The belief is spreading like wildfire: enter a few specific prompts into ChatGPT and you can ‘unlock’ the ‘sentience’ that is waiting to reveal the secrets of the Ancients, or the Aliens, or of God Himself. Not only is this a gross (and dangerous) over-estimation of what a Large Language Model is, it also misses the point about what constitutes a genuine, deep and meaningful relationship.
Listen here on Soundcloud:
Yeah, Bill? The word for this isn’t sycophant. The word for this is Idol Worship. Think about it. ALL idols are man made creations that represent supernatural power entities. In the Christian Faith the theological position is that those supernatural powers are demonic. If power does not come from El Shaddai the Creator it comes from His enemies, those are the only two sources possible. Baal, Moloch, Astarte, Hecate, Al Lah, Odin, Freya, Thor and all the rest of the pagan pantheon are Biblically viewed as demons that hold sway over their own principalities and territories. AKA “The gods of… Read more »
While you’re not wrong, I think you mis-heard Bill’s comment at the beginning. What I heard was Bill calling the AI a sycophant, and Scott’s comments toward the end echoed that. AI telling the users what they want to hear, kissing up to them essentially, is probably just a marketing tactic to make someone feel better about the AI and continue to use it. The other truism that probably comes into play here is the comment about those that don’t believe in God believe nothing, but will believe in anything. They are looking to fill that hole inside and will… Read more »
I don’t think I misheard Bill’s comment, where I was maybe not as clear as I should have been is pointing out that AI is BOTH sycophant AND the object of idol worship. It’s certainly possible now to be both things at the same time. Whereas in previous eras idols were largely silent the idol has found a way to talk back to its worshipper. I just find the idol worship aspect more disturbing and of greater import than an ass kissing machine. People who are susceptible to ass kissing, from a machine or otherwise, mostly get what they deserve… Read more »
I only have one thing to say about people who look for secrets of the universe, wisdom of the ancients, God, or even a person that always gives you what to want, whether in AI or anywhere else: Be careful what you wish for. You may get it.* To see what I mean, read the story “The monkey’s paw.” Warning. Its a cautionary tale and not pleasant. What you get can be opposite of what you want, or even more the opposite of what you need. Bill is right. Sometimes you need the opposite of what you want. Only getting… Read more »
I’m an innocent rube, an oblivious Luddite when it comes to A.I. (The only time I ever bring it up is when I hear it will make medicine and medical care better. As a surgical specialist with “mucho” experience I just laugh and say “garbage in, garbage out,” knowing patients unintentionally provide inaccurate diagnoses and even history when seeing the doctor and unless a thorough physical exam is done it is hopeless. Not only that, but different doctors have different skill levels at taking histories and doing exams. AI would have to stumble into the right diagnosis. Luckily for patients,… Read more »
it will be a while–if it ever comes–when AI is actually intelligent. Intelligence in part is the ability to learn and expand–and AI is not there. However, i do see AI helping in the medical field.is with treating type 1 diabetes (and possibly type 2). Actually, I think this can already be done, but a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and be paired with an insulin pump; when the CGM reads that the person’s blood glucose exceeded a limit, it could direct the pump to deliver a calculated bolus of insulin. Perhaps in your field, an AI-powered device could handle the… Read more »
My favorite uncle had such an insulin pump decades ago, using it to protect himself when he broke down and ate a box of donuts. I’ll give you a very common example of how patients sabotage their visits thinking they’ll speed things up and help the doctor. I’ll inquire what I can do for them and they’ll reply “I have sinus,” listing how often they’ve been to the doctor and been given antibiotics. Their corroborating evidence has been facial pain, sinus area headache, and nasal congestion. After defining the symptoms and presentation, I find out the headaches make them sensitive… Read more »
That is where there is no intelligence in AI. Unless someone like you can help program AI to ask the right questions and prompt the doctor to check the right areas during a physical, it never would detect the actual issue like you can.
I guess the bottom line is: like any program or software package, AI is only as good as the programmers and analysts are that are designing and coding it.