Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Humble

Saguaro trees can live for 150-200 years and usually take 75 years before they grow their first arm. Since we often measure the longevity of our pets in “dog years” or “cat years,” it’s a bit humbling for us to realize that this silent cactus could legitimately use the phrase “human years” about our lifespans if it so wished. 

Just being in the presence of an ancient saguaro or a redwood or a giant tortoise or a whale for me is much more than humbling. It reminds me that humans are not anywhere close to the be-all and end-all of life on this planet — though come to think of it if we are not careful we may prove in the end to be the end-all.

Anyway, at this moment we apparently are at the tipping point where the artificial intelligence tools we’ve created are able to analyze images and mimic human speech so well that they are throwing into question our ability to keep up with them. (See: “GPT-4 has arrived. It will blow ChatGPT out of the water.” (WP)

I’m going to need somebody’s help with this one. ChatGPT in its current iteration was easy enough to outwit and therefore dismiss, even though I know it will get smarter over time. That’s because I figure we have time to get smarter too so we can keep pace.

But GPT-4? Has this one leapfrogged us already? I’m going to have to dig deeper on this one.

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