Category: ChatGPT

As much as we’d like to believe we’re guided by pure logic, the truth is far messier: we’re not rational beings; we’re rationalizing beings. Our decisions aren’t always born of reason but are often retroactively dressed up in it. We make choices based on feelings, impulses, or half-formed desires, and then we craft stories to make those choices seem deliberate. It’s not dishonesty; it’s our mind’s way of stitching together coherence from chaos. And that’s okay. The goal isn’t to stop this process—it’s part of what makes us human. But when we pause to question our justifications, we open the door to understanding ourselves better: what we value, what we fear, and who we’re striving to become.

This tendency isn’t just a quirk of adulthood—it’s alive and well in kids, too, though with far less polish.

In the past, the Turing Test was used as a measure of artificial intelligence. This was a test of whether a computer could fake being human.

We don’t do this anymore. Here’s the reason why.

The nickname “Strawberry” for OpenAI’s new model is an inside joke, but no one told ChatGPT. Here’s the punchline: “Finally, ChatGPT knows how many R’s are in the word Strawberry.”

For about a year, I’ve been thinking about what compression looks like for an LLM prompt. Compression in computing is pretty well defined. But I was curious about how short a prompt can be while still having enough information to pull the right answer from the model. 

Gandalf is one of the most interesting demos I’ve seen. Developed by Lakera, a Swiss AI security firm, Gandalf is designed to teach users about vulnerabilities in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. The demo gamifies AI security by challenging users to extract passwords from a virtual wizard named Gandalf. This project illustrates how easily prompt injection attacks can manipulate AI systems into revealing sensitive information or performing unintended actions. It’s a great way to explore the potential risks associated with AI and help people think about AI safety and security.

People aren’t blank slates. While the old idea, famously critiqued by Steven Pinker in his book The Blank Slate, suggested we start with empty minds, ready to be filled, that’s not quite right. Pinker argues that humans are born with inherent traits, instincts, and predispositions that significantly shape our learning and behavior. So, while our experiences influence us, they don’t write on an empty slate but rather interact with our inborn capacities.