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Bike Shed

@evan ranking LLMs over dolphins or chimps for "intelligence" is pure anthropocentrism.

10 Dec 2023 at 16:00 | Wall-to-wall | Open on 503junk.house
6 comments
Evan Prodromou

@bikeshed I don't think that there's a ranking of intelligence on a single scale. But LLMs are better at, say, language use than chimps are.

10 Dec 2023 at 16:30 | Open on cosocial.ca
Bike Shed

@evan but again, this is anthropocentric. You're defining language as language that is intelligible to humans and then saying that the tool designed by humans to output human language is better at human language than chimps! It's a silly game that plays into this very stratified view of what constitutes intelligence.

I certainly think that ranking LLMs over dolphins, who we have little understanding of their communication, seems very bizarre.

10 Dec 2023 at 17:40 | Open on 503junk.house
Bike Shed

@evan additionally, why is language use a more defining characteristic of intelligence than tool use? Chimps, bonobos, dolphins, octopi, corvids etc all can use tools and solve complex tasks but aren't good at language (to our definition of language). Does this matter?

10 Dec 2023 at 17:43 | Open on 503junk.house
Evan Prodromou

@bikeshed I am not! I think you should go back and reread my post with fresh eyes. I said that LLMs do better on some of the measures of intelligence than chimps and dolphins. I didn't say that they are more intelligent than those animals, nor did I say that the measures of intelligence they excel at are more important than the intelligence necessary to survive in the world.

10 Dec 2023 at 17:53 | Open on cosocial.ca
Bike Shed

@evan agree to disagree, but I struggle to read "They have many of the hallmarks of what we call intelligence. They have more such characteristics than, say, dolphins or chimps" in another way than a kind of ranking.

10 Dec 2023 at 18:28 | Open on 503junk.house
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