There is a vast set of alternatives for describing LLMs using fiction terms, both anthropomorphising and non-anthropomorphising.
It all depends on the perspective.
For example, in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, I consider it to be equivalent to the Lance of Longinus. A one-time launch that once deployed and spent is quite cumbersome to be recovered for later use. In the series, it goes off into cyberspace and out of control of Nerv. It can only be yielded by a clone of a celestial giant. It's a very birds-eye view of the whole thing.
There is nothing preventing someone from creating AIs with other kinds of personalities, so the description by Mr. Fowler is due to be outdated soon. For example, in 3.33 there is a new Lance of Gaius made from the spine of the first celestial giant clone which embodies different qualities from the other spears depicted in the series. It's not far-fetched to imagine that companies will soon experiment with different modes of AI assistants.
From a down-to-earth perspective of such metaphor, using an LLM is being part of Nerv (or Wille) and helping some weird giant cultural robot to perform some unknown and mysterious task of which you are not completely aware of.
Anthropomorphising things is quite dangerous, in my opinion. I am glad that other ways of describing such machines exist, it makes it easier to understand their overall purpose, not only what it can do for me in a very short term narrow mindset.
davydm · 5h ago
Agreed - I find it a bit of a failing for an intelligent human to assign agency to a token-predictor that has neither personality nor understanding.
alganet · 5h ago
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since it seems that people actually need to proper understand the expectations of such technologies before using them.
However, since we're talking about fiction and metaphors, I find it lacking in nuance.
I understand that you are compelled to repeat the idea that "it's just a next word predictor", and it probably is, but I'm not sure if the agency and consciousness discussions fit the theme of the conversation.
It all depends on the perspective.
For example, in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, I consider it to be equivalent to the Lance of Longinus. A one-time launch that once deployed and spent is quite cumbersome to be recovered for later use. In the series, it goes off into cyberspace and out of control of Nerv. It can only be yielded by a clone of a celestial giant. It's a very birds-eye view of the whole thing.
There is nothing preventing someone from creating AIs with other kinds of personalities, so the description by Mr. Fowler is due to be outdated soon. For example, in 3.33 there is a new Lance of Gaius made from the spine of the first celestial giant clone which embodies different qualities from the other spears depicted in the series. It's not far-fetched to imagine that companies will soon experiment with different modes of AI assistants.
From a down-to-earth perspective of such metaphor, using an LLM is being part of Nerv (or Wille) and helping some weird giant cultural robot to perform some unknown and mysterious task of which you are not completely aware of.
Anthropomorphising things is quite dangerous, in my opinion. I am glad that other ways of describing such machines exist, it makes it easier to understand their overall purpose, not only what it can do for me in a very short term narrow mindset.
However, since we're talking about fiction and metaphors, I find it lacking in nuance.
I understand that you are compelled to repeat the idea that "it's just a next word predictor", and it probably is, but I'm not sure if the agency and consciousness discussions fit the theme of the conversation.