{"id":13254,"date":"2023-01-14T23:57:35","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T23:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialpanic.org\/?p=13254"},"modified":"2023-03-30T03:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T03:19:36","slug":"the-ai-as-the-new-appeal-to-authority-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2023\/01\/14\/the-ai-as-the-new-appeal-to-authority-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The AI&#8221; as the new &#8220;appeal to authority argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ChatGPT is a project from the Open AI Foundation. They have made it available for free use &#8211; for now &#8211; and it has gotten much attention.<\/p>\n<p>Users can ask questions using plain language, even ask it to author essays on entire subjects.<\/p>\n<p>In the near future &#8211; perhaps as soon as 2024, use of ChatGPT-like systems might become common.<\/p>\n<p>Many may begin to use <em>The AI<\/em> as the basis for their perspectives &#8211; and share <em>The AI<\/em> written responses on social media to shut down those who post something objectionable &#8211; or merely something you disagree with.<\/p>\n<p>For example, initially one could ask ChatGPT about climate change controversies and ChatGPT acknowledged uncertainties. Within days, that was shut off &#8211; and ChatGPT now says only the &#8220;company line&#8221;. This is reminiscent of our recent experience with social media platforms censoring items from highly credentialed scientists, for having perspectives different than the government. Instead of online moderators, will have <em>The AI<\/em> do the censoring for us.<\/p>\n<p>Those who control <em>The AI<\/em> will control the world.<\/p>\n<p>But by 2024, we may online discussions &#8211; public discussions &#8211; shut off by citing the output of <em>The AI<\/em> engines.<\/p>\n<p>The first two questions I asked of ChatGPT were answered spectacularly and provably wrong. I asked it about two bestselling software products made in the 1980s-I was the creator of one of them. ChatGPT falsely said the products were sold by a company, whose name was literally invented out of thin air (didn&#8217;t exist) as a subsidiary of a company that was a competitor to us! The answer was wrong!<\/p>\n<p>I then asked a related, third question, in a different way, and on that one, it had our company name correct.<\/p>\n<p>That means the knowledge base is holding inconsistent information. That in turn leads to question as to how they verify the accuracy of data in their knowledgebase &#8211; and how to identify and report errors.<\/p>\n<p>There is no way for a user to inform ChatGPT of its errors.<\/p>\n<p>But think of this in the broader, long-term context &#8211; <em>The AI<\/em> becomes the new &#8220;appeal to authority&#8221; argument.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ultimately, an argument is true based solely on facts and logic &#8211; and is not based upon who asserts something is true. Quoting The AI does not mean an argument is valid. But as with the &#8220;appeal to authority&#8221; form of argument, this approach is successful &#8211; and hence, widely used. And of course, enables false information to become identified as correct &#8211; because a big name said so, even if its wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AI &#8211; e.g. ChatGPT &#8211; may become the &#8220;appeal to authority&#8221; argument source within another year or so. Disagree with someone or something? Just quote them what The AI says &#8211; that will be seen as the authority. And those who control The AI will control the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appeal-to-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}