• elephantium@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    2 years ago

    Oddly, “bullshit” qualifies as a technical term in this context. The authors argue that chatgpt (and similar systems) emit bullshit.

    They don’t lie or hallucinate because they don’t know or believe anything. It’s all just text modeling.

    The focus in this type of AI is to produce text that looks convincing, but it doesn’t have any concept of truth/falsehood, fact or fiction.

    When this is the way someone talks, we say that they’re bullshitting us. So it is with chatgpt.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 years ago

        If you want to get technical, only saying things like “Jesus Christ” as a statement of exasperation are profanities, because they are supposed to disrespect sacred things, but I think these days, we could consider the profane to be the disrespectful. In which case, I would say that the R-word is a profanity, for the same reason the N-word is a profanity.

        • Codex@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 years ago

          If we’re trending technical in our etymological taxonomies, then the X-words are all slurs because they insult people for belonging to specific groups. As you say, profanities and blasphemies need to address the sacred in some disrespectful way. I believe that leaves… curse words and expletives as the remaining categories of naughty words. Any others? I suppose vulgarity and obscenity, but those feel like subtypes of expletives to me.

      • pavnilschanda@lemmy.worldM
        11·
        2 years ago

        You make a good point about the potential for harm in all types of language, regardless of whether it’s considered ‘profanity’ or not. I also agree that intent and impact matter more than the specific words used.

        At the same time, I’m curious about how this relates to words like ‘bullshit’ in different social contexts. Do you think there are still situations where using ‘bullshit’ might be seen as more or less appropriate, even if we agree that any word can potentially cause harm?

          • pavnilschanda@lemmy.worldM
            2·
            2 years ago

            I get where you’re coming from. Ideally, we should be able to say whatever we want whenever we want. But based on my experience as an autistic living in a country where context is very important, the way you convey words affects your standing in a society, at least one that caters to neurotypicals that are highly dependent on context. I have no easy answers to how we can eliminate this hurdle, but your words truly made me think about language usage and how society should perceive them and I would like to thank you for that.

      • pavnilschanda@lemmy.worldM
        13·
        2 years ago

        Educating children about LLMs for the most part. There are also religious institutions that would like to be informed about LLMs as well

        • ruse8145
          2·
          2 years ago

          Most children are eventually educated on these words. Usually by 1st grade, if I remember right.

          What you’re thinking of is what parents think they want reality to be, not reality.

          • pavnilschanda@lemmy.worldM
            13·
            2 years ago

            You have a point. I did remember being told that the word “shit” was a curse word that I should always avoid. But that was in the 2000s, so that sentiment may have changed now (that was in the United States and now I’ve been living in Indonesia so I don’t know the evolution of languages there anymore). I know that the word “queer” used to be a slur as well. Let’s see if the word “bullshit” becomes normalized in society as the years go on

        • weker01@feddit.de
          2·
          2 years ago

          What is the danger of explaining the word “bullshit” to children? Of course like many topics it should be explained carefully e.g. reading Frankfurt before discussing this specific paper.

          And religion can politely go fuck itself when it comes to deciding what words professional academics use. They did that long enough already… But actually I know a few religious philosophers and they use the term without complaints.

          • pavnilschanda@lemmy.worldM
            12·
            2 years ago

            Understandable, though we should also find ways to explain complex academic concepts, like LLM bullshit, to the general public, including those with strong religious beliefs that may be sensitive to these words. The fact that some religious philosophers already use this term without issue shows that it’s possible to bridge this gap.

    • trollbearpig@lemmy.world
      245·
      2 years ago

      I’m so sick of people like you. “Oh, they may be right but they were a bit rude. So I’m going to pretend that they are wrong”. Go fuck yourself if you have nothing useful to contribute. This is just a tactic trolls use in the internet to distract people, and people keep falling for it.

      Plus if you actually read the article you would know that they are referencing an academic definition of bullshit. So go fuck yourself twice, you didn’t even bother to read before declaring your incredible moral superiority. You are just a clown.