Off to Switzerland

American Swiss Foundation discussion promises to be cross cultural and useful

Interesting differences between American and European views of LLMs and related tech like ChatGPT. (I am soooo tired of talking about ChatGPT, most of the questions about datasets and bias are covered in any 1960s statistics text book for undergraduates, and the business case a plug-in for Bing as far as I can tell—great if you already know what’s “real,” — I use it occasionally as mnemonic device but for discovery, I have to independently verify…). The view that ChatGPT is a “creature” is less prominent in Europe, perhaps because they can more easily see the human interests—and dangers—behind it, as it’s American Big Business with all the usual tech-speak promo on steroids.

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I suppose since I’m a bit lonely sitting on a train in what feels like the middle of nowhere, I’ll add a bit more. I mostly want to talk to the younger generation, because frankly they are going to fix—or not fix—what we got wrong. I find myself when discussing ChatGPT frequently shrugging, sort of sad maybe half reconciled, admitting it’s an innovation, but it’s also the most boring innovation I’ve ever seen in my life, and it serves the interests of very powerful and entrenched companies in such a way that we’re, all told, not getting anywhere at all. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with mega-funded companies—that’s also known as success. But there aren’t garage startups anymore, and oddball geniuses who tinker with new ideas have largely been absorbed into the Borg of the current monster AI landscape.

Sometimes I call it “the end of AI.” I seriously doubt I’m going to be wrong about this, philosophically, but I get the undercurrent of melodrama. My point is not always or ever to be negative but to suggest, I think we can do better. And when I see young people in the audience, their eyes light up, their heads nod, I can see that they’re resonating with my point that something has gone seriously wrong. It makes it all worthwhile. I wouldn’t do this—because frankly it’s hard work and it doesn’t pay well—but at the end of the day I want to feel like I said something useful. I want to see those eyes light up on the younger generation and know that more innovations and ideas are to come.

I’m taking the train from Rome to Zurich to speak about what I think this all means (actually on the train now, somewhere in the Swiss Alps). Will be writing more soon after a grueling speaking tour (no sympathy please, I’m in Europe due to the largesse of others—I mean free). I just don’t see the point of it all if we can’t see what’s wrong and honestly discuss it, and meaningfully change it. I left tech to do this. It’s not about money. I want to add something helpful to the discussion after getting so many viewpoints from so many wonderful people. I want humanism because I love humans.