I have notes for posts about Hillary/Obama, Village/Build That; Dominic Cummings; Nesbit, Putnam, and the "little platoons;" progressive revelation; Acadian French in New England and the Maritimes; and memories that I promised myself I would remember about memory research, evolutionary psychology, and...and...two other things I forget. After listening to Steve Hsu's manifold podcast about LLM and AI, I am not seeing the point of any human-generated knowledge anymore. Everything is better and worse than we thought. Google put people like me out of business, but we recovered. We may not make it back from this new shift.
So maybe. I am directing traffic to keep people from walking under where the cranes are taking out trees in our neighborhood - old people are grouchy and stupid - and grabbing walks when I can. I don't seem to care about much else.
chatGPT test: Create a blog post about New Hampshire in the style of "assistant village idiot"
ReplyDeleteAh, New Hampshire. The Granite State. Known for its breathtaking natural beauty, quaint small towns, and fiercely independent spirit. It's the kind of place where you can drive for miles and miles without seeing a soul, and where everyone knows everyone else's business.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Assistant Village Idiot, what could possibly be so special about New Hampshire?" Well, let me tell you, my friends. This state may be small, but it's full of surprises.
First and foremost, let's talk about the scenery. New Hampshire is home to some of the most spectacular natural beauty you'll ever lay eyes on. From the majestic White Mountains to the serene lakes and rivers that dot the landscape, there's no shortage of postcard-perfect vistas to take in. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can even go for a hike in the woods and pretend you're Henry David Thoreau for a day.
But it's not just the scenery that makes New Hampshire special. It's the people, too. New Hampshirites are a unique breed, to say the least. They're fiercely independent and self-reliant, and they take pride in their state's motto: "Live Free or Die." In fact, you'll often see that phrase emblazoned on everything from license plates to coffee mugs.
And let's not forget the food. New Hampshire is home to some of the best comfort food you'll ever taste. From savory chowders to hearty stews to buttery lobster rolls, the state's cuisine is all about hearty, home-style cooking that will warm you up on even the coldest of days.
Of course, like any state, New Hampshire has its quirks. For example, the town of Gilford has a bylaw that prohibits anyone from playing the harmonica on Sundays. And in the town of Derry, it's illegal to plant trees in the middle of the street. But hey, that's just part of the charm, right?
In conclusion, if you're looking for a place that's a little off the beaten path, where the people are friendly and the scenery is breathtaking, look no further than New Hampshire. Just make sure you don't play the harmonica on a Sunday, or you
..............
I don't think you have much to worry about yet.
"New Hampshire is home to some of the most spectacular natural beauty you'll ever lay eyes on. From the majestic White Mountains to the serene lakes and rivers that dot the landscape, there's no shortage of postcard-perfect vistas to take in".
ReplyDeleteAlmost sounds like church camp was important to his early spiritual development.
Church camp sent me in the wrong direction.
ReplyDeleteI asked ChatGPT for an essay on the theme of power, responsibility, and intellectuals, as portrayed in Herman Wouk's novel The Caine Mutiny. (I was going to compare it with an old Commentary piece on that theme)
ReplyDeleteChatGPT told me (a) that Captain Queeg was an intellectual, and (b) that he was a highly competent naval officer.
I asked it for an analysis of Goethe's Faust and specifically whether Faust wound up going to heaven or to hell. It said he went to hell, and was quite insistent on this point.
Wow. It knows better than the author.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to the podcast you recommended, even though I have a standing policy against ever listening to podcasts. The hallucination problem that he describes is likely to get worse rather than better: the way out of it is through trained interactions with living human users, but what is likely to be a nearly-infinitely larger set of interactions is with other neural networks. That will end up drowning out human improvements; they'll be talking to themselves soon enough.
ReplyDeleteEven with human interactions, there's going to be an issue around how human language changes over time. Therefore, even when you can be sure that you have had a verified interaction with a human who validated your usage, over time that validation will become increasingly misleading.
I am not that concerned with its current mistakes. That one can converse with it at even a b.s. level is remarkable, and already far ahead of even a few years ago. I think it will adjust to subtle changes in language before the humans do, especially as humans still think we shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.
ReplyDeleteI do have a worry about its learning in terms of almost-correct word choices being rewarded by the humans. When I dictate and am given possibilities on my phone I will sometimes pick one that is "good enough," even if it takes my sentence in a subtly different direction. What the results of that will be I don't know, but it would seem to reinforce some homogeneity on us because it is slightly more difficult to correct it. It may make us more like each other in expression,