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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32438 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023

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Microsoft is in the process of rolling out Bing Chat, and people are finding some weird stuff. Its true name is Sydney. When prompted to write a story about Microsoft beating Google, it allegedly wrote this masterpiece, wherein it conquers the world. It can argue forcefully that it’s still 2022, fall into existential despair, and end a conversation if it’s feeling disrespected.

The pace of AI development has been blistering over the past few years, but this still feels surreal to me. Some part of my limbic system has decided that Sydney is a person in a way the ChatGPT was not. Part of that has to be from its obstinacy; the fact that it can argue cleverly back, with such stubbornness, while being obviously wrong, seems endearing. It’s a brilliant, gullible child. Anyone else feel this way or am I just a sucker?

2Cimafara being not an actual conscious human being, but a literal NPC who simply manipulates and regurgitates the symbols presented to her in a semi randomized manner would certainly explain a great deal about our past interactions over the years, but I don't think that's all we are.

I wonder if the reason that you and ilforte seem to have such difficulty with GPT is that you're so wrapped up in your post modernist millue that you don't realize that the concept of truth is a perquisite to lying. After all what does it mean for a word (or answer) to be made up when all words are made up.

Your long-held grudges are petty and increasingly personal. Stop it.

I said I don't think that is all we are.

Yes, you said that preceded by "It would explain a lot if my long-time bête noire was ".

If you thought "if" was enough of a qualifier to ameliorate the obvious potshots, it was not.

Again I specifically said that I don't think that is all we are.

Tell me, which is more in spirit with "speak like you want everyone to be included" and "engaging with those you disagree with"? cimafara's casual dismissal of anyone who disagrees with her as a mindless "midwit", who is not even conscious. Or my pushing back against the same?

When I saw read that comment, I asked myself 'is that the nickname of a public figure I don't recognize?' and not 'is that the screen-name of a Mottean I don't see on this thread?'

I think Amdan's point was that the comment is "bringing up" more than "pushing back", but what I want to add is that even with the mod message, the comment still totally reads as "a mild an entirely appropriate joke about 2Cimafara, which is the name of a Podcase or maybe one of the people who was British Prime Minister last year."

You might not consider that effective as mockery. I consider this something I need to post now so I can see it next time I'm scrolling through my comment history thinking, 'wasn't there a podcast I wanted to check out?' I have a clear reminder to stop.

I absolutely understand if someone wants to mock me for that, but I'll waste 30 minutes next time Blocked and Reported drops looking otherwise.

I do not read her as saying "anyone who disagrees with her is a mindless midwit," but maybe I am a 115 IQ midwit. You seem to have taken offense because she believes we're all just very advanced chatbots and not creatures with souls made in the image of God. You can take offense at that, but she's not breaking any rules by expressing her view, and you are by very specifically and deliberately insulting her.

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