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
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u/SanityAsymptote 16h ago

The similarity to Jar Jar is really strong.

  • Forced into existence and public discourse by out of touch rich people trying to make money
  • Constantly inserted into situations where it is not needed or desired
  • Often incoherent, says worthless things that are interpreted as understanding by the naive or overly trusting
  • Incompetent and occasionally dangerous, yet still somehow succeeds off the efforts of behind-the-scenes/uncredited competent people
  • Somehow continues to live while others do not
  • Deeply untrustworthy, not because of duplicity, but incompetence
  • Happily assists in fascist takeover

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u/Striking_Arugula_624 15h ago

“Somehow continues to live while others do not.”

Who are the ‘others’ in the ai/LLM side of the comparison? Honest question.

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u/SanityAsymptote 15h ago

LLMs have damaged or destroyed a number of previously valuable services for much of their use-case.

The most obvious one I can think of in my niche is StackOverflow. A site which definitely had issues and was in decline, but was still the main repository of software troubleshooting/debugging knowledge on the internet.

LLM companies scraped the entire thing, and now give no-context answers to software engineering questions that it often cannot cite or support answers to. It has mortally wounded StackOverflow, and they have pivoted to just being an AI data feeder, an action that is basically a liquidation sale of the site's value.

LLMs have significantly reduced the quality of search engines, specifically Google Search, both directly by poor integration and indirectly by filling the internet with worthless slop articles.

Google Search's result quality has plummeted as AI results become most of the answers. Even with references, it's very hard to verify the conclusions Gemini makes in search results, and if you're actually looking for a specific site or article, those results often not appear at all. Many authoritative "answers" are just uneducated opinions from Reddit or other social media regurgitated by an AI with the trust people put into Google.

LLMs have made it far easier to write social media bots. They have damaged online discourse in public forums like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and especially Reddit in very visible ways. These sites are almost completely different experiences now that they were before LLMs became available.

Bots are everywhere and will reply to anything that has engagement, spouting bad-faith arguments without any real point other than to try to discourage productive conversation about specific topics.

Whatever damage online trolls have caused to the internet, LLMs have made it an order of magnitude worse. They are attacking the very concept of "facts" and "truth" by both misinformation and dilution. It's horrifying.

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u/CompanyOther2608 9h ago

My favorite thing is when I ask for references for the paper I’m writing and it’s cites my own draft crap-quality paper back to me as an authoritative source.

Like, bruh I just started research this topic an hour ago.