For a back and forth on whether the “LLMs are shoggoths” is propaganda, try reading this.
In my opinion if you read the dialogue, you’ll see the meaning of “LLMs are shoggoths” shift back and forth—from “it means LLMs are psychopathic” to “it means LLMs think differently from humans.” There isn’t a fixed meaning.
I don’t think trying to disentangle the “meaning” of shoggoths is going to result in anything; it’s a metaphor, some of whose understandings are obviously true (“we don’t understand all cognition in LLMs”), some of which are dubiously true (“LLM’s ‘true goals’ exist, and are horrific and alien”). But regardless of the truth of these props, you do better examining them one-by-one than in an emotionally-loaded image.
It’s sticky because it’s vivid, not because it’s clear; it’s reached for as a metaphor—like “this government policy is like 1984”—because it’s a ready-to-hand example with an obvious emotional valence, not for any other reason.
If you were to try to zoom into “this policy is like 1984” you’d find nothing; so also here.
For a back and forth on whether the “LLMs are shoggoths” is propaganda, try reading this.
In my opinion if you read the dialogue, you’ll see the meaning of “LLMs are shoggoths” shift back and forth—from “it means LLMs are psychopathic” to “it means LLMs think differently from humans.” There isn’t a fixed meaning.
I don’t think trying to disentangle the “meaning” of shoggoths is going to result in anything; it’s a metaphor, some of whose understandings are obviously true (“we don’t understand all cognition in LLMs”), some of which are dubiously true (“LLM’s ‘true goals’ exist, and are horrific and alien”). But regardless of the truth of these props, you do better examining them one-by-one than in an emotionally-loaded image.
It’s sticky because it’s vivid, not because it’s clear; it’s reached for as a metaphor—like “this government policy is like 1984”—because it’s a ready-to-hand example with an obvious emotional valence, not for any other reason.
If you were to try to zoom into “this policy is like 1984” you’d find nothing; so also here.