cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/18077383
Oddly, “bullshit” qualifies as a technical term in this context. The authors argue that chatgpt (and similar systems) emit bullshit.
They don’t lie or hallucinate because they don’t know or believe anything. It’s all just text modeling.
The focus in this type of AI is to produce text that looks convincing, but it doesn’t have any concept of truth/falsehood, fact or fiction.
When this is the way someone talks, we say that they’re bullshitting us. So it is with chatgpt.
Plot twist. They used ChatGPT to write it – The article is a confession
I wish I was as bold as these authors.
I love the term too but I wonder how it’ll be used in situations where profanity is discouraged
I couldn’t care less about places in which profanity is discouraged.
If you’re going to be disrespectful, you’ll be so regardless of language.
For instance:
“You suck donkey balls”
vs.
(And bear in mind that I don’t use this term!)
“You’re mentally retarded”
No profanity in the second one. And yet, I’d feel like punching the person’s face who would say the second one to me. Not because someone would say that to me, but because I find the use of the label offensive in general.
So, fuck it.
If you want to get technical, only saying things like “Jesus Christ” as a statement of exasperation are profanities, because they are supposed to disrespect sacred things, but I think these days, we could consider the profane to be the disrespectful. In which case, I would say that the R-word is a profanity, for the same reason the N-word is a profanity.
If we’re trending technical in our etymological taxonomies, then the X-words are all slurs because they insult people for belonging to specific groups. As you say, profanities and blasphemies need to address the sacred in some disrespectful way. I believe that leaves… curse words and expletives as the remaining categories of naughty words. Any others? I suppose vulgarity and obscenity, but those feel like subtypes of expletives to me.
You make a good point about the potential for harm in all types of language, regardless of whether it’s considered ‘profanity’ or not. I also agree that intent and impact matter more than the specific words used.
At the same time, I’m curious about how this relates to words like ‘bullshit’ in different social contexts. Do you think there are still situations where using ‘bullshit’ might be seen as more or less appropriate, even if we agree that any word can potentially cause harm?
I’m just an individual, so my opinion may be just that. My opinion.
To answer your question, families may ban the use of said words in the sanctity of their own homes, for example.
The only reason I may feel that curse words are inappropriate in any situation is because I’m already conditioned, from childhood, to think of them as “they may offend.” But if no such conditioning existed, I’d say they would be okay in any instance, because the words per se are not offending. The intent is.
Take, for example, an eulogy. A person speaking of someone who recently passed away, may say “Excuse me everyone, but gosh darn, why did he have to leave so soon? I feel like a failure, because I could have done more. I’m a failure!” Why should it be different from “Excuse me everyone, but fuck, why did he have to leave so soon? I feel like I fucked up because I could have done more. I’m a fuckup!” Really, the only reason we may silently gasp at the second version is because we were conditioned to “gasp” at those words while growing up. Not because the words cause actual psychological, irreparable harm.
You touched the topic of religion in other comments. I guarantee you that when God, before killing everyone with a flood during Noah’s ark times, I’m sure He at least, at the very least looked at the state of the “failed world” and said “well, shit!”
Educating children about LLMs for the most part. There are also religious institutions that would like to be informed about LLMs as well
Most children are eventually educated on these words. Usually by 1st grade, if I remember right.
What you’re thinking of is what parents think they want reality to be, not reality.
Which ones? The ones that allow raping of children by their leaders?
Or the ones that promote violence in their holy books, like killings and torturing to death? Oh, but the profanity! Not the profanity.
What is the danger of explaining the word “bullshit” to children? Of course like many topics it should be explained carefully e.g. reading Frankfurt before discussing this specific paper.
And religion can politely go fuck itself when it comes to deciding what words professional academics use. They did that long enough already… But actually I know a few religious philosophers and they use the term without complaints.
