actually spent some time "in the trenches" as it were, designing algorithms and writing code to execute them, I am in broad agreement with @Corvos's take. The opening of Mowshowitz's essay comes across as ignorant, lazy, and plainly self-serving and nothing that follows really challenges that first impression of him.

The link from Hinton is better but seems make a lot of similar mistakes. It seems clear to me that both are far more interested in driving engagement through hyperbole than really exploring or helping others understand the underlying questions and theories.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats