“Chatbots are nothing more than Plagiar machines”

In 2021 the world had not yet learned about what was coming, but Emily Bender – linguist and professor at the University of Washington – was very clear. That was when he copied A famous study in which he described the existing AI models as “Stochastic parrots“That expression since then became one of the best ways to define the basic functioning of Chatgpt. And four years later this expert is reaffirmed in its position: it is a skeptic with arguments.

Stochastic parrots. The fundamental idea of ​​his analogy was to compare the models that were then (among them GPT-3, precursor to the used in chatgpt) as stochastic parrots. The “parrots” is clear, since models basically repeat what they are told through training. The “stochastic”, a not so well -known term, refers to the fact that the LLM do not repeat deterministicly or fixedly, but probabilistically predicts what the following word is most likely in a sequence based on the context.

Aren’t humans? Sam Altman picked up the glove a year later, when the expression was already known. He did it on December 4, 2022, four days after Chatgpt was released. He wanted to try to make us see that according to him the human beings were also stochastic parrots. In a sense we are: We learn language patterns And we repeat phrases that we hear in addition to predicting what comes next in a conversation. However, there are critical differences with AI models.

1. We understand what we say, while the LLM no
2. We have awareness and intentionality when we speak, we not only produce probable sequences
3. We have abstract reasoning and we are able to adapt reason, generalize and correct our errors in a flexible way: our thought is not purely statistical

Declared skeptics. Emily Bender has not changed his mind in all these years. In fact, he has just published his book, ‘The ai with‘(Something like’ The Timo of AI ‘) in which he precisely develops the arguments on which he bases his reserves and skepticism regarding artificial intelligence. In a recent interview With Financial TimesBender stressed that the chatbots of AIs are nothing more than “plagiarism machines” and that the great language models (LLMS) on which they are based “have been born as shit.”

They have sold us a lie. This expert believes that generative companies have sold us a lie. His models, he says, They will not fulfill those promisesbut they will not end the human race, as some have wanted to warn. In spite of all the expectation generated, in their opinion the chatbots are bad in most tasks and even the best models of today still have something similar to intelligence.

And of “reasoning”, nothing. The new modes of “reasoning” that raise models such as O1, O3 or Deepseek R1 They are another lie in his opinionand that statement that they understand the world makes no sense. We are “imagining a mind behind the texts (generated),” he explains, “but all that understanding comes from our side,” not that of AI.

It is not intelligence, it is automation. Bender, who is currently 51 years old, spent his first academic years in Stanford and Berkeley, and ended up working as a teacher at the University of Washington, where it has specially seen in how computers model in human language. In his opinion, the artificial intelligence name itself is exaggerated – an old debate – and should simply be called automation.

Chatbots controlled by power. In her book ‘The AI ​​with’ She and her co -author, Alex Hanna, warn of the danger of current AI models. Especially since they are controlled by large companies with certain interests. “Thanks to the huge sums invested, a tiny camera clique has the ability to influence what happens to great stripes of society, he explains.

Too much Hype. And in front of Altman or Amodei’s speeches and promises, which promise that We will arrive at the AGI soon or that the AI ​​replace Millions of workersBender’s vision is much more skeptical. For her it is nothing more than a “beautiful wrapping for spreadsheets”, but there is neither magic nor an emerging mind.

A magical 8 ball with pretensions. His skeptical vision goes against personalities such as Sam Altman or Elon Musk, who do not stop promising all kinds of revolutions. “That everyone believes that this (AI) is a thinking entity goes to your benefit And very powerful, “he explains,” instead of making people think that this is nothing more than a magic ball with pretensions, “pointing to this toy that agitas asking a question and answers you with a” yes “,” no “,” depends “or some more options.

Image | Wikimedia | Village Global

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