Carissa Véliz shares the lesson from the philosopher on the folly of large language models
Véliz is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, the author of. She advises policymakers around the world on privacy and the ethics of AI.f Socrates was the wisest person in Ancient Greece, then large language models must be the most foolish systems in the modern world., Plato tells the story of how Socrates’s friend Chaerephon goes to visit the oracle at Delphi. Chaerephon asks the oracle whether there is anyone wiser than Socrates.
He makes it his mission to solve the mystery. He goes around interrogating a series of politicians, poets, and artisans . And what does he find? Socrates' investigation reveals that those who claim to have knowledge either do not really know what they think they know, or else know far less than they proclaim to know.
And bullshit is dangerous, warned Frankfurt. Bullshit is a greater threat to the truth than lies. The person who lies thinks she knows what the truth is, and is therefore concerned with the truth. She can be challenged and held accountable; her agenda can be inferred. The truth-teller and the liar play on opposite sides of the same game, as Frankfurt puts it. The bullshitter pays no attention to the game. Truth doesn’t even get confronted; it gets ignored; it becomes irrelevant.