In the near future, it is projected that contrarians will gain self awareness.

They're kind of right. LLMs are not general intelligence and there's not much evidence to suggest that LLMs will lead to general intelligence. A lot of the hype around AI is manufactured by VCs and companies that stand to make a lot of money off of the AI branding/hype.

Knowing that LLMs are just "parroting" is one of the first steps to implementing them in safe, effective ways where they can actually provide value.

Reminds me of this meme I saw somewhere around here the other week

I think LLMs are neat, and Teslas are neat, and HHO generators are neat, and aliens are neat...

...but none of them live up to all of the claims made about them.

They're predicting the next word without any concept of right or wrong, there is no intelligence there. And it shows the second they start hallucinating.

I feel like our current "AIs" are like the Virtual Intelligences in Mass Effect. They can perform some tasks and hold a conversation, but they aren't actually "aware". We're still far off from a true AI like the Geth or EDI.

EXACTLY. there is no problem solving either (except that to calculate the most probable text)

Even worse is some of my friends say that alexa is A.I.

The way I've come to understand it is that LLMs are intelligent in the same way your subconscious is intelligent.

It works off of kneejerk "this feels right" logic, that's why images look like dreams, realistic until you examine further.

We all have a kneejerk responses to situations and questions, but the difference is we filter that through our conscious mind, to apply long-term thinking and our own choices into the mix.

LLMs just keep getting better at the "this feels right" stage, which is why completely novel or niche situations can still trip it up; because it hasn't developed enough "reflexes" for that problem yet.

If an LLM is just regurgitating information in a learned pattern and therefore it isn't real intelligence, I have really bad news for ~80% of people.

I know a few people who would fit that definition

LLMs are a step towards AI in the same sense that a big ladder is a step towards the moon.

Been destroyed for this opinion here. Not many practicioners here just laymen and mostly techbros in this field.. But maybe I haven't found the right node?

I'm into local diffusion models and open source llms only, not into the megacorp stuff

As someone who has loves Asimov and read nearly all of his work.

I absolutely bloody hate calling LLM's AI, without a doubt they are neat. But they are absolutely nothing in the ballpark of AI, and that's okay! They weren't trying to make a synethic brain, it's just the culture narrative I am most annoyed at.

You've just described most people...

Keep seething, OpenAI's LLMs will never achieve AGI that will replace people

I fully back your sentiment OP; you understand as much about the world as any LLM out there and don't let anyone suggest otherwise.

Signed, a "contrarian".

Ok, but so do most humans? So few people actually have true understanding in topics. They parrot the parroting that they have been told throughout their lives. This only gets worse as you move into more technical topics. Ask someone why it is cold in winter and you will be lucky if they say it is because the days are shorter than in summer. That is the most rudimentary "correct" way to answer that question and it is still an incorrect parroting of something they have been told.

Ask yourself, what do you actually understand? How many topics could you be asked "why?" on repeatedly and actually be able to answer more than 4 or 5 times. I know I have a few. I also know what I am not able to do that with.

I once ran an LLM locally using Kobold AI. Said thing has an option to show the alternative tokens for each token it puts out, and what their probably for being chosen was. Seeing this shattered the illusion that these things are really intelligent for me. There's at least one more thing we need to figure out before we can build an AI that is actually intelligent.

It's cool what statistics can do, though.

Unfortunately the majority of people are idiots who just do this in real life, parroting populous ideology without understanding anything more than the proper catchphrase du jour. And there are many employed professionals who are paid to read a script, or output mundane marketing content, or any "content". And for that, LLMs are great.

It's the elevator operator of technology as applied to creative writers. Instead of "hey intern, write the next article about 25 things these idiots need to buy and make sure 90% of them are from our sponsors" it goes to AI. The writer was never going to purchase a few different types of each product category, blindly test them and write a real article. They are just shilling crap they are paid to shill making it look "organic" because many humans are too stupid to not know it's a giant paid for ad.

I've know people in my life who put less mental effort into living their lives than LLMs put into crafting the most convincing lies you've ever read

So... LLMS are... teenagers?

The reason it's dangerous is because there are a significant number of jobs and people out there that do exactly that. Which can be replaced....

I just love this meme-template... 😅

Doesn't matter had sex

Is that Summer from Rick and Morty?

I always argue that human learning does exactly the same. You just parrot and after some time you believe it's your knowledge. Inventing new things is applying seen before mechanisms on different dataset.

Alternatively we could call things what they are. You know, cause if we ever have actual AI we kind of need the term to be intact and not watered down by years of marketing bullshit or whatever else.

How do you know for sure your brain is not doing exactly the same thing? Hell, being autistic, many social interactions are just me trying to guess what will get me approval without any understanding lol.

Also really fitting that Photon chose this for a placeholder right now:

So super informed OP, tell me how they work. technically, not CEO press release speak. explain the theory.

People learn the same way, we do things that bring us satisfaction and get us approval.

I think AI is the single most powerful tool we've ever invented and it is now and will continue completely changing the world. But you'll get nothing but hate and "iTs Not aCtuaLly AI" replies here on Lemmy.

For General AI to work, we first need the computer to be able to communicate properly with humans, to understand them and to convey themselves in an understandable way.

LLM is just that. It is the first step towards General AI.

it is already a great tool for programmers. Which means programming anything, including new AI, will only go exponentially faster.