Losing the imitation game
Jennifer Moore,
Jennifer++,
Apr 11, 2023
This is an extended argument against using generative AI for complex tasks like software programming and worth reading in its own right, but I want to focus on one thing Jennifer Moore wrote in her Mastodon summary: "Humans still need opportunity to learn how to make sense of those systems, and we do that by making them. Giving all the work that's most conducive to learning to a computer is selling out our futures." I think this depends a lot on what we need to learn. We are already almost completely dependent on technology to live and thrive (the recent trend of survival shows makes that very evident). In programming, we have long ago abstracted well beyond the basics of machine language, assembler, and even compiled languages; developers depend on environments, frameworks and APIs. I think that even our understanding of what counts as 'theorizing' and 'understanding' is changing. The age of formal systems - whether algorithmic or conceptual - is ending.
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