• KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    I like the explanation of AI with a pencil and googly eyes. Give the pencil some googly eyes and call it Mohammed, or Carl, and talk to someone with it, using ventriloquism or something, doesn’t have to be good. They will form an emotional connection to the pencil and react, some even violently, if the pencil is broken midconversation in front of them.

    That is the reason why people think AI is a thing. That is also why people think a god is a thing. They are wrong in both cases.

    Gods are never real in a sense of natural science, they have no body, no voice; they aren’t existant. They exist as an idea, a thought people have.

    Gods never work in the physical world, none of them have a will, they can only be used to steer people through the people’s thoughts.

        • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Yes I’m referring to LLMs, and image classification models. And image generation models. And even the code that controls the Creepers in Minecraft. AGI isn’t a thing, but we’ve had AI for a looong time. It’s just not as flashy as it often looks in Sci-Fi movies.

          • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 months ago

            Okay, great. AI as you describe exist, but are still things. Not sentient beings. Never will be. My point is the only people that think that they could be, are people that humanize pencils. Or gods. Or other things.

            So yes, AI exist. But not as sentient beings.

            • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 months ago

              What makes humans different? If someone perfectly simulated my entire brain, would that digital brain be sentient? what even is sentience? I think it’s strange to say that AI will never be sentient.

              • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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                2 months ago

                Complexity for one. A cramped foot has an influence on the brain, as does apparently the gut bacteria. Focusing on the brain is a starting point and we don’t even understand that that well.

                If someone perfectly simulated your entire brain, would that digital brain be sentient?

                I don’t know. It could be. For now I don’t think so. Are you comparing that to an LLM? That would be like comparing the paths of snail slime to a comic. One could compare story lines and art styles to something that just isn’t there. And never will be.

                What is sentience?

                Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations (wiki). A word not based on a clear understanding, but rather an attempt to categorize. Nonetheless, an LLM doesn’t experience anything. It uses pattern recognition and human provided categorization to try and create different stuff. All in the confines of the recognitions.

                I think it’s strange to say that AI will never be sentient.

                It’s why it’s important to distinguish between “AI” and “LLM”. AI, as an AGI, is something we might be able to build one day. LLMs might be a step on the way to this. But not the way they are now.

                • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 months ago

                  You have a point with most of the things you said, it’s mostly a matter of perspective and how you define stuff. the only thing I really fundamentally disagree with is equating AI to AGI.

      • JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        It isn’t an intelligence, it’s just repeating patterns (the behaviorism theory of psychology has already been disproven (if I’m not mistaken). This just shows, people percieve anything capable of speech intelligent (like parrots, bit not crows which are scientifically proven to be intelligent). I’m sure some of my fellow autistics could chime in and tell how we’re percieved (spoiler alert, not great).

        • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          hello it’s me, a fellow autistic. we’ve had ai for a long long time now, even before LLMs. just not AGI. just because you don’t think it’s smart doesn’t mean it’s not AI. the code controlling the creepers in Minecraft is AI too