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I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

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Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#111
post #38

It's hard to read Gwern's accompanying article without seeing this for what it is, which is a kind of mania. I'm sure he means well and is genuine in his aspirations, but what's outlined for GA is framing LLM's as quasi-gods, which they absolutely are not. I wish him the best, and look forward to being proven wrong.

Meh. It does all sound rather grandiose, but in this startup economy I'm sure he can at least manage to get acquired. At least he's pursuing something more novel than yet another "sandboxes for agents".

In this startup economy? Where almost no one is getting acquired anymore and over fifty percent of global venture is locked up in dead weight and liquidity is at an all time low?

Not sure how you can feel sure anyone can get acquired even if their company had a path to profitability, much less for ones that absolutely don't.

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#112

> What would it take for LLMs to make me 100× more productive? Without this, I am doomed to irrelevance. Are you, though? You will only be "doomed" if your place your value system squarely on "productivity". Then what is to differentiate you from a machine? * * * Edit: I'm not sure how I can feel confident about a proposal that puts so much value on "productivity". How can you reconcile this with "self-actualization"…

One of the example Gwern brings [1] is a GA as an agent for public discourse and political life, to bring your "set of values" to have an effect in solving society's issues, when you yourself don't have the time or energy to.

I don't think it solves or reconciles with self-actualization, but, from a pragmatical point of view, it offers the promise of extending causally your set of views and philosophies to politics.

Gwern also mentions that it allows to keep "human values" (if the GA truly upholds yours) in the loop, in processes that are to eventually be automatized beyond human's reach.

[1] https://gwern.net/guardian-angel#use-cases-politics-politics

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#113
post #95

Only, if he had instead fallen in love with the version of this idea in which a community acts as the principal, rather than an individual. (I would like to be known to the agent serving my family, that serving my friends, my team at work, the PTA at my kids' school.)

I don't think that GA would be incapable of that, from what I know of LLMs and agents. The part where you make the GA uphold your set of values could, instead of coming from an individual, come from a collective. Price could be shared too!

(Oh wait, is this the birth of AI mayors?)

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#114

A few snippets from his full post here: https://gwern.net/guardian-angel . > "The chatbot personas are deeply misaligned with you, and aligned with their owners; and the economic incentives are to farm you with ads and subscriptions, while racing not to amplify you but to replace you." > "On my visits to the Bay Area, I would ask AI researchers or interns why they are doing their current research or projects, when in…

Mods, please replace submission with this more accessiable link.

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#115
It's a fascinating proposition but I see a couple of issues with it:

1. Most of us do not have the volume of training material that gwern has 2. Most people likely would not need this functionality (as I understand it to be)

For #1 I'm sure there are ways to wring data out of metadata (e.g., youtube history log), and I'm guessing email and IMs would be a start. But a clone of yourself -- that would be a significant amount of extrapolation)

For #2, there's obviously people that would love this functionality (myself included). But I think its safe to assume that most of the population would be satisfied with having a capable digital personal assistant that knew your needs and wants.

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can nod along when I hear and read people talking about the dangers of these technologies and the endgame of their creators; and then suddenly very weird when everyone except me is nodding along that the answer must be similar (but different) technology! It's as if technologists are stuck in a room of mirrors, unable to imagine a world in which "solutions" don't ultimately just continue to feed technology's increas…

Technologists don't drive decisions though. The shareholders do. Edit: I mean technically shareholders don't decide any operational choices but their shallow interests are what everything is decided around.

Maybe that's truer in other industries, but the history of Silicon Valley is at great odds with such a claim.

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#119

LLM psychosis claims another victim... A reminder for anyone reading this: talk to people. Real humans[1]. They will remind you there's more to life than what ChatGPT can offer you. They might even remind you, for all their stupidity and flaws, what intelligence looks like as compared to a program that predicts tokens. Forums like these always get philosophical in high-minded discussions about intelligence, but there…

I understand the point that the physical world is still our (human's) anchor, but the virtual world still "exists" anyway, as in: it impacts the physical world.

Whether some humans are "Real humans", anchored in the physical world, and some are "LLM psychosis victims" is, in itself, not problematic I think: they each deal with parts of reality that are divided, but still affect one another.

Of course, a society more grounded in the physical would feel less dystopian... But ultimately, I think that GA is an intellectual's approach to fighting *for* humans in this numerical world.

Re: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel

#120
post #30

As exciting as it sounds, but "As a constraint, a GA designer should aim at a system which costs, as of mid-2026, >$1,000⧸month" will make this an elite tool for the privileged. I don't even disagree with the premise that people are shocked if something costs no matter how much value it delivers, nor do I suggest they should make it cheaper. It is just the realization that AI will accelerate the widening of the gap b…

2026: $1,000/month 2027: $100/month 2028: $10/month

RAM:

2024: $315

2025: $780

2026: $1600

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