Transcript
Explain it to me like I’m 80
Mom: What’s with these AIs escaping and hacking people? That sounds scary.
Me: You park your car at the top of a hill. You leave a note on the dashboard that says “please be good” and then you pull the parking brake. The car careens down the hill, smashes everything up, and you put out a press release saying “My car ignored my instructions! It hallucinated! It went rogue!” Your insurance company not only believes you, but invests a hundred million dollars in your company.
Mom: Jesus Fucking Christ
But, “robot that hacks software” still gives the impression of a robot that is capable of thought. LLMs are not capable of thought. They’re capable of mimicking thought, like how a Venus Fly Trap is capable of mimicking a flower.
“A car that drives places” does not imply the car is capable of thought, same argument with “A cup that holds water”.
“A robot that hacks software” equally does not imply the robot is capable of thought. IMO there is an over-correction away from personifying LLM’s because some people think/claim they are sentient. But we personify stuff all the time.
Which is a problem, it’s how we invented gods that control the weather and stuff. That doesn’t make them real, nor does it make robots sentient. Hacking is normally an action performed by a sentient being. LLMs and robots aren’t sentient.