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operatingthetanyesterday at 7:12 PM3 repliesview on HN

The claim that we are assigning human-like agency to a machine with none is simple and factual.


Replies

ForceBruyesterday at 7:41 PM

What's "thinking"? What's "agency"? What's "human-like agency"?

If "agency" is making decisions and performing corresponding actions in the real world, then LLMs most definitely LOOK LIKE they're making decisions (what's the next token? which tool to use? what's to say, in general? what idea to convey?) and performing actions (tool use). Can we tell whether they are ACTUALLY making decisions? Well, are the people around me "actually" making decisions? Or are they simply pushed around by circumstances and external forces?

Am I actually making decisions? Did I like DECIDE to write this comment? Maybe? I have no clue...

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keedayesterday at 9:42 PM

Wait, where are we assigning human-like agency in this case? Agency to me means the ability to do something by itself. Here the LLM is not doing anything, it is just responding with information to queries from people, that those people may then act on. (Which you can say about Google searches too, yet we don't ascribe agency to Google.)

singpolyma3yesterday at 8:27 PM

The idea that humans have agency is supernatural thinking imo

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