Technology

You're following me exactly, just not seeing what I'm pointing at.

I agree, a human can't meaningfully distinguish between a flat white picture made by a human (with say, MSPaint) and one made by an "AI" with a data model that includes the color Flat White. Similarly there's no meaningful distinction to be made between 4'33" as performed by an algorithm vs one performed by a master pianist - humans can't do that and neither can a machine.

We've called certain kinds of entertainment "formulaic" - well that wasn't inaccurate. It was. It is. We are. We are algorithmic. And just like in decades past when scientists put forth the idea that our emotions are just the combination of biology and chemistry, there will be serious existential pushback from certain sectors of humanity. Because it belittles the idea of what it is to be human and relegates us back to simple animals that can be trained. The reality is we are just that. And we keep proving it.

We've been seeing this problem framed as one facing teachers and educators: How do we know students aren't cheating and having an LLM writing their term papers? The reality is if they have been and teachers didn't catch that from the start? The fault isn't the tool they used. They're teaching and grading the wrong thing.

Language, like math largely did with the calculator, will be relegated to machines and algorithms because we already did that to ourselves a long time ago. We're just building the machines to do the same thing for us, and getting the desired results. If I ask you what 237 x 979 is I don't expect you to math that out in your head, I expect you to probably use a calculator to get that answer. But it's still important we teach kids how to multiply 237 and 979 together on paper. It's very simple to do that and avoid the use of computers altogether. It's basic writing skills after all. Teaching isn't about producing term papers, what does it matter that LLMs might be used to cheat them then? It's about educating the students. Our whole focus on the problems of LLMs is just highlighting over and over and over the problems we as society have had for a long long long time, far before anyone knew what an "LLM" was.

Sorry. I rant.