Fourteenth Century LLMs
"Statistical Parrots" aren't new
It’s been almost two years since ChatGPT’s launch. We’re better prepared for society-shifting tech now. The social media and smartphones postmortems - taking place on social media and smartphones - have made many skeptical about paradigm shifts.
This time, the backlash is arriving before the tech is even mature. Consumers are sure it will be used to make customer service even more unbearable. Artists are sure it will be used to spam soulless copies of their life’s work. Engineers are sure that any perceived “intelligence” is just a statistical parrot guessing at the next word (Although I often wonder how I got to the middle of a sentence and have to guess my way out).
Everyone seems to agree that a simulacrum injecting itself into human experience is both novel and dangerous - but it’s not the first time we’ve grappled with this.
Hafiz, the 14th century Persian Sufi poet, wrote stunningly sensual poems about God, love, and reality. One of them considers the religious charlatans, management consultants, and large language models that simply repeat words without meaning. Enjoy:
THE DIAMOND TAKES SHAPE
Some parrots
Have become so skilled with
The human voice
They could give a brilliant discourse
About freedom and God
And an unsighted man nearby might
Even begin applauding with
The thought:
I just heard jewels fall from a
Great saint’s mouth,
Though my Master used to say,
“The diamond takes shape slowly
With integrity’s great force,
And from
The profound courage to never relinquish love.”
Some parrots have become so skilled
With words,
The blind turn over their gold
And lives to caged
Feathers.
~ Hafiz
(interpreted by Daniel Ladinsky in The Gift)
Everything old is new again.