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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

We're certainly not as smart, or special, as we think, and I often wonder if other species like dolphins or whales -- or crows! -- see the universe as made especially for them.

But comparing the current AI situation, and its parroting LLM models, to the Copernic revolution is so over the top that it's absurd.

Sam Bankman, meet Sam Altman?

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Is it really so over the top, though? We have machines that have basically internalized the Internet and can easily pass a Turing test, and yet we still have people trivializing these marvels as mere “parrots”. I believe this is partly a defence mechanism (we humans are inherently hubristic), and if a stubborn attachment to humanity’s “specialness” is the cause, then that certainly mirrors the psychology of Copernicus’s detractors.

In a way, though, the “parrot” moniker is apt. The (long aspirational) Turing Test was originally called the “imitation game”, and what’s better at imitation than a parrot? Apparently, it’s ChatGPT - I never did see a parrot write code.

There's a contradiction in pretending that "humans are not as smart as they think" and that "AI exists": it should be one or the other.

In other words, if machines can convincingly imitate us, does it mean machines are intelligent, or that we're stupid?

It's gets worse because human intelligence exists on a normal curve.

So is the AI smarter than "most" humans, "some" humans, or "a few" humans ?

At any level of that, you have a paradigm shift affecting millions to billions of people.

I don't see a contradiction.. Humans can both be intelligent and overestimate that intelligence (by thinking it's special and unobtainable) at the same time.

I think it showed us that the Turing test isnt enough

I've read that there is evidence that some ocean mammals have stronger emotional intelligence and experiences than humans do. Social relationships which are more complicated.

The experience of losing a mate might very well be a deeper kind of pain for them than humans are capable of feeling.

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