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The Waluigi Effect

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Re: The Waluigi Effect

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the same in that you can steelman a position and come up with brand new arguments that are better than what the other side is saying. "Reconstructing" doesn't necessitate the strongest form of the other argument.

I mean, that is what it's for. It's about making someone else's argument fit into your own system without misrepresenting it or making it unclear. I suppose having "steelman" lets you relate it to "strawman" and "weakman" which can be an advantage, but knowing the existing term lets you read the existing literature.

> making someone else's argument fit into your own system without misrepresenting it or making it unclear

I think this is where steelman is a superset of this, in that it includes the reconstruction definition but also includes making a whole new set of arguments that are entirely unrelated to your own argument or the other person's argument. i.e. Steelmanning can involve coming up with novel arguments for the other side.

Re: The Waluigi Effect

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference. But the more alike two processes are in their input-output behavior, the more likely it is those processes are alike on the inside as well. If process B matches the input-output behavior of process A, it's imitating process A. If it is following an equivalent sequence of steps in order to generate those outputs, it's simulating process A. The harder it is to discriminate between A and B on a lo…

I can see the appeal of that kind of thinking. Babies learn words by repeating them without knowing what they mean. They gradually learn the meaning of words by trying to use them and getting feedback. But LLMs are not trying to "use" their language for any particular purpose. They just idly chat on, like a machine :-) It is possible to repeat words and sentences without having any idea of what they mean. I think the…

A great deal of feedback happens during training.
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