Notes on Pope Leo XIV's Encyclical on AI | Hacker News Reader

Notes on Pope Leo XIV's Encyclical on AI

simonwillison.net

62 pointspretext12 comments

I really liked paragraph 153, 3ed down from here (https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/docume...). I just love how it mixes really abstract ideas with actual concrete problems. really well written

Also Leo XIV has a degree in math, so he totally gets the interpretability problems with AI on deeper level than otherwise ("...current AI systems are more “cultivated” than “built,...")

Where are the notes in this post? I can only see a bunch of quotes and zero original thought of the author.

Quote selection is, of course, representative of original thought of the author.

Still they are not notes, which means GP continues to be valid.

You made me look up the definition of "note." It appears to mean a short piece of writing meant to be commentary or to share information. OP's link looks like it's both of those things.

Are you perhaps confusing "note" with "analysis"?

When you took notes in class was it required of you to add original thought for it to be notes?

Taking notes in class is akin to making a transcript of what the teacher said in class so you can remember and refer to what was said in class. The encyclical is a written document, so there is no need for a transcript, and "notes" implies commentary and analysis.

HN has influencers like any other community. In this case, the upvotes are for the author and not the post.

I think it's just a poorly worded title. "Highlights from x" would be more clear. "Notes on" suggests some commentary.

My original title was actually "Highlights from", then I changed it to "Notes on" because that was a shorter title for linking on social media.

Did not expect to get called out for not making it "notes-like" enough!

I think including the Vatican News bit about how the Pope chose the name Leo because he planned to think about AI in the same way his predecessor had thought about the Industrial Revolution earns an upgrade to "notes", personally.

No complaints from me, just trying to explain the confusion. Personally with a 'notes on' I'd expect a full piece of original commentary about the thing (rather than mostly excerpts from the thing) but it's not a big deal.

Earlier post on the actual Vatican document

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48265206

Reply on news.ycombinator.com