I feel like we need a new word for this gradient of intelligence. If you described the capabilities of an LLM to AI researcher in the early 1990s they would describe it as an AGI. I remember AI researchers using the term AI-complete to describe various tasks, by which they meant that any algorithm which could do X would be AI-complete and thus would also able to do all the other tasks that associated with general intelligence. The ability to hold a conversation and use human language like GPT-4 was often referred to the most obvious AI-complete task.
How do we know when we cross the threshold into AGI? If you have a robot library that can paraphrase any knowledge in any book in the library that probably isn't AGI, if they can make inferences on this knowledge to create new knowledge is that AGI? How complex and novel do those inferences have to be, before they are an AGI? What if we have a LLM that strongly surpasses human intellectual ability in every regard but one or two?
> The obvious guesses (greater propaganda and internet spam) are likely shortsighted.
Better censorship, better filtering of propaganda, internet/phone spam, and probably most importantly cheaper moderation of online spaces. If you control the LLM that filters/moderates your feeds, then you can build a reality tunnel for yourself and/or control your dosage of memetic toxins. If you do not control the LLM that filters/moderates your feeds, then hopefully it is run by a competent and transparent organization that has your best interests at heart. If it is not, you are in big trouble. Much like sedentary agriculture, once a human society adopts this technology it is the both the solution and cause of most problems.
The thing that worries me the most about LLM is the ability to create addictive media. Humans become addicted to gambling, porn, feeling strong emotions, exploitative freemium games, etc... Technologies can heighten the addictive nature of media e.g., a lot less humans were addicted to porn before the invention of the camera. Color TV is probably more addictive than black and white.
A slot machine is not a complex machine. It is a product of 20th Century industrial production: simple, easy to mass produce and designed to appeal to a model of the average human who visits a casino. What would slot machine look like if it was customized to each individual to be as addictive as possible and that was always learning and shaping that experience to maximize engagement and extract money? By how much would it increase the number of people who have addictions? How strong of a parasocial relationship could an LLM create, if it was designed to create and exploit parasocial relationships?