Imitating desired realities

[mtbc]

At work, I am on a project that uses large language models (LLMs), an instance of the modern AI fad that brought us ChatGPT and, relatedly, image generators and suchlike. Personally, I am not into gaming and I don't own computers that have reasonable GPUs, and I have little use for systems that can deliver me results that are rather more plausible than they are trustworthy. My preference remains for the more traditional kind of AI centered on knowledge-based reasoning, though I concede that deep learning boasts some impressive successes.

Now that I am digging into modern AI a little for my day job, it becomes more obvious to me what everybody else probably realized years ago. First, I find myself tempted to use it for inane questions like recommendations from restaurant menus for kinds of people. That would be a lot of pointless computation: with each of us using LLMs for whatever comes to mind, just as we might ask our friends what they think, it sounds about as bad as proof of work for accelerating climate catastrophe.

Secondly, in reviewing various available models it became apparent that uncensored models are readily available, there can be guards and such applied subsequently. Many models are probably trained on all manner of material from the Internet, some of it from the sewer. Perhaps one can buy oneself decent graphics hardware, download uncensored models, then privately indulge whatever interactive fantasies come to mind. This goes back to previous questions on the effect of people being able to play violent video games or watch extreme pornography. Are we approaching a world in which anybody can immerse themselves in the particular virtual depravity of their choosing and, if so, what does that mean for society? I suppose that we will find out.

Comments

[mtbc]

Absolutely. And once they can choose all kinds of details about the victims and crimes, running it entirely on private hardware, some people will choose to live part of their lives in virtual worlds that are terrible examples.

I am reminded of the anecdote of the actor who had to play someone important so, to help them be in character, the cast and crew generally treated them as if they really were rather important, which became a challenge for the actor after the job was done and they were back to being unimportant. One world will bleed into another somehow, the question is how.