No: I Do Not Grasp the Five Dimensions of the Societal Impacts of Forthcoming GPT-LLM-ML Technologies
I do not, in spite of all of Ezra Klein’s & others’ attempts to help me, understand their implications as prediction engines, natural-language interfaces, investor flypaper, autocomplete for everything, & software pets…
I am a print junkie: a finely-tuned machine to take in information encoded in black squiggles with my eyes, absorbing text avidly and nearly insatiability. This faculty has been responsible for pretty much all of whatever professional success I have had.
But there are a few people from whom I learn more when I listen to their voices:
Raj Chetty is one such individual whose spoken words in his presentations seem to carry an additional layer of meaning that transcends the written text. His ability to articulate complex economic concepts in a manner that is both engaging and enlightening is a testament to his prowess—and it is a prowess that comes through much more via audio than via print. When Chetty speaks, it is the clarity of his voice, the passion and conviction with which he speaks, and the varied intonations by which he focuses the listener’s attention on what is key. I leave a presentation by Chetty feeling that I have a vastly greater grasp of the subject, no matter how well I thought I knew and had grasped the paper the presentation was based on.
Ezra Klein is another. His podcast interviews offer a depth and nuance of understanding that I find missing in what he puts down on the page. Do not get me wrong here! What he puts down on the page is very good. But Klein’s interviews and discussions are a rich tapestry of ideas, woven together with a skill that reveals his deep understanding of the political and economic landscapes. His ability to draw out intricate details and perspectives from his guests makes listening to him a truly profoundeducational experience—for me.
I am not sure what these two, and others, are sending me via the voice-intonation channel. But there does seem to be a mixture of subtleties and nuances that are lost in written communication. The inflections? The pauses? The emphases they place on certain words that add layers of meaning and emotion, making their spoken words resonate more profoundly?
Now most of the time this is not true. Most of the time my reaction to a seminar or a podcast is “give me the paper” or “give me the transcript”.
But not with Chetty, not with Klein, and not with several others.
All this is throat-clearing to explain much of why I was eagerly looking forward to listening to the recent Ezra Klein show podcast episode with Kevin Roose and Casey Newton about OpenAI—“A Lot Has Happened in A.I. Let’s Catch Up” <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-casey-newton-kevin-roose.html>. Newton’s reporting has been supernoval—beyond stellar. Roose has a way of humanizing the subject so that once I have started reading him I cannot do anything other than read to the end. Their insights and perspectives on the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence are always illuminating. I anticipated a deep dive into the ethical, technical, and societal implications of AI, and gaining a richer understanding of how these technologies are shaping our world and what the future might hold in this rapidly advancing field.
Yet I wound up disappointed. It was not as informative, it did not delve as deeply into the complexities and nuances of AI as I had hoped. It seemed to skim the surface only..
Do not get me wrong: I did learn a lot from the episode!