this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

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Recently, there has been considerable interest in large language models: machine learning systems which produce human-like text and dialogue. Applications of these systems have been plagued by persistent inaccuracies in their output; these are often called “AI hallucinations”. We argue that these falsehoods, and the overall activity of large language models, is better understood as bullshit in the sense explored by Frankfurt (On Bullshit, Princeton, 2005): the models are in an important way indifferent to the truth of their outputs. We distinguish two ways in which the models can be said to be bullshitters, and argue that they clearly meet at least one of these definitions. We further argue that describing AI misrepresentations as bullshit is both a more useful and more accurate way of predicting and discussing the behaviour of these systems.

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Imagine still not realizing what a useful skill bullshitting is. Literally, hundreds of millions of people are professional bullshitters. So many people go do bullshit every day, all day. Having a machine that can produce the same or better bullshit than them frees them from suffering through doing all that bullshit. I can't think of something that is more bullshit than pretending like there is no benefit from automating the bullshit out of our lives.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thank you, that is such a beautiful and liberating vision for the future!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

imagine a world with 10^^^ times more bullshit, but all the human bullshiters are unemployed! Able to do what they want (except pay rent).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

i'll take a world where all ad-makers, middle managers, salesmen, conmen, vcs and people who serve them pptxs filled with good idea powder thonking are unemployed (without the automated salesmen flooding internet tubes with drivel part)

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Except it's not really being automated out of our lives, is it? I find it hard to imagine how increasing the rate at which bullshit can be produced leads to a world with less bullshit in it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

See that sucker over there? If I don’t mug him, somebody else, probably a guy with much looser morals than me, will. [pulls down the balaclava]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Problem is that it doesn't automate away the bullshit in our lives. We're creating even more bullshit that we're forced to deal with online and at our jobs. Sure we can use the bullshit generator to respond to bullshit, but how do you know what's bullshit in the first place, are you going to ask your bullshit generator to sort that out for you as well?