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LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

arxiv.org

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Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#21

Post by qarl2 »

Retr0id wrote: post #18
qarl2 wrote: post #16

Ok... but are automobiles also a virus? Because we've become dependent on them? Should we also facilitate reversibility in our automobile usage? What about cooking food? We've become entirely dependent on cooking food.

> Should we also facilitate reversibility in our automobile usage Yes?

That's why I added the part about food. Or heck, computers. Or telephones. Or any incredibly useful technology.

Toothbrushes! What will we do if we come to rely on toothbrushes??? The use of toothbrushes travels from person to person exactly like a virus!!!

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#22

Post by calf »

I literally thought of this comparison last week. The problem I noticed was how my parents' generation lacked the cognitive "defenses" to separate AI social media content on YouTube, WhatsApp and the like from high quality information. The AI generated content does not trigger an "uncanny valley" reaction, and so people (I myself included) have greater difficulty immediately separating what information is genuine and what is synthetic, and then this spreads exponentially through social networks.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#23

Post by tptacek »

Avicebron wrote: post #8
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're specifically not using the term "virus" pejoratively, but rather distinguishing the social mechanism LLMs seem to have from something as simple as a "meme".

Contagion probably is more accurate.

Well, a meme is contagious, but it doesn't do the same work a virus can at altering the structure of its host.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#26

Post by grebc »

Avicebron wrote: post #8
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're specifically not using the term "virus" pejoratively, but rather distinguishing the social mechanism LLMs seem to have from something as simple as a "meme".

Contagion probably is more accurate.

STD outbreak maps better.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#27

Post by dspillett »

Suhinnall27 wrote: post #14

LLMs are both a blessing and a curse, they magnificent tools for those who know how to employ them , but a crutch for those who rely on them.

And like a cult to those of us preferring not to engage, for whatever reason, with everyone and their dog telling us that we should (and sometimes getting quite offended, like our refusal to play that game is a personal attack on them for choosing to).

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#28

Post by cyanydeez »

Murfalo wrote: post #19

I love this line of thinking but the framing comes across to me as a bit inflammatory and uncharitable. Just about anything involved in the exchanged of ideas can be viewed as a virus! That is because, when viewed from an evolutionary biology perspective, ideas are the cognitive equivalent of genes (in fact, this is where the term meme comes from). There's a whole field, evolutionary memetics, dedicated to this. Cult…

Memes are what we are talking about.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#29

Post by SoStupid »

The wording alone is just so Idiocracy.

What our descendants will think when they look back on this time period.

They weren’t trying to solve aging or bring everyone to the highest standard of living, they didn’t care to connect the world, explore it, and find others.

They wondered whether or not a word calculator was the antichrist. They assembled in the highest courts of the day and involved the most brilliant minds to discuss whether or not linear algebra will bring about Armageddon.

They shunned any creative or productive endeavor which dared to automate tedium or build on the works of the public domain (lowercase)…

for any such indulgence had become a great sin in Eden, a forbidden fruit that must never be obtained by the Adam, so that he may not become as we are!

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