> Language doesn't just describe reality; it creates it.
I wonder if this is a statement from the discussed paper or from the blog author. Haven't found the original paper yet, but this blog post very much makes me want to read it.
I never under stand these kinds of statements.
Does the sun not exist until we have a word for it, did "under the rock" not exist for dinosaurs?
Think of it this way, though: the divisions that humans make between objects in the world are largely linguistic ones. For example, we say that the Earth is such-and-such an ecosystem with certain species occupying it. But this is more like a convenient shorthand, not a totally accurate description of reality. A more accurate description would be something like, ever-changing organisms undergo this complex process that we call evolution, and are all continually changing, so much so that the species concept is not really that clear, once you dig into it.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/species/
Where it really gets interesting, IMO, is when these divisions (which originally were mostly just linguistic categories) start shaping what's actually in the world. The concept of property is a good example. Originally it's just a legal term, but over time, it ends up reshaping the actual face of the earth, ecosystems, wars, migrations, on and on.
No, see what happens when apes, hyena's, and animals from dozens of other species try steal each others food.
"mine" and "yours" existed long before language.
I partially agree, but the idea about AI is that you need to bump into things and hurt yourself only once. Then you have a good driver you can replicate at will
Melanie Mitchell (2021) "Why AI is Harder Than We Think." https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.12871
That sentence is not from this paper.