Ezra Klein, "The Matrix", and Big Tech's current efforts to trivialize LLMs

Last update: 5/31/23 

Once again, the editor of this blog calls his readers' attention to some cogent observations about artificial intelligence (AI) from Ezra Klein, his favorite public intellectual. Mr. Klein's observations appeared in a recent NY Times op ed ==> "Beyond the ‘Matrix’ Theory of the Mind", Ezra Klein, NY Times, 5/28/23. As the editor suggested in a previous note on this blog, "Ezra Klein: the public intellectual as AI critic", Klein is brilliant and well informed; but he is not an AI expert, so his incisive comments illuminate the limits of what can be understood about large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies by non-experts.

Developing reliable specialized large language models (LLMs) for the multi billion dollar online/hybrid education market

Last update: Friday 5/12/23 

Why did OpenAI release ChatGPT with the GPT-3.5 model, then with GPT-4, even though both models were prone to factual errors, bias, and "hallucinations". Open AI claimed that it did so, even at the risk of being banned in some countries (e.g., Italy temporarily), in order to learn from widespread user experience with the flawed models. 

Ezra Klein: the public intellectual as AI critic

Last update: Sunday 4/23/23

 

According to Wikipedia, "The term public intellectual "describes the intellectual participating in the public-affairs discourse of society, in addition to an academic career." The editor of this blog frequently cites Wikipedia definitions of important concepts, but he was surprised and disappointed by the narrow academic focus of its definition in this case. Ezra Klein is not a tenured professor in a university and does not have a PhD, the union card usually required for admission to tenure. But neither did Walter Lippmann, one of this nation's first and most eminent public intellectuals 

The Neoskeptics editor asked the GPT-4 Oracle: "What's the next big thing after Large Language Models (LLMs)?" -- DRAFT

Last update: Saturday 4/15/23 

Once again, the editor of this blog has asked the GPT-4 oracle to look into its crystal ball. Of course, an LLM can't analyze anything or predict anything; but it should be able to produce a plausible distillation of the consensus of opinions among the small community of experts who have published the most papers on the Internet that addressed the issues raised by his questions. Like millions of other "well informed" people, the editor had been surprised, nay flabbergasted by the sudden appearance of ChatGPT last fall running GPT-3.5, and again a few weeks ago when the new GPT-4 model was introduced. 

ChatGPT's response to our 3rd question: "What do I have to learn in order to become a competent user of applications based on large language models?"

Last update: Monday 4/10/23 

On 4/10/23 the editor of this blog posed the question in the title of this note to ChatGPT running its GPT-4 model.  In the editor's opinion, the chatbot's detailed response lays out a realistic learning program; it is not a "hallucination".

Note that this is the editor's second revision of a question he originally posed to ChatGPT on 4/8/23, revised yet again because this third version is a simpler, more effective "prompt" to ChatGPT to produce guidance for obtaining the knowledge and skills that most non-AI experts really want ... :-)

"Pandemic Survivor" -- Does anybody still watch that show?

Last update: Tuesday 7/26/22 

Is that show still on? Does anybody really watch it anymore? I haven't watched since last Christmas. Who are the main characters now? Remember way back in 2020 when  "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were the good guys and we all tuned in every week to watch them flatten the curves?... "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were pushed out in early 2021 by "Vaccines" and "Herd Immunity". When ratings began to sag, CDC Productions replaced them with bad guys, "Delta" and "Breakthroughs". Nobody like them, so CDC tried to bring back "Masks"and "Other Mitigations", which didn't work out. After Christmas they replaced "Delta" with "Omicron". He was supposed to be a good guy because he was less lethal than Delta, yet somehow he killed more people. I remember feeling confused and bored and suddenly noticed that I had gained 15 pounds from watching too much TV; so I decided to go out more and get more exercise and fresh air. That's when I learned that Netflix announced that it would cancel its contract with CDC Productions before the fall 2022 season began. Meanwhile, is anybody still watching the show?

Biden says Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not

Last update: Wednesday 4/20/22 

Here's the first paragraph of an article in the NY Times on 4/19/22. "President Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks, undercutting efforts by his administration to urge Americans to keep wearing face coverings on airplanes, trains and buses even after a federal judge struck down a nationwide mask mandate on public transport."

Maybe it's time to #DefundTheCDC

Last update: Wednesday 2/16/22

We don't propose to literally shut down all of the CDC's operations. Our intention is to impose a pause on the CDC's issuance of new guidance while Omicron's current surge subsides in most states. Ideally the CDC should be an agile developer of reliable public policy; but too often its guidance has been too early, then flip-flopped, or too late to have substantial impact. 

Some merry happy seasons greetings

 

... Merry Xmas!!!

...... Seasons Greetings!!!

......... Happy New Year!!!

We wished everyone a Happy New Year two years ago 

    and look what happened in 2020 #!@!#

We wished everyone a Happy New Year last year 

    and look what happened in 2021 #!@!#

Although everyone knows that the third time is the charm, 

   we're hedging our bets this year. 

         So here's to wishing that you won't have to learn more than 

         two new letters in the Greek alphabet in 2022 ... :-)

‘Go out there and enjoy Halloween,’ Dr. Fauci says ... Oh, really???

Last update: Sunday 10/10/21

“This is a time that children love,” Dr. Fauci said according to the NY Times. "It’s a very important part of the year for children.” Yes, kids love Halloween, even kids who live in apartment buildings love Halloween, kids who knock on every apartment door, indoors not outdoors, crying "Trick or Treat!" ... kids who live in urban neighborhoods where every "house" is an apartment building, knocking on every door until someone opens the door ... not wearing a mask ... breathing on the kids in the hallway outside their apartment ... where aerosols float freely throughout the night ... Happy Halloween!!!  ... One piece of advice for every child in every kind of neighborhood -- suburban, rural and, oh yes, urban -- because, as per so many previous guidelines from the nation's pandemic pundits, one size fits all, right??? ... Now that's scary, really scary... :-(

Winning and losing pandemic wars

Last update: Wednesday 2/24/21

 

There seems to be widespread agreement that the primary goal of our total war against the coronavirus is to save as many lives as possible. This is not surprising given the fact that we have allowed health care experts, i.e., doctors and other medical specialists, to oversee our war efforts. 

Climate change and the necessary American socialist response

Last update: Friday 7/27/18

This note recalls an historic strategy that could be used for coping with climate change. It does not provide statistical estimates of the scale and scope of the required strategy because it's not written for readers who don't accept the reality of climate change. Readers who do accept this inconvenient truth will presumably have their own particular array of statistics on which they base their beliefs. So the note proceeds from there.

Pork in the Treetops

It's late (1:12 am) on Tuesday 9/2/14, but just as I was logging off I checked my email for the last time today. There, as usual, was "stuff" from the Obama political machine -- which I usually delete right after reading the "subject" because it is invariably a prelude to an hysterical plea for donations. 

Memories of a Racist Serial Killer -- Repressed and Obsessed

Last updated: Sunday 1/21/14 @ 5:34 pm

This is a very personal note, a memoir about scary events that happened back in 1975, memories that were, evidently, so disturbing that I have repressed them for 39 years.

Black Nephews vs. Black Daddies

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine carried an article "Data You Can Believe In" (Jim Rutenberg, 6/23/13) that gushes about how a gaggle of young number crunchers were responsible for identifying Obama's wavering supporters in the 2012 campaign, then targeting torrents of media messages to these waverers with high precision and minimum cost, thereby ensuring Governor's Romney's defeat.