I probably should have listened to the initial feedback on this post along the lines that it wasn’t entirely clear what I actually meant by “magic” and was possibly more confusing than illuminating, but, oh well. I think that GPT-4 is magic in the same way that the human decision-making process is magic: both processes are opaque, we don’t really understand how they work at a granular level, and we can’t replicate them except in the most narrow circumstances.
One weakness of GPT-4 is it can’t really explain why it made the choices it did. It can give plausible reasons why those choices were made, but it doesn’t have the kind of insight into its motives that we do.
it doesn’t have the kind of insight into its motives that we do
Wait, human beings have insight into their own motives that’s better than GPTs have into theirs? When was the update released, and will it run on my brain? ;-)
Joking aside, though, I’d say the average person’s insight into their own motives is most of the time not much better than that of a GPT, because it’s usually generated in the same way: i.e. making up plausible stories.
I probably should have listened to the initial feedback on this post along the lines that it wasn’t entirely clear what I actually meant by “magic” and was possibly more confusing than illuminating, but, oh well. I think that GPT-4 is magic in the same way that the human decision-making process is magic: both processes are opaque, we don’t really understand how they work at a granular level, and we can’t replicate them except in the most narrow circumstances.
One weakness of GPT-4 is it can’t really explain why it made the choices it did. It can give plausible reasons why those choices were made, but it doesn’t have the kind of insight into its motives that we do.
Wait, human beings have insight into their own motives that’s better than GPTs have into theirs? When was the update released, and will it run on my brain? ;-)
Joking aside, though, I’d say the average person’s insight into their own motives is most of the time not much better than that of a GPT, because it’s usually generated in the same way: i.e. making up plausible stories.