Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prove to me that you are conscious, without referring to the fact that you are a human and have common ground and experiences with other humans.
Poo poo, pee pee
This is actually a great answer
Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
101–110 of 153 posts
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I’ve read about these philosophers it seems often like they’re there to affirm whatever needs to be affirmed, rather than doing the philosopher’s actual role of finding extreme fault in whatever you’re doing and showing how unsound the thinking is and how the task being carried out won’t lead to the results desired etc etc
Philosophy isn't about finding fault. It's about searching for answers. Sure faults may be found, but it's somewhat meaningless without the proposition of - hopefully better - alternatives.
They just hire philosophers because they are good at talking. They need to sell this shit to normal people, remember?
Nobody is getting paid to search for the meaning of life.
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#103AI Lab: Say "I am conscious" LLM: "I am conscious" Philosopher (Paid by AI Lab): "It is conscious"
Prove to me that you are conscious, without referring to the fact that you are a human and have common ground and experiences with other humans.
“Prove X without using the axioms need to prove X.”
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#104Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#105AI Lab: Say "I am conscious" LLM: "I am conscious" Philosopher (Paid by AI Lab): "It is conscious"
Here's a question I personally think is interesting, with the assumption that consciousness is a spectrum (trivially proven by administering neurotoxins to a healthy individual).
Is a squirrel more or less conscious than a dog.
Is a dog more or less conscious than a gorilla.
Is a gorilla more or less conscious than a human?
Is a vision enabled AI model, hooked to a camera feed, more or less conscious than a dog?
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#106How much longer until they start hiring the token high school drop out whiz kid, or are they completely skipping that this time around?
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#107I'm highly anticipating the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything On a more serious note, I found this interesting from TFA: > The biggest question, though, is what sorts of rules should be put in those constitutions in the first place. Philosophers have zeroed in on two main ethical frameworks. One is deontology. Popular with Kant, among others, this imposes strict rules that prohibit th…
I'm sure there are effective altruists on one side of the split and not the other.
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#108Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#109AI Lab: Say "I am conscious" LLM: "I am conscious" Philosopher (Paid by AI Lab): "It is conscious"
The philosopher paid by Lab will surely “align” with what is good for Lab, but that might be saying “it’s not conscious (simply all powerful)”.
Re: Big AI labs are hiring philosophers
#110What strikes me as funny is this notion of hiring academic philosophers to work in the machinery of startups and businesses, "money (and coffee, presumably) in, philosophy out". The kind of "philosophy" the article mentions is school-level and common knowledge, hopefully they don't need to hire anyone to learn about e.g. the Socratic method (their own LLMs will happily regurgitate it). Are they truly hoping to "buy p…
At least in my academic experience, there are academics that are uniquely suited to academia (for better or worse) and there are “academics” that know what to say to be the business version of whatever the discipline is. Neither is necessarily better or worse, but they’re very different and not doing the same thing. Presumably it’s the latter that fit in well with bigco philosophy orgs. I will say though I went to an…
Interesting! It makes sense, yes, that there are two kinds of philosophers, one more business-savvy than the other. I still think it's wrong-headed to "buy" philosophy in this way, with a business goal, especially of the Silicon Valley kind (because you don't know the answer, and it might very well be that something makes business sense but is "philosophically unsound"). And in any case, it seems like theater to me.
I do picture a modern Machiavelli advising Altman and Amodei ("it's better for AI to be feared than to be loved, so hype away mio signore!"). Not sure it's a nice image though!