Comment by zarzavat
8 hours ago
A good time to quote our dear leader:
> No one gets in trouble for saying that 2 + 2 is 5, or that people in Pittsburgh are ten feet tall. Such obviously false statements might be treated as jokes, or at worst as evidence of insanity, but they are not likely to make anyone mad. The statements that make people mad are the ones they worry might be believed. I suspect the statements that make people maddest are those they worry might be true.
People are upset when AIs are anthropomorphized because they feel threatened by the idea that they might actually be intelligent.
Hence the woefully insufficient descriptions of AIs such as "next token predictors" which are about as fitting as describing Terry Tao as an advanced gastrointestinal processor.
The comment you replied to made a point that, if you accept it (which you probably should), makes that PG quote inapplicable here. The issue in this case is that treating the model as though it has useful insight into its own operation - which is being summarized as anthropomorphizing - leads to incorrect conclusions. It’s just a mistake, that’s all.