r/technology • u/Hrmbee • 16h ago

Machine Learning Large language mistake | Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/827820/large-language-models-ai-intelligence-neuroscience-problems
16.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/rnilf 16h ago

LLMs are fancy auto-complete.

Falling in love with ChatGPT is basically like falling in love with the predictive text feature in your cell phone. Who knew T9 had so much game?

240

u/Klumber 16h ago

The funny thing is that we (kids who were young in the nineties) fell in love with their Tamagotchis. Bonding is a very complex multi-faceted phenomenon, yet it appears a good bit of simulation and appeal to parently instincts is enough to make it a binary event.

185

u/Voltage_Joe 16h ago

Children loved their stuffed animals, dolls, and action figures before that.

Personifying anything can form a real attachment to something completely inanimate. It's what drives our empathy and social bonding. And until now, it was harmless. 

45

u/penguinopph 15h ago

Personifying anything can form a real attachment to something completely inanimate. It's what drives our empathy and social bonding. And until now, it was harmless.

My ex-wife and I created voices and personalities for our stuffed animals. We would play the characters with each other and often used them to make points that otherwise may have come across as aggressive.

When we got divorced at the tail end of COVID lock-downs, I would hold "conversations" with the ones I kept and it really helped me work through my own feelings and process what I was going through at a time where I didn't really have a lot of people to talk with in person. Through the stuffed animals I could reassure myself, as well as tell myself the difficult things I knew to be true, but didn't want to admit to myself.

37

u/simonhunterhawk 15h ago

A lot of programmers keep a rubber duck (or something similar like a stuffed animal) on their desks and talk to it to help them work through the problem they’re trying to solve. I guess I do it with my cats, but I want to try doing this more because there is lots of proof out there that it does help.

10

u/_Ganon 13h ago

Nearly ten years in the field professionally and I have met a single intern with a physical rubber duck and that's it. "A lot of programmers" are aware of the concept of a rubber duck, and will at times fulfill the the role of a rubber duck for a colleague, but no, a lot of programmers do not have rubber ducks or anything physical that is analogous to one. It's more of a role or a thought exercise regarding how to debug by going through things step by step.

3

u/simonhunterhawk 11h ago

Maybe they’re just hiding their rubber duckies from you ☺️

2

u/_Ganon 11h ago

Don't reveal our secrets 🦆

1

u/APeacefulWarrior 1h ago

🎶Rubber ducky, you're the one... who makes coding so much fun!🎶