[guns]

This is what Stephen Wolfram concludes in a recent article about ChatGPT:

> The specific engineering of ChatGPT has made it quite compelling. But ultimately (at least until it can use outside tools) ChatGPT is “merely” pulling out some “coherent thread of text” from the “statistics of conventional wisdom” that it’s accumulated. But it’s amazing how human-like the results are. And as I’ve discussed, this suggests something that’s at least scientifically very important: that human language (and the patterns of thinking behind it) are somehow simpler and more “law like” in their structure than we thought.

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-...

[Animats]

> (at least until it can use outside tools)

This is key. ChatGPT/GPT-4 alone are limited to reformulating what they know from their training data. Linked to search engines, databases, and computational tools such as Wolfram Alpha, they acquire much more capability. We're already seeing that with Microsoft Bing.

(Update: what happens as large language models learn Excel? Especially since Microsoft is already connecting them to Excel.)

What's striking is how fast this field is advancing. Huge advances over months, not years or decades.

We now have a much better idea of how intelligence evolved. It's mostly just more neurons. One of the great philosophical questions has, inadvertently, been answered.

Is the Singularity happening right now?

[petilon]

> ChatGPT/GPT-4 alone are limited to reformulating what they know from their training data.

That's not true. They are extrapolating. If they weren't, they wouldn't have the problem known as "hallucination".

[electrondood]

> Linked to search engines, databases, and computational tools such as Wolfram Alpha, they acquire much more capability.

I see this as analogous to the human brain; there are different structures which are particularly good at specific tasks/functions. They all work together.

The only difference between a human brain and an ANN is a difference of degree. A neuron and an artificial neuron are functionally identical. I think as we start interconnecting these models we see surprising emergent properties.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

>> Is the Singularity happening right now?

No, but it seems everyone loves to LARP it anyway.

[criddell]

I wonder if different languages lead to different capabilities? If I ask the same question in English, Japanese, and German, will I reliably get “better” answers from one language over another.

[whimsicalism]

The models transfer knowledge between languages, so probably some difference in capabilities but not a ton in core capabilities.

It can solve a physics problem in Telugu close to as well as in English.