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ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

nabilalouani.substack.com

1–10 of 85 posts

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#2
Sigh. This guy can chirp about how "ChatGPT doesn't understand what it's been asked" as much as he wants but he is missing the forest for the trees.

I'll use myself as example. ChatGPT can write better than me, it can summarize better than me, it can research quicker than I can, and it is more creative than I can ever be.

I don't care if it "understands" in a way that would satisfy Nabil Alouani, its ability to produce useful output is a game-changer.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#3
I agree that chatGPT et al are way overhyped, and don't represent any fundamental advances beyond product development.

That said, this article's a bit of a strawman, hinging way too much on a pedantic definition of "understand". He's correct, but it's not really the crux, and unfortunately this will all be very easy to dismiss

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#4

I agree that chatGPT et al are way overhyped, and don't represent any fundamental advances beyond product development. That said, this article's a bit of a strawman, hinging way too much on a pedantic definition of "understand". He's correct, but it's not really the crux, and unfortunately this will all be very easy to dismiss

I don't really agree that much with this idea, "..any fundamental advances beyond...", ok, technically chatGPT is just somewhat a reshuffle of pretty well known models, but the implementation is king, always.

And first, some weeks ago you have all these powerful secret models behind corporate firewalls, inside some secure lab, now most of those owners are rushing to reshuffle their respective models to catch on with chatGPT and now with Bing + chatGPT.

Hence, the implementation is what did the trick, the tech was there for sometime already (more than a year? I'll ask chatGPT). And now other public facing applications of this technology are on the table too.

Because, the rabbit is out the hat already, if you don't use your technology, somebody else will have the upper hand in other reachable markets, just like Microsoft is now running away a good million miles ahead of the rest of the Search market competitors.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#5
post #2

Sigh. This guy can chirp about how "ChatGPT doesn't understand what it's been asked" as much as he wants but he is missing the forest for the trees. I'll use myself as example. ChatGPT can write better than me, it can summarize better than me, it can research quicker than I can, and it is more creative than I can ever be. I don't care if it "understands" in a way that would satisfy Nabil Alouani, its ability to produ…

Yeah boring, god of the gaps.

Imagine being the 10000th person to give this uninspired take.

> Cats have a representation of the world that help them navigate it. They also have instincts programmed into their brains, allowing them to act with relative logic. In contrast, GPT and Co only have patterns of human-written text devoid of meaning.

This is wrong. To say chatgpt doesn't represent the world instead it only has patterns is distinction without difference. This is the new dualism. There is "real understanding" and AI can't do that by definition because "understanding" isn't anything except being a human and acting apparently.

The Loki thought experiment is laughable.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#6
These articles are all the same. It's like complaining how the Ford Model T couldn't drive you to England in the early 20th century while ignoring how it would revolutionize cities and life within America.

Whether you believe it's 'real' or not is irrelevant. It's here, it's useful and the world will not be the same as it was.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#7
post #2

Sigh. This guy can chirp about how "ChatGPT doesn't understand what it's been asked" as much as he wants but he is missing the forest for the trees. I'll use myself as example. ChatGPT can write better than me, it can summarize better than me, it can research quicker than I can, and it is more creative than I can ever be. I don't care if it "understands" in a way that would satisfy Nabil Alouani, its ability to produ…

Yeah boring, god of the gaps. Imagine being the 10000th person to give this uninspired take. > Cats have a representation of the world that help them navigate it. They also have instincts programmed into their brains, allowing them to act with relative logic. In contrast, GPT and Co only have patterns of human-written text devoid of meaning. This is wrong. To say chatgpt doesn't represent the world instead it only ha…

It's always tech-adjacent types that drop these crap takes from what I've seen. Maybe they're threatened as SWEs are last to go when LLMs can generate code - someone has to check it; we just won't need two PMs, scrum lord and a BI attaché for that...

ChatGPT has allowed me to explore programming topics where there is, otherwise, very little useful information - it won't produce good code verbatim but it doesn't have to - it's my robotic rubber duck.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#8
> Models don’t understand anything

Are people really so unaware of themselves? What is understanding? I'm not going to even attempt to define that, but I will posit that the only way we have of verifying understanding, regardless of what definition you use, is validating the correct output for a given input. For instance, when we teach children, we validate their understanding by giving them a test. Are we able to look into their brain and pinpoint exactly where that understanding comes from? No. So why do we apply a different standard for an algorithm? Clearly LLMs understand a lot. That doesn't mean the algorithm is conscious or sentient, but it has understanding.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#9
post #8

> Models don’t understand anything Are people really so unaware of themselves? What is understanding? I'm not going to even attempt to define that, but I will posit that the only way we have of verifying understanding, regardless of what definition you use, is validating the correct output for a given input. For instance, when we teach children, we validate their understanding by giving them a test. Are we able to lo…

I'm pretty sure that ChatGPT doesn't "understand" things as humans do.

But does it mean that it has no ability to understand things? For example, assume there is an alien species that can only see ultraviolet, but not any other lightwave in human's visual spectrum. They don't "see" things as humans do. But we'll still consider they to have ability to see things.

Re: ChatGPT Hype Is Proof Nobody Understands AI

#10
post #2

Sigh. This guy can chirp about how "ChatGPT doesn't understand what it's been asked" as much as he wants but he is missing the forest for the trees. I'll use myself as example. ChatGPT can write better than me, it can summarize better than me, it can research quicker than I can, and it is more creative than I can ever be. I don't care if it "understands" in a way that would satisfy Nabil Alouani, its ability to produ…

Was this your opinion or ChatGPT’s?
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