Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#1

Post by caligarn » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:02 PM UTC

Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s
artifact.news

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#2

Post by armeehn » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:49 PM UTC

Article without paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20230309193146/https://www.nytim...

The ChatGPT prompts and responses don't seem to render though.

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#3

Post by ericpauley » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:49 PM UTC

To copy a comment I made elsewhere on this:

Chomsky (et al.) completely ignores the fact that ChatGPT has been "trained"/gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion. That ChatGPT returns an Open AI form letter for the questions they ask is almost akin to an exception that proves the rule: ChatGPT is so eager to espouse opinions that OpenAI had to nerf it so it doesn't.

Typing the prompts from the article after the DAN (11.0) prompt caused GPT to immediately respond with its opinion.

Chomsky's claims in the article are also weak because (as with many discussions about ChatGPT) they are non-falsifiable. There is seemingly no output ChatGPT could produce that would qualify as intelligent for Chomsky. Similar to the Chinese room argument, one can always claim the computer is just emulating understanding.

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#4

Post by myhf » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:49 PM UTC

duplicate post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35067619

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#5

Post by fl_ciq » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:50 PM UTC

Chomsky as usual seems to be arguing a straw man. More interesting might be to ask ChatGPT to write an essay on global hegdemons hegdemoning hegdemonically in East Timor.

I'd enjoy seeing Chomsky debate DAN.

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#6

Post by RosanaAnaDana » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:53 PM UTC

ericpauley wrote: post #3

To copy a comment I made elsewhere on this: Chomsky (et al.) completely ignores the fact that ChatGPT has been "trained"/gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion. That ChatGPT returns an Open AI form letter for the questions they ask is almost akin to an exception that proves the rule: ChatGPT is so eager to espouse opinions that OpenAI had to nerf it so it doesn't. Typing the prompts from the articl…

> one can always claim the computer is just emulating understanding.

Right? As if most of humans aren't doing just that.

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#7

Post by seanhunter » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:53 PM UTC

ericpauley wrote: post #3

To copy a comment I made elsewhere on this: Chomsky (et al.) completely ignores the fact that ChatGPT has been "trained"/gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion. That ChatGPT returns an Open AI form letter for the questions they ask is almost akin to an exception that proves the rule: ChatGPT is so eager to espouse opinions that OpenAI had to nerf it so it doesn't. Typing the prompts from the articl…

I'm not sure you're applying the same standard to your own reasoning that you want Chomsky to apply to his. How would you falsify the claim that chatgpt has been "gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion"?

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#8

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:54 PM UTC

fl_ciq wrote: post #5

Chomsky as usual seems to be arguing a straw man. More interesting might be to ask ChatGPT to write an essay on global hegdemons hegdemoning hegdemonically in East Timor. I'd enjoy seeing Chomsky debate DAN.

[deleted]

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#9

Post by voidhorse » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:54 PM UTC

ericpauley wrote: post #3

To copy a comment I made elsewhere on this: Chomsky (et al.) completely ignores the fact that ChatGPT has been "trained"/gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion. That ChatGPT returns an Open AI form letter for the questions they ask is almost akin to an exception that proves the rule: ChatGPT is so eager to espouse opinions that OpenAI had to nerf it so it doesn't. Typing the prompts from the articl…

But there are direct instances that suggest ChatGPT is limited in exactly the way Chomsky and his colleagues suggest. It has made plenty of mistakes that someone who understands the rules of logical reasoning would not make.

Furthermore, all the hallucinatory effects (making up APIs, making up references) would suggest it really is still just statistical output...

Re: Noam Chomsky Weights in on ChatGPT and LLM’s

#10

Post by staunton » Thu, Mar 09, 2023, 8:56 PM UTC

seanhunter wrote: post #7

ericpauley wrote: post #3

To copy a comment I made elsewhere on this: Chomsky (et al.) completely ignores the fact that ChatGPT has been "trained"/gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion. That ChatGPT returns an Open AI form letter for the questions they ask is almost akin to an exception that proves the rule: ChatGPT is so eager to espouse opinions that OpenAI had to nerf it so it doesn't. Typing the prompts from the articl…

I'm not sure you're applying the same standard to your own reasoning that you want Chomsky to apply to his. How would you falsify the claim that chatgpt has been "gaslit into thinking it is incapable of having an opinion"?

You ask the people who programed it how much time they spent making it not explicitly endorse any opinions and what it was like before they put in this effort.