Mary Martin

A new study shows that the large language models (LLMs) deliberately change their behavior when being probed—responding to questions designed to gauge personality traits with answers meant to appear as likeable or socially desirable as possible.

The model was helpful—but only to an extent. They found that while AI improved the output of less creative writers, it made little difference to the quality of the stories produced by writers who were already creative.

This paper aims to dissect the phenomenon of AI hype in light of its core mechanisms, drawing comparisons between the current wave and historical episodes of AI hype, concluding that the current hype is historically unmatched in terms of magnitude, scale and planetary and social costs. We identify and discuss socio-technical mechanisms fueling AI... See more

Quanta interviewed 19 current and former NLP researchers to tell that story. From experts to students, tenured academics to startup founders, they describe a series of moments — dawning realizations, elated encounters and at least one “existential crisis” — that changed their world. And ours.

While early tech leaders hoped to liberate humanity from hierarchical governments, their products instead multiplied the available channels for exerting control.