[ExI] Bender's Octopus (re: LLMs like ChatGPT)

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 3:50 PM Gordon Swobe via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> To do the octopus experiment with ChatGPT, one must first prompt it to
> write only about the things an octopus under the sea would know. I
> specifically told it that it had never heard of bears or sticks or land,
> and then asked it for advice as I am being attacked by a bear. Predictably,
> it had no advice
>
> The point of the octopus in Bender's thought experiment is that it has no
> connection to the actual world in which we have referents for our words.
> The island represents the actual world.
>

A variant that some who know younger folks might know, and others get to
experience a lack of referents for: inklings.  If the term is utterly
unfamiliar to you, stop reading here and imagine if someone were to tell
you they were being attacked by inklings, then ask for advice.  What would
you say in response?



Inserting a bit of spoiler space for the above-mentioned audience.



Inklings are from the Splatoon series of video games, which posit a future
Earth where the sea levels have dramatically risen and almost all mammalian
life is gone (mostly dead, some may have fled).  Various forms of marine
life have evolved into intelligent forms.  Inklings are sentient humanoids
(usually: they have a limited ability to shapeshift) that evolved from
squids.  They have invented a wide variety of weaponry that projects ink
their bodies naturally manufacture.  Ironically, their bodies do not handle
immersion in water well, so if you are something that can swim and you are
near a large body of water, swimming away may be an effective defense.  Of
course, these are fictional creatures; if any real person is being attacked
by an inkling, either they are seeing things, and thus are in no actual
danger, or their attackers are cosplaying, which suggests the "attack" may
be less than entirely serious.

Someone with no reference for what an inkling is, would be very unlikely to
guess that answer.
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