Inspired by a recent talk from Richard Stallman.

From Slashdot:

Speaking about AI, Stallman warned that “nowadays, people often use the term artificial intelligence for things that aren’t intelligent at all…” He makes a point of calling large language models “generators” because “They generate text and they don’t understand really what that text means.” (And they also make mistakes “without batting a virtual eyelash. So you can’t trust anything that they generate.”) Stallman says “Every time you call them AI, you are endorsing the claim that they are intelligent and they’re not. So let’s let’s refuse to do that.”

Sometimes I think that even though we are in a “FuckAI” community, we’re still helping the “AI” companies by tacitly agreeing that their LLMs and image generators are in fact “AI” when they’re not. It’s similar to how the people saying “AI will destroy humanity” give an outsized aura to LLMs that they don’t deserve.

Personally I like the term “generators” and will make an effort to use it, but I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts.

  • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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    11 days ago

    Language evolves into more specific definitions, not less specific.

    Citation needed.

    Memes used to mean specific pieces of cultural information. Now they’re basically anything you can share on the internet.

    A troll used to be someone who tried to get a rise out of other people for personal entertainment and who was easily ignored. The term is now used for people who actively and aggressively harass others (and, disturbingly, occasionally to express one’s own quirkiness).

    • James R Kirk@startrek.websiteOP
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      9 days ago

      Here’s the citation if you really need it. I’m not trying to argue, but the process of becoming more complex and specific to a niche is the literal definition of “evolution”:

      “A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.”

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        The way I understand these terms, more complex and more specific are different things. A more complex definition encompasses more things, whereas a more specific definition has a smaller scope.