undefined | Better HN

0 pointsmannykannot3y ago0 comments

Two models having a coherent conversation - a scenario which follows directly from my post - would be a purely textual example of what I mean.

> Perhaps we will never find out if language models have a theory of mind.

We appear to be in agreement here.

When the state of our knowledge is 'maybe', it seems rash to assume either 'yes' or 'no'.

0 comments

rhn_mk13y ago

What does it change when you add another model? I don't see how this lets us extract extra information.

What distinguishes two conjoined models from one model with a narrowing across the middle?

If the idea is to have two similar minds building a theory of each other, then I guess this could be informative, but first we'd have to establish that the models are "minds" in the first place. It's not clear to me what that requires.

mannykannotOP3y ago

Here's where I am coming from: there have been a number of experiments to teach language to other species, but there is always a problem in trying to figure out to what extent they 'get' language - For example, there is the case of the chimpanzee Washoe signing "water" and "bird" on first seeing a swan - was it, as some people contended, inventing a new phrase for picking out swans (or even aquatic birds in general), or was it merely making the signs for two different things in the scene before it? [1]

One thing that has not been seen (as far as I know) is two or more of these animal subjects routinely having meaningful conversations among themselves. This would be a much richer source of data, and I do not think it would leave much doubt that they 'got' language to a very significant degree.

[1] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/11/24/can-chimps-conve...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse