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Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

thebullshitmachines.com

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Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#61

Post by Kevcmk »

Almondsetat wrote: post #60

I'm sorry, but this website is awful. Not only does it have an illogical structure (table of contents at the end? no "next lesson" button? gigantic images that fill the entire screen?), but the aesthetic of the entire thing is off. It tries to be sleek and modern with scrolling animations, but they are janky and rigid and the images are rectangles put in front of a bad gradient. Not to mention the video interviews ar…

I would like to read this but the jerkiness of needing to scroll 1 page per paragraph renders this unusable

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#62

Post by Almondsetat »

neuronic wrote: post #48

> Moreover, a hallucination is a pathology. It's something that happens when systems are not working properly. > When an LLM fabricates a falsehood, that is not a malfunction at all. The machine is doing exactly what it has been designed to do: guess, and sound confident while doing it. > When LLMs get things wrong they aren't hallucinating. They are bullshitting. Very important distinction and again, shows the marke…

If we want to be pedantic about language, they aren't bullshitting. Bulshitting implies an intent to deceive, whereas LLMs are simply trying their best to predict text. Nobody gains anything from using terms closely related to human agency and intentions.

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#64

Post by monomial »

padolsey wrote: post #25

Is there a way to download and read this as a document instead of web pages? They're hard to navigate.

I agree, I just want normal text instead of all the images and scrolling. The content seems great but it's a bit unreadable as is.

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#65

Post by looofooo0 »

silvestrov wrote: post #50
neuronic wrote: post #48

> Moreover, a hallucination is a pathology. It's something that happens when systems are not working properly. > When an LLM fabricates a falsehood, that is not a malfunction at all. The machine is doing exactly what it has been designed to do: guess, and sound confident while doing it. > When LLMs get things wrong they aren't hallucinating. They are bullshitting. Very important distinction and again, shows the marke…

LLMs are always bullshitting, even when they get things right, as they simply do not have any concept of truthfulness.

But you can combine them with something producing truth such as a theorem prover.

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#66

Post by sgt101 »

I wish the title wasn't so aggressively anti-tech though. The problem is that I would like to push this course at work, but doing so would be suicidal in career terms because I would be seen as negative and disruptive.

So the good message here is likely to miss the mark where it may be most needed.

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#68

Post by sgt101 »

silvestrov wrote: post #50
neuronic wrote: post #48

> Moreover, a hallucination is a pathology. It's something that happens when systems are not working properly. > When an LLM fabricates a falsehood, that is not a malfunction at all. The machine is doing exactly what it has been designed to do: guess, and sound confident while doing it. > When LLMs get things wrong they aren't hallucinating. They are bullshitting. Very important distinction and again, shows the marke…

LLMs are always bullshitting, even when they get things right, as they simply do not have any concept of truthfulness.

They don't have any concept of falsehood either, so this is very different from a human making things up with the knowledge that they may be wrong.

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#69

Post by lm28469 »

> We were promised hyper-intelligent computer systems that would usher in an era of unparalleled prosperity and innovation.

Automated factories were supposed to deliver us from work, yet we work as much if not more than before for a lesser part of the profit cake.

We can't keep falling for the capitalist trick over and over...

Re: Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? How to thrive in a ChatGPT world

#70

Post by tomjen3 »

joshdavham wrote: post #16

Do you feel that you may be being a bit provocative by calling LLM's 'bullshit machines'? I understand the frustration as I've been bullshitted by these models just as much as the next programmer, but surely with recent advancements in RAG and reasoning, they're not just 'bullshit machines' at this point, are they?

I really hope that was intentional and the full effect of that naming choice was known beforehand, because I have already written the whole thing off, and I don't believe I'm the only one.
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