AI

scientific investigations of the boundaries between conscious and unconscious systems are urgently needed, and they cite ethical, legal and safety issues that make it crucial to understand AI consciousness. For example, if AI develops consciousness, should people be allowed to simply switch it off after use?

The more I use language models, the more monstrous they seem to me. I don’t mean that in a partic­u­larly negative sense. Frankenstein’s monster is sad, but also amazing. Godzilla is a monster, and Godzilla rules.

Agrawal et al. argue that the framing of AI automation versus augmentation is wrong. Rather than being distinct they are often one and the same. They say that AI, initially intended for automating tasks, inadvertently acts as a force for augmentation of the broader workforce. For example, automating diagnostic skills in healthcare could diminish... See more

Nietzsche wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that “Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können” – “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”

I plan to foster this chaos in me by staring into the eyes of my beloved, walking into a forest at dusk, or writing a poem whose wild... See more

We can’t address the decline in empathy without addressing the decline in attention . Empathy requires a degree of sustained focus:

• Paying attention to an experience someone is sharing


• Recalling experiencing a similar emotional response


• Sitting with your own and the other person’s inner state

When we are fragmented and distracted , we simply can’t... See more

AI is a fad, but not merely a fad. You can’t merely wait for it to blow over, and imagine that things will be as they were. A lot of it will blow over, but also a lot of things will be blown flat by it. Important matters, customs, infrastructures, cherished ways of life, gone with the wind and never replaced.

The community remains puzzled about whether these models genuinely generalize to unseen tasks, or seemingly succeed by memorizing the training data. This paper makes important strides in addressing this question. It constructs a suite of carefully designed counterfactual evaluations, providing fresh insights into the capabilities of... See more