Reflections on the future of Chatbots
Directions for a maturing marketplace
Derek’s Substack
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Are LLMs Just Next Token Predictors?
It is a common refrain that large language models are trained to “predict the next token.” I take this to mean that LLMs are built to be short-sighted: they’re focused only on the next token, and insofar as they consider the possible directions of future text, it is just to be better at predicting the very next token.
Banal and Special Conceptions of Consciousness
During my academic career as a graduate student and young professor, I was drawn increasingly to an extreme physicalist view of consciousness.
Embedded Brains and Conscious Experiences
Here is a thought experiment I’ve been perplexed by.
We are more likely to over-attribute digital consciousness
The welfare of possible future digital beings is worth taking seriously. The progress we’ve seen in AI is bewildering and only likely to speed up. We don’t understand the systems we’ve built very well and there is little reason to think we’ll be less uncertain about future systems. AIs can already engage with human beings in ways that are
A substack for short-lived ideas
A blog reborn
Coming soon
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