I sometimes (since 2022[1]) say that I’d prefer if the widespread LM products ‘spoke in wikipedia voice’ rather than being specifically trained to put forward a facade of personhood (first person pronouns etc), which is especially geared to bypassing rational engagement. I don’t think people mostly thought of LMs as ‘the AIs’ until chat posttraining hit it big.
Sadly I think that’s by default a losing battle as the chat interface is both especially navigable (as you mention) and intuitively appealing to a mass market.
I sometimes (since 2022[1]) say that I’d prefer if the widespread LM products ‘spoke in wikipedia voice’ rather than being specifically trained to put forward a facade of personhood (first person pronouns etc), which is especially geared to bypassing rational engagement. I don’t think people mostly thought of LMs as ‘the AIs’ until chat posttraining hit it big.
Sadly I think that’s by default a losing battle as the chat interface is both especially navigable (as you mention) and intuitively appealing to a mass market.
It’s another draft post sitting in my queue for embarrassingly long