I have many conversations with people about Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Copilot. The idea that “it makes convincing sentences, but it doesn’t know what it’s talking about” is a difficult concept to convey or wrap your head around. Because the sentences are so convincing.

Any good examples on how to explain this in simple terms?

Edit:some good answers already! I find especially that the emotional barrier is difficult to break. If an AI says something malicious, our brain immediatly jumps to “it has intent”. How can we explain this away?

  • rubin@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    Imagine that you have a random group of people waiting in line at your desk. You have each one read the prompt, and the response so far, and then add a word themself. Then they leave and the next person in line comes and does it.

    This is why “why did you say ?” questions are nonsensical to AI. The code answering it is not the code that wrote it and there is no communication coordination or anything between the different word answerers.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      The idea that these models are just stochastic parrots that only probabilisticly repeat their training data isn’t correct

      I would argue that it is quite obviously correct, but that the interesting question is whether humans are in the same category (I would argue yes).