alt Hacker NewsI don’t understand why people jump so readily to seeing intelligence here. Science fiction has as a core, central trope that humans will debase and devalue other types of life they do not understand. Even the storied Commander Data has to fight for the right to self-determination (probably the best episode of STTNG by the way - ‘The Measure of a Man’). We were so worried that we’d undervalue intelligence when apparently our knee-jerk response is to overvalue it. Perhaps this has changed over time and we’re now primed by science fiction and instincts towards social justice, but I worry that we’re really just undervaluing ourselves.
The one thing this 2023 article gets partially correct imo is that any intelligence we see in AI (as of 2026) is our own - not that it’s a mirror but that the intelligence comes from the way that the words are put together, which comes from written human language created by (allegedly) intelligent creatures put in as input in both the training and prompt, among other places.
Rearranging and repeating the words, even in context, does not intelligence make. I’m not even convinced that you’re intelligent, dear reader.
Because to the general public, LLMs are an example of Clarke's Third Law. Most folks, who are not remotely close to even a basic understanding of how LLMs operate at a technical level and only view their output cannot possibly evaluate what they're experiencing other than to believe it's conscious, alive, and/or magic.
Most people on Earth try to put what they're seeing into the context of what they understand; mental gymnastics to try and understand what is happening based on their prior experience. They have absolutely 0 understanding of how it works under the hood so, to them, it must be alive.