The way how LLMs can larp following instructions and “reason” about stuff seems structurally similar to this description of empathy (though funny enough, LLMs usually larp empathy from the opposite side—causing disgust in me when they do it, not they being disgusted by me, but that’s another story about sycophancy)...
When I emphasize with someone (or some thing), the task is to imagine that the 2 of us run on basically the same software, so what is the minimum set of parameters that are different in our configuration that would make me act in that way—what would I have to believe, what environment would I have to perceive, what path would I have to experience different from my own past, what wisdom would I have to never have gained to act in the same way as I can see my other copy acting that would keep me environmentally rational? It normally takes a fraction of a second to imagine that, it’s automatic. It’s only when I feel surprise that I have to dive deeper.
But only then can I know whether to be sad for a homeless teenager who fried his brain with drugs, whether to help an old lady with collecting spilled items from a torn shopping bag, whether to walk to the other side of the street away from a screaming couple, whether to tell a junior dev about flexbox froggy, whether to ignore my husband when complaining about our neighbours on a phone call or to rescue him when I hear plates falling from a cupboard even though I’m at important zoom call..
The way how LLMs can larp following instructions and “reason” about stuff seems structurally similar to this description of empathy (though funny enough, LLMs usually larp empathy from the opposite side—causing disgust in me when they do it, not they being disgusted by me, but that’s another story about sycophancy)...
When I emphasize with someone (or some thing), the task is to imagine that the 2 of us run on basically the same software, so what is the minimum set of parameters that are different in our configuration that would make me act in that way—what would I have to believe, what environment would I have to perceive, what path would I have to experience different from my own past, what wisdom would I have to never have gained to act in the same way as I can see my other copy acting that would keep me environmentally rational? It normally takes a fraction of a second to imagine that, it’s automatic. It’s only when I feel surprise that I have to dive deeper.
But only then can I know whether to be sad for a homeless teenager who fried his brain with drugs, whether to help an old lady with collecting spilled items from a torn shopping bag, whether to walk to the other side of the street away from a screaming couple, whether to tell a junior dev about flexbox froggy, whether to ignore my husband when complaining about our neighbours on a phone call or to rescue him when I hear plates falling from a cupboard even though I’m at important zoom call..