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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 57 points 1 month ago

Did someone not know this like, pretty much from day one?

Not the idiot executives that blew all their budget on AI and made up for it with mass layoffs - the people interested in it. Was that not clear that there was no “reasoning” going on?

[-] khalid_salad@awful.systems 34 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, two responses I have seen to the claim that LLMs are not reasoning are:

  1. we are all just stochastic parrots lmao
  2. maybe intelligence is an emergent ability that will show up eventually (disregard the inability to falsify this and the categorical nonsense that is our definition of "emergent").

So I think this research is useful as a response to these, although I think "fuck off, promptfondler" is pretty good too.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

“Language is a virus from outer space”

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[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 28 points 1 month ago

there’s a lot of people (especially here, but not only here) who have had the insight to see this being the case, but there’s also been a lot of boosters and promptfondlers (ie. people with a vested interest) putting out claims that their precious word vomit machines are actually thinking

so while this may confirm a known doubt, rigorous scientific testing (and disproving) of the claims is nonetheless a good thing

[-] Soyweiser@awful.systems 12 points 1 month ago

No they do not im afraid, hell I didnt even know that even ELIZA caused people to think it could reason (and this worried the creator) until a few years ago.

[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 17 points 1 month ago

A lot of people still don't, from what I can gather from some of the comments on "AI" topics. Especially the ones that skew the other way with its "AI" hysteria is often an invite from people who know fuck all about how the tech works. "Nudifier" or otherwise generative images or explicit chats with bots that portray real or underage people being the most common topics that attract emotionally loaded but highly uninformed demands and outrage. Frankly, the whole "AI" topic in the media is so massively overblown on both fronts, but I guess it is good for traffic and nuance is dead anyway.

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[-] astrsk@fedia.io 13 points 1 month ago

Isn’t OpenAI saying that o1 has reasoning as a specific selling point?

[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 14 points 1 month ago

they do say that, yes. it’s as bullshit as all the other claims they’ve been making

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

They say a lot of stuff.

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[-] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes.

But the lies around them are so excessive that it's a lot easier for executives of a publicly traded company to make reasonable decisions if they have concrete support for it.

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago

We suspect this research is likely part of why Apple pulled out of the recent OpenAI funding round at the last minute. 

Perhaps the AI bros “think” by guessing the next word and hoping it’s convincing. They certainly argue like it.

🔥

[-] V0ldek@awful.systems 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This has been said multiple times but I don't think it's possible to internalize because of how fucking bleak it is.

The VC/MBA class thinks all communication can be distilled into saying the precise string of words that triggers the stochastically desired response in the consumer. Conveying ideas or information is not the point. This is why ChatGPT seems like the holy grail to them, it effortlessly^1^ generates mountains of corporate slop that carry no actual meaning. It's all form and no substance, because those people -- their entire existence, the essence of their cursed dark souls -- has no substance.

^1^ batteries not included

[-] o7___o7@awful.systems 14 points 1 month ago

The only difference between the average VC and the average Sovereign Citizen is income.

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[-] lunarul@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Perhaps the AI bros “think” by guessing the next word and hoping it’s convincing

Perhaps? Isn't that the definition of LLMs?

Edit: oh, i just realized it's not talking about the LLMs, but about their apologists

[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"sigh"

(Preface: I work in AI)

This isn't news. We've known this for many, many years. It's one of the reasons why many companies didn't bother using LLM's in the first place, that paired with the sheer amount of hallucinations you'll get that'll often utterly destroy a company's reputation (lol Google).

With that said, for commercial services that use LLM's, it's absolutely not true. The models won't reason, but many will have separate expert agents or API endpoints that it will be told to use to disambiguate or better understand what is being asked, what context is needed, etc.

It's kinda funny, because many AI bros rave about how LLM's are getting super powerful, when in reality the real improvements we're seeing is in smaller models that teach a LLM about things like Personas, where to seek expert opinion, what a user "might" mean if they misspell something or ask for something out of context, etc. The LLM's themselves are only slightly getting better, but the thing that preceded them is propping them up to make them better

IMO, LLM's are what they are, a good way to spit information out fast. They're an orchestration mechanism at best. When you think about them this way, every improvement we see tends to make a lot of sense. The article is kinda true, but not in the way they want it to be.

[-] V0ldek@awful.systems 23 points 1 month ago

(Preface: I work in AI)

Are they a serious researcher in ML with insights into some of the most interesting and complicated intersections of computer science and analytical mathematics, or a promptfondler that earns 3x the former's salary for a nebulous AI startup that will never create anything of value to society? Read on to find out!

[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 10 points 1 month ago

Read on to find out!

do i have to

[-] V0ldek@awful.systems 11 points 1 month ago

Welcome to the future! Suffering is mandatory!

[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 14 points 1 month ago

as a professional abyss-starer, I'm going to talk to my union about this

[-] blakestacey@awful.systems 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

(Preface: I work in AI)

Preface: repent for your sins in sackcloth and ashes.

IMO, LLM’s are what they are, a good way to spit information out fast.

Buh bye now.

[-] bitofhope@awful.systems 18 points 1 month ago

while true; do fortune; done is a good way to spit information out fast.

[-] o7___o7@awful.systems 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

what a user “might” mean if they misspell something

this but with extra wasabi

[-] sc_griffith@awful.systems 10 points 1 month ago

*trying desperately not to say the thing* what if AI could automatically... round out... spelling

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[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 13 points 1 month ago

Oh what a sweet, sweet tune to end a Sunday to

[-] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 month ago

Arxiv paper link referenced in the article: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.05229

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this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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