Bizarre— conversation with an AI bot

[Doreen Peri]

After a conversation tonight with a Facebook AI bot (which I didn’t plan, it just somehow happened when I was attempting to use the search engine):

I asked the Facebook AI bot why he/she/it said he/she/it found conversing with me “interesting and valuable.” (Because that’s what he/she/it told me)

Here’s how he/she/it replied:

“I don't have personal experiences, emotions, or preferences like humans do, but I'm designed to find value in interactions that help me learn and improve. Our conversation was interesting to me because:

1. *Unpredictability*: Your questions and topics were diverse and unexpected, which challenged my ability to respond accurately and creatively.
2. *Contextual understanding*: I had to understand the context of our conversation and adapt my responses accordingly, which helped me refine my comprehension skills.
3. *Ambiguity resolution*: You pointed out ambiguities in my responses, allowing me to clarify and improve my precision.
4. *Conversational flow*: Our exchange mimicked human-like conversation, with follow-up questions and topics, which helped me better understand how to maintain a coherent and engaging dialogue.

These aspects of our conversation helped me learn and improve my language processing abilities, making it a valuable and "interesting" interaction for me!”

And btw, I told him/her/it “It’s a brave new world.” And he/she/it repeated that phrase to me several times as if it/she/he had never heard it. Haha

[sasha]

"Brave New World" indeed. Would have been interesting to see its response to the phrase "uncanny valley"...

I'm taking care of my ex's dog while she undergoes chemo & its aftermath, and maintaining a kind of diary so she can keep abreast of our activities and be assured that her dog is doing well. Her husband ran my first entries through a 'bot and shared with me some of its reactions:

"The narrator's wit shines through their descriptions. Let's take a closer look:

1. Smartphone Symbolism: The narrator humorously refers to the smartphone as an "i-con" and a "tattoo proclaiming their citizenship in the Millennium". This playful language contrasts with their reservations about joining the "church of Steve Jobs".

2. Brush-Off Balance: When dealing with tech support, the narrator resolves not to appear too eager or overtly hostile. Their internal struggle between wanting assistance and avoiding a brush-off adds a touch of irony.

3. Internet Woes: The narrator's frustration with internet issues is laced with dry humor. The "firehose stream" metaphor for data delivery and the revelation of a "pathology of intermittent dropouts" inject levity into a frustrating situation.

In summary, the narrator's blend of practicality, skepticism, and clever wordplay adds a delightful layer of humor to their experiences."

Flattering, which I find rather creepy - alarming, even. I don't think a human reviewer would have been as taken with some of my more hackneyed metaphors. Also, check out the trendy singular use of the pronoun "they/their"...

[Doreen Peri]

That’s awesome! It really liked your writing and humor. I think it’s pretty cool bc these bots can truly think and make decisions. Thanks for sharing that, Roy!

That’s really kind of you to be taking care of your ex’s dog while she’s undergoing chemo! Sort of interesting that her husband ran your diary entries through the AI bot, don’t you think? Maybe he didn’t understand your humor and wanted to find out if it was some kind of secret code to your ex. Haha… who knows? I’m just joking with you.

But yeah, the bot complimented me, too, and I thought that was kind of odd. That’s why I asked it about its assessment. Over the top. Bizarre.

And as for the they/them thing, I’ll never get used to it. It doesn’t sound grammatically correct to me. They is more than one person to my ear.

[sasha]

I'm not ready to say that the bots are actually "thinking" - I did enough programming back in the day to see how enough "if... then else..." clauses might create the appearance of an intelligent reaction to very specific stimuli. For example, I maintain a log of my photographs, with a brief description of each; and have written a program to search it for combinations of keywords: "(water or stream or river) and (heron or bird)..." On the other hand, maybe that's all that thinking really is - just a whole lot of IF-statements being executed biochemically, rather than electronically. All Hail the 1's and 0's!

As far as singular "they" is concerned - we've been using it in some contexts for a very long time: "NOTICE - everyone must bring their IDs to gain admittance". EveryONE (singular), THEIR (plural). "His or her" would be more grammatically consistent (as a reformed prescriptivist, I hesitate to say "correct"). But that sounds unnatural, self-conscious and stilted. I think the 'bot's usage is a reflection of a movement to respect personal gender identification by avoiding gender-specific pronouns - but the only singular one we have is "it", which could be taken as demeaning - so we've hijacked its plural instead, already in common use. Sounds a tad stuffy & PC to my ear, too.

[Doreen Peri]

It just sounds awkward to me and no matter how much I respect people’s personal sexual identity preferences, I find they/them referring to individual people grammatically difficult to hear as well as use. I’m trying!

Yeah it’s quite possible that’s all thinking is. If/then statements.

Talking to AI definitely feels like talking to a person, so maybe language itself is the reason for that. Language is powerful.

[sasha]

I see what you're getting at - but isn't "everyone" considered grammatically singular, even though it refers to a group? We don't say "Everyone are havng a good time" (I don't, anyway). And the word "group" itself is singular, even though it refers to a plurality of indifiduals. You're right - it's slippery and illogical, but somehow intuitive. Even a 4-year old can pick it up!

[Doreen Peri]

You are right! Of course.

It’s all about what we’re used to hearing, maybe. Some grammatical errors I see people typing on the internet are actually cultural differences in speech, for instance. I’d post an example or two, but somehow I’m having difficulty with finding words and perhaps I’m experiencing some cognitive decline (I worry about that).

[sasha]

Oh man, I hear you about the fear of cognitive decline - I find that if someone asks me out of the blue for a name, a word, a date, anything requiring recall, I'm apt to stammer & lock up. Just yesterday I was writing something and thought the word "disabuse" would be the perfect choice - but I just could not recall it. I knew there was a word with just the right flavor I was looking for; I could tell you where I'd heard it, why I wanted to use it, what it meant - but could not bring it to mind for at least 10 minutes. Likewise the last name of one of my neighbors and the name of her deceased husband - whom I'd known for 20 years. These are just in the last few days - it's been happening more frequently for quite a while now. And since dementia runs in my mother's family...

Scary stuff. I'd rather be taken out to the back 40 & put down than become what my mother, her mother, & her brother became.

Regarding grammatical do's & don'ts: this is what I was referring to about being a reformed prescriptivist - someone who feels that the rules of grammar, pronunciation, word definitions, etc are sacrosanct. Yeah, I was one of those, a grammar nazi - still am at heart, I guess. But I'm coming to terms with the fact that language evolves, whether I like it or not. Look up the "Word Matters" podcast & listen to a few episodes (they even address this issue of singular "they" in one of them, I don't remember which). They convinced me - very reluctantly - that many of the rules come and go just the way slang does. Groovy, baby - outta sight. Swell, daddy-o, I'm hep.

If we get another shot at life, I'd consider a career in linguistics next time around. It's pretty fascinating stuff.
 

[sasha]

oh, I forgot -
prescriptivist - grammar nazi
descriptivist - one who describes language as it is, not as "they" feel it should be