Data Robots! GPT, "AI", and Slaves

"Robata": is it slave work, or drudge work?

Historically, it means both kinds of bothersome work. It's work that the well-off had (and perhaps have) the serfs do. It's also the Czech word that became the worldwide word "robot" after its was used by Karel Čapek in the play R.U.R. to describe manufactured slaves. The abbreviated title refers to "Rossum’s Universal Robots", the lead encorporation (as in creating bodies with sufficient "liveliness" to be useful slaves) corporation in the play. It's founder's name translates to "Mr. Brain", an automation optimist with a belief that productivity is the measure of Man's* worth. The type that gets big funding in silicon valley and from industry.

As a data gorilla, I see a lot of data robata. And there's finally something to do it. Generative Pre-trained Transforms (GPT) are the robots, in the manner of Čapek, for my field.

There are a lot of people convinced that with the arrival of GPT Large Language Models (LLM), that "general AI" has arrived.

These models are impressive. And powerful. And transformative.

These are not general AI.

And are not structured like human, or even mammalian, intelligence: maybe vaguely like some particular glob of neurons, but they don't grow the right way. These are not a mirror to our minds, although they can mirror our discourse. They are a piece, a sub-system.

They model language; they do language processing. Yes, some models do image output, creating a picture from a prompt. For reasoning and conversation, these are intellectually similar in their role and impact. These models are communication engines. Without a deep audit of the "communication engine" analogy, I will state that clearly the models are practical for communication processing.

And when  trained on the "entire" internet, they "remember" it all, and can sound authoritative in real time, with all the dependability of internet advice. Like, or better than, a trope-fulfilling used car salesman. Despite the connotations, this is an amazing advance, and a powerful, powerful tool for many of us persons, natural and incorporated, that work with language, languages, imagery, or data.

• To grasp this change, there is a lot to consider and discuss.
  
• - What are these GPT-LLM?
• - How to reason about their use.
• - How to use for value.
• - Jobs these open and what training those jobs need.
• - Impact on economic and social stability.
• - Reasoning about the kind of things these are in Law.

My current summary of the GPT-LLM currently buzz-worded as "AI":

Generative models bullshit,
In an immensely useful way.
As unceasing as their electric feed,
And never ask for pay.

I am personally very excited about having and mastering the use of these tools.

* Man capitalized to indicate classical usage as a respectful pronoun for all humankind. This time, it's not just the common name of a species. And yes, you're included, whatever others may call you, or that you may call yourself. Contrast to Nature (what came about without us; what God wrought), and Machine (our creations both domestic and feral).