Obligatory: Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" [0] is a must-read for
everyone interested in some stronger definitions. The full essay is
easily found online.
Long as short: BS has not got a lot to do with depth of knowledge or
truth value so much as the attitude of the bullshitter.
It's a moral not a knowldge defect.
The Bullshitter is neither a liar nor self-aggrandising as we commonly
think, but simply has contempt for the very concept of truth and
falsehood. It's like epistemological sociopathy.
Some bullshitters can be very knowledgable too. They pass the five-why
questioning but then defect and talk absolute rubbish as it suits
them.
I think all LLMs are in essence bullshitters, and I hope something
good to help us understand not just consciousness but morality too,
will probably come of studying why LLMs are not really "thinking" and
holding an interlocutor "in mind".
Not Frankfurt now, but my own observation, if you wire that to the idea
that power is the capacity to paint social reality in ones own
interests, then unsurprisingly bullshitters are much more common in
traditional power roles. LLMs are therefore (rather obviously)
dangerous in any role that involves power or decision making.
Long as short: BS has not got a lot to do with depth of knowledge or truth value so much as the attitude of the bullshitter.
It's a moral not a knowldge defect.
The Bullshitter is neither a liar nor self-aggrandising as we commonly think, but simply has contempt for the very concept of truth and falsehood. It's like epistemological sociopathy.
Some bullshitters can be very knowledgable too. They pass the five-why questioning but then defect and talk absolute rubbish as it suits them.
I think all LLMs are in essence bullshitters, and I hope something good to help us understand not just consciousness but morality too, will probably come of studying why LLMs are not really "thinking" and holding an interlocutor "in mind".
Not Frankfurt now, but my own observation, if you wire that to the idea that power is the capacity to paint social reality in ones own interests, then unsurprisingly bullshitters are much more common in traditional power roles. LLMs are therefore (rather obviously) dangerous in any role that involves power or decision making.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit