This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Sunday 11 December 2022
Good at Conspiracy 'Theories'?
Being in constant pedant mode, I hate the term 'conspiracy theories'. A theory is, the hopefully well-tested hypothesis, currently accepted as 'best in show', by people expert in that area. Theories can change but only hypothese compete. The ability of chatbots, like 'ChatGPT', to generate 'fluent bullshit', is concerning. These creations might well further pollute social media, by creating new, 'improved' 'conspiracy theories' (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/11/chatgpt-is-a-marvel-but-its-ability-to-lie-convincingly-is-its-greatest-danger-to-humankind). Chatbots are 'fed' with huge volumes of human-created text. Bots then identify statistical regularities in the data. The chatbot then 'learns' which words and phrases are co-associated. The bot can consequently 'predict' which words should come in any given sentence. It also 'knows' how a string of sentences should fit together. The chatbot can consequently mimic human language, enabling it to 'write' essays on any topic, 'answer' questions, 'create' poetry, 'formulate' new jokes as well as produce computer code etc. It's claimed that these bots will replace search engines and even humans who currently give online advice. ChatGPT can, however, make up 'facts'. It will also reproduce the biases in the human-created text on which it was fed. The bot's ability to 'lie' convincingly is dangerous. Who needs QAnon, when you have access to a chatbot?
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