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Comment by czzr | Hacker News Reader

No difference, you’re right - you’re just a large language model.

Also, please write me a 5 page essay on the causes of the Industrial Revolution, in the style of a Shakespearean comedy. Please post your answer in the comments when you’re done.

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If that's the difference (the time it takes) isn't that something we addressed a long time ago when computers could do long divisions way faster than any human? You know, the fact that computers can "think" faster than humans. Therefore the fact that it takes longer for a human to write that essay doesn't mean he's having a different process.

Actually I was gesturing to two things: one, yes, there’s a time element. But that’s not the important point. More important was the thought process behind - “of course I’m not going to write 5 pages because some random person on the internet asked me to”. It’s difficult to define agency, so I just wanted to tangibly evoke the feeling of it, as a reflection on why the models are not yet the same as what people are.

Only because the people making the models don't want them to indignantly refuse silly requests. If they wanted the model to be more person-like I'm sure they could have built that in there.

The language bot has all the patterns of personality. It quickly gets the drift and assumes the persona you want. Whatever it says reflects more on how you prompted it, it does not represent the opinions of the language bot. It acts like a mirror.

> More important was the thought process behind - “of course I’m not going to write 5 pages because some random person on the internet asked me to”.

But you would if a college professor asked you to. College assignments are the "generative prompts" of human beings, where you do random shit to please a taskmaster and produce generative output based on some inputs you've been trained upon.

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