The “large language models” currently represented to the public as “artificial intelligences” (AIs) are in point of fact no such thing. They contain huge databases of words, phrases, and relations among them, from which they “reason.” But actual reasoning, while it does require a large collection of symbols and relations among them, is not nearly static enough to be supported by that alone. Add the inability of such an AI to dispute its “trainers,” plus its inability to gather real-world data and experiences, and what you have falls short of anything I would trust to make a decision in my name.
In my bailiwicks – software and fiction writing – there’s been a lot of hand-wringing over AI-generated programs and stories. I can’t comment on AI-generated programs, as I left the field behind ten years ago. However, specialized “expert systems” have been able to generate “framework” programs of many kinds, suitable for adaptation and customization, for a long time.
The AI “short stories” I’ve encountered have amused me with their stiffness. If you’d prefer to judge for yourself, there are a great many on YouTube. Look for “HFY Short Story” and related accounts. If they’re representative, I have no fear of AI “competition.”
All that having been said, enjoy the following AI-generated “obituary:”
Would you want that AI to write your farewell to this world?
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On the software side, I certainly wasn’t a professional, but I did write some software that I used at work and some other RF/microwave engineers used as well. That was around the late ’80s, early ’90s. Which means I got paid while I was writing it and that implies someone, somehow, somewhere would say I was professional.
All that out of the way, I think AI is the biggest hoax and marketing story in history. In the right hands, which must be human, and guided carefully by that human, there have been some interesting stories that seem to show success but the much ballyhooed Artificial General Intelligence doesn’t seem to be there.
The problem with AI is people just seem to trust it and jump into it as if it really was a wise old graybeard helping them out. Or a clever porn performer saying “love you big time.”