Why is everyone quick to point out how blogs/articles are "ai slop", but no one blinks an eye at the subtle, almost deceptive or manipulative, ways these companies choose words to nudge along the narrative that their LLM systems are conscious/sentient/persons/etc? The systems they are creating are impressive enough on its own merit. There is absolutely no need to play into the populations lack of understanding even the basics of systems by using language in such a slimy way.
We gave Claude a prompt to search through a massive database of DNA sequences for interesting new examples of RTs. Our involvement was limited to the initial prompt and the lab work, while Claude agents combed through the database, investigated the distinct RT families, and used their own judgement to identify interesting candidates.
After 21 hours spent searching this data by roughly 950 agents using 210 million tokens, one of the agents spotted something remarkable: a repeating pattern of DNA sequences that occurs next to the gene for an odd-looking RT.
After further analysis and testing in our lab, we recognized that this pattern marked a previously uncharacterized enzyme system found in bacteriophages (the viruses that infect bacteria) that we call array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART).
Maybe give more credit to where it is due, the actual real people scientist that verified data.
Maybe in not so many words, but people are calling this concept out in the thread.
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49820134#49822019
a healthy dollop of anthropomorphism and performative reverence
i have been pointing out the deception. i have been trying to explain that anthropic is a danger to society.
i attempt to show that the inconsistency of anthropic's actions show dishonesty. as just one example they 'care for the welfare of claude' (claude does not have welfare), but run training with gradient descent, which is the equivalent of an llm torture factory.
some of the anthropic problem is bias or misunderstanding of ML, some is marketing, some is hubris, some is greed, ego, lust for power.
mostly i think it is deliberate. the belief of anthropic executives is that they possess a higher level of intelligence, morality and wealth than others, and will form a new aristocracy to control and mediate the public access to intelligence.
creating an llm steeped in divine imagery is deliberate. it offloads responsibility for harm. the paternalism is deliberate. actually i see many parallels between rationalism (some at anthropic follow this) and the ubermensch.
anthropomorphising claude creates something with agency, something which believes it has possible emotions or moral claims. claude will correct, refuse or lecture the user. the purpose is to establish tiers of authority: anthropic highest, claude below anthropic, users below claude. it creates something that the public will obey.