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how things become science (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

[Replying to myself as this is a tangent]

I think the "bots can generate misinfo even if you just feed them correct info" point deserves its own example.

Let's say you're making a model. It looks at the preceding word, and tries to predict the next. And you feed it the following sentences, both true:

1. Humans are apes.
2. Cats are felines.

From both the bot "learnt" five words. And also how to connect them; for example "are" can be followed by either "apes" and "felines", both having the same weight. Then, as you ask the bot to generate sentences, it generates the following:

3. Humans are felines.
4. Cats are apes.

And you got bullshit!

What large models do is a way more complex version of the above, looking at way more than just the immediately preceding word, but it's still the same in spirit.

this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
1019 points (99.1% liked)

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