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Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

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Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#11

Post by swatcoder »

schiffern wrote: post #7

"Meta AI claims" No it doesn't. It can't. Only people (or companies, which require people) can meaningfully "claim" things. LLMs are still not people, despite our persistent attempts to personify them. This is merely a sexier headline than "Hallucination machine hallucinates." And even that word personifies a bit too much!

You're right in a purist sense, but the alternative headline would be "Meta is already carelessly allowing hallucination machine to hallucinate in troubling places and with troubling amplification by their content placement algorithm"

It's definitely a vivid example of Meta being irresponsible with the tech today and of what we can expect a lot of the internet to be polluted with in the future.

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#12

Post by nicklecompte »

schiffern wrote: post #7

"Meta AI claims" No it doesn't. It can't. Only people (or companies, which require people) can meaningfully "claim" things. LLMs are still not people, despite our persistent attempts to personify them. This is merely a sexier headline than "Hallucination machine hallucinates." And even that word personifies a bit too much!

I understand your point but I think it's misplaced here. This kind of criticism made sense with the Bing/Sydney stuff, since "Bing claims to be self-aware" is misleading compared to "Bing inconsistently recites some sci-fi cliches." People like Kevin Roose were actively spreading misconceptions about how LLMs work. It would have been nice if they had taken your comment seriously in 2023.

But this is different. The subtext of the headline is clearly "Facebook's dumb chatbot had a very dumb glitch." I believe laypeople would immediately understand the AI is just plagiarizing a Facebook mom. Policing the language here seems more about pedantry than correcting actual misconceptions.

(You might say that some people would read this headline and jump to a Her fantasy, where Meta's poor AI is desperate for human connection or whatever. But these people are not going to be swayed by technical accuracy. They will just interpret language like yours as euphemism and denial.)

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#13

Post by jbernsteiniv »

redeeman wrote: post #6

how about everyone stop calling it AI when it very clearly is little more "intelligent" than "intelligent device for starting your heater when it gets cold" (aka thermostat) (and yes, this has really been marketed)

It's been co-opted into the phrase "AI" in the same vein that "cloud" was used in "Cloud Computing". It's a marketing term to make the technology more appealing. That's why half the people started using the term "AGI" and even with that we see the tech companies leveraging the hype the marketing teams are bringing in while selling the illusion that building a computer smarter than a human brain (something we still barely understand) is feasible in our lifetimes or ever.

(sorry I am just venting my annoyance with it too, I don't mean for this to come off as hostile if it does!)

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#14

Post by keehun »

waldrews wrote: post #9

The problem here isn't that an LLM hallucinates. The problem is that nobody asked for an AI response, and Meta pushed content to a forum that makes such claims, which could easily mislead or at least confuse people not sophisticated enough to be on the lookout for hallucinations. Meta should be (and is) in the business of policing third-party spam on their forums that does exactly this. We can infer what must've happ…

In regards to your last question, it’s “an LLM”.

The distinction between using “a” vs “an” is one based on the immediately proceeding syllable sound rather than the letter. If it’s proceeded by a vowel, then use “an”, and if it’s proceeded by a consonant, use “a”.

Because “LLM” is pronounced “el el em”, the first syllable sound is “eh”—a vowel.

The same letter may need different “a”/“an” article based on how the word is pronounced. For example “an LLM” vs “a layer”.

See this for someone smarter than me explain it: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/is-it-a-or-an

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#16

Post by aaron695 »

waldrews wrote: post #9

The problem here isn't that an LLM hallucinates. The problem is that nobody asked for an AI response, and Meta pushed content to a forum that makes such claims, which could easily mislead or at least confuse people not sophisticated enough to be on the lookout for hallucinations. Meta should be (and is) in the business of policing third-party spam on their forums that does exactly this. We can infer what must've happ…

[dead]

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#17

Post by Terr_ »

jbernsteiniv wrote: post #13
redeeman wrote: post #6

how about everyone stop calling it AI when it very clearly is little more "intelligent" than "intelligent device for starting your heater when it gets cold" (aka thermostat) (and yes, this has really been marketed)

It's been co-opted into the phrase "AI" in the same vein that "cloud" was used in "Cloud Computing". It's a marketing term to make the technology more appealing. That's why half the people started using the term "AGI" and even with that we see the tech companies leveraging the hype the marketing teams are bringing in while selling the illusion that building a computer smarter than a human brain (something we still ba…

Also the nanotechnology blockchain gig economy for self-driving cats.

At least "E-Commerce" turned out to be real, eventually.

Re: Meta AI claims to have a child in a NYC public school

#19

Post by starspangled »

waldrews wrote: post #9

The problem here isn't that an LLM hallucinates. The problem is that nobody asked for an AI response, and Meta pushed content to a forum that makes such claims, which could easily mislead or at least confuse people not sophisticated enough to be on the lookout for hallucinations. Meta should be (and is) in the business of policing third-party spam on their forums that does exactly this. We can infer what must've happ…

There's more than one problem, and one of them sure is that a "helpful AI" hallucinates.
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