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Comment by Quarrelsome | Hacker News Reader

> The "something deeply wrong" part about AI, that even most technology enthusiasts evidently do not seem to grasp, is that it is still fundamentally a statistical model — an algorithmic construct — and does not possess any real intelligence or critical thought whatsoever.

I feel like that what a lot of people who say this don't seem to grasp, is that despite this flaw its still often capable of saying more interesting things than a lot of humans. Which says a lot about humans.

Idk something about a mirror maybe and the output reflecting the input?

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> I feel like that what a lot of people who say this don't seem to grasp, is that despite this flaw its still often capable of saying more interesting things than a lot of humans.

So does the Google search bar, but I don't ascribe intelligence to it.

The Google search bar is not capable of generating original text though. LLMs definitely are - you can get pretty creative output easily.

String concatenation will generate "original text" by that definition.

Obligatory "yes, I know that's not what an LLM is", purely pointing out the metric.

If the Google search bar ran results through a thesaurus, it still wouldn't be intelligent.

The google search bar is surprisingly smart sometimes. What's your definition of intelligence that completely excludes most of what a computer does?

Happily, I don't need to define "intelligence" here, because it's squarely in "I know it when I see it" territory. It's notoriously hard to define.

I also don't ascribe intelligence to a pocket calculator.

I don't find it's particularly hard to define loosely, but then I don't think of it as a special property of humans other than it tends to be quite high in them. But we are obviously talking about different things and if you're not going to provide a definition then it's not really the basis for a productive conversation.

To address this similarly to my sibling reply, I don't have a definition of intelligence that provides value here.

And your loose definition isn't doing a lot of help either, beyond perhaps noting: that Google search bar _is_ similarly "intelligent" to an LLM? Which says what, a lot about search? A lot about modern LLMs?

Similar in kind, but not degree. An LLM is a lot more intelligent than the google search bar.

Do you ascribe intelligence to a gorilla? How about a goldfish?

Would you ask either of them to review a PR? Or a calculator to eat a banana? Or an LLM to calculate prime factors?

These aren't interesting questions. As much as any definition is in use here, we're not going to get much value talking about "intelligence" this way.

I mean I'm quite proud of some of my search queries in the same way I'm quite proud of some of the LLM output I get. I'm probably just very arrogant and enjoying myself via some LLM indirection.

Am I the only one that sometimes reads back particularly good emails they've written? I feel like its a similar thing :).

> often capable of saying more interesting things than a lot of humans. Which says a lot about humans.

Other humans aren't there to entertain you, the LLM is.

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