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On 27/03/2023 02:30, Gordon Swobe wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.84.1679880610.847.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<div dir="ltr">On Sun, Mar 26, 2023 at 1:38 AM Ben Zaiboc via
extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> Jason Resch wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><b>3. She was asked what a machine
would have to do to convince her they have
understanding. Her example was that if Siri or Alexa
were asked to do something in the real world, like turn
on the lights, and if it does that, then it has
understanding (by virtue of having done something in the
real world).</b></blockquote>
<br>
Wait a minute. So she thinks that smart home systems have
understanding of what they're doing, but LLMs don't? I
wonder how many Siris and Alexas are the voice interface for
smart home systems? A lot, I expect.<br>
<br>
If she's right (which she's not, seems to be the consensus
here), then all that needs to be done is link up a LLM to
some smart home hardware, and 'ta-daaaa', instant
understanding!<br>
<br>
I don't buy it</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
She called Alexa-like understanding a "kind of"
understanding as in "sorta kinda," i.e., she brackets the word
or puts it in scare-quotes. In so much as Alexa executes your
command to turn off the lights, there is a sense in which it
kind of "understands" your command. She is not referring to
anything like conscious understanding of the meanings of
words.<br>
<br>
I also put the word in scare-quotes when I say with a straight
face that my pocket calculator "understands" mathematics. I
would not say it understands mathematics in the
conventional common sense of the word.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
Ok, so seeing as there's no real difference between sending a text
message "turn on the light" and sending a signal to a smart home
system to turn on the light, and similarly no difference between
receiving a message saying "ok, lights are on", and getting a
positive signal from a light-sensor, we can conclude that they <i>do</i>
have a 'kind of' understanding, even if they're not conscious.<br>
<br>
Glad we cleared that up!<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
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