​**1433 **Things: In Touch with the Past [[Oxford University Press]], 2019** by https://www.carolynkorsmeyer.com/philosophy-books.html # Plan for the ChatGPT handout ## Enrico's bit - Artifacts are created entities that perform their function in virtue of their structure. - In hylomorphic terms (Evnine 2016, Passinsky 2021), [[the structure]] corresponds to the matter and the form to the function. - Digital artifacts have bits as ultimate constituents of their matter. - Evnine: there may be a hierarchy of material constituents. - [[The computer]] is an artifact but is not a digital artifact. - [[The computer]] performs the function of executing computer programs in virtue of its architectural structure which connects devices (Von Neumann, Tenenbaum XXX). - Computer programs are digital artifacts. - [[The structure]] of a computer program: instructions and data. - The function of a computer program: turning inputs into outputs. - The broadest category of digital data are files. - Two kinds of files: computer programs and data (which can be inputs or outputs of computer program). - [[The computer]] network is an artifact but is not a digital artifact. - [[The computer]] network performs the function of executing networked programs in virtue of its architectural structure which connects computers (Tenenbaum YYY). - [[The structure]] of a networked program: the client-server architecture (Tenenbaum YYY). - The function of a networked program: turning client inputs into client-server outputs. - The browser is a typical client component of a client-server architecture. - The website is a typical server component of a client-server architecture. - The function of the search engine: keywords as its inputs and lists of websites as its outputs. - [[The structure]] of the search engine: a database of websites and search algorithms. - The function of the language model: user prompts as its inputs and texts as its outputs. - [[The structure]] of the language model: **a representation of the web and neural networks.** ### What is [[the structure]] which allows LLM to fulfil its function? #### What Sort or Representation is ChatGPT? - [[Ted Chiang]] [[ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web]] - *What I’ve described sounds a lot like ChatGPT, or most any other large-language model. Think of ChatGPT as a **blurry JPEG of all the text on the Web**. It retains much of the information on the Web, in the same way that a JPEG retains much of the information of a higher-resolution image, but, if you’re looking for an exact sequence of bits, you won’t find it; all you will ever get is an approximation. But, because the approximation is presented in the form of grammatical text, which ChatGPT excels at creating, it’s usually acceptable. You’re still looking at a blurry JPEG, but the blurriness occurs in a way that doesn’t make the picture as a whole look less sharp.* - How seriously should we take this analogy? We suggest, quite seriously: ChatGPT is a degraded copy of the internet. ChatGPT however, is not an image-like representation. - LLM - input and output model are detachable. #### Recording - Kulvicki on what recording is: - Recording is difficult like depicting something or describing it in grammatical English because recording builds in standards for production and use. These standards depart from those in place for representing. While representations have an intentional character, recordings are relational. The relation between a recording and what it records is witless and it allows playback. Among the many witless processes to which things can be subjected, recordings are those that allow playback. This feature is what makes recording distinctive and as such it is important for what follows. Playback is a witless process whereby what is recorded can be reproduced. Turn the wax cylinder under a needle and [[the result]] is a replica of [[the pattern]]'s cause. It's like hearing Whitman speak. A digital camera saves a file, which can then be used to create an image. The image is a replica of its cause much as the audio recording is. In daguerreotypes, the pattern burned into a sheet of silver records a pattern of light and dark and also serves as a playback of that pattern, because it is the pattern of light and dark that was recorded. Just look, and you see, reproduced, the pattern that caused it. The recording and playback processes coincide in this manner. Consider another example. Copying an inscription is producing a recording of it in that one can easily produce another such inscription based on the copy. But the copy itself is an instance of the inscription, so it is in effect a playback of a recording too, which can itself be recorded and played back over and over: 'a copy of a copy is a copy' (HT 180). Along these lines at least, copying an inscription is akin to making an image with the daguerreotype. The recording process is also a playback process. - See also Haugeland (and Scruton). #### Recordings vs Representation – Why is JPEG a recording? - Chiang - The web is a bitmap. Flesh out Chiang’s idea in terms of a bitmap to a JPEG. - Let’s focus on the recording pictures – lossless vs lossy recording. - Lossless lossy distinction for representations as well as recordings. #### Degradation of Recording - Happens for many types of non-digital recording. - Not really considered by Kulvicki or Haugeland. But pretty common, especially when the recording is from one format to another. - A JPEG photo of a painting taken on a very bad digital camera. - A cassette recording of a CD (limited dynamic range, limited frequency response). - Degraded copies can still be very useful. Sometimes, degradation is deliberate – we compress digital files to free up space. Also abstraction: sometimes it is better to see the forest rather than the trees. This leads to manipulability – engineers’ models. #### How ChatGPT is Trained - Training involves inputting a large amount of text into the neural network. - The network employs algorithms to identify and assimilate patterns in this data, modifying its internal framework to reflect these patterns. - The model's parameters, referred to as weights, are refined throughout this process to effectively represent the **structural/syntactic/linguistic** elements of the input text. #### ChatGPT as a Lossy Recording - Degradation can occur when copying from one format to another (e.g., a JPEG photo of a painting), ChatGPT's training involves a form of 'degradation' or abstraction from the original text sources to neural network weights. - The process, while not specifically addressed by Kulvicki or Haugeland, resembles the loss of fidelity in traditional recording processes. - Analogy: Neural network learning compared to creating a map from a landscape. - Map making can be a 'witless' process: automatic aerial photography - witlessly created, not every map is witlessly created. - Map Creation: Doesn't replicate every feature (tree, rock), but abstracts and encodes key terrain features into symbols. (what was thatBorges short story?) - Neural Network Weights: Don't copy text directly, but abstract and encode linguistic patterns from the data. - **Syntax and Grammar**: The model encodes rules of language structure, such as word order and sentence construction. - **Semantics**: Meanings of words and phrases are encoded based on context and usage patterns. - **Thematic Elements**: Recurrent themes or subjects are recognized and encoded. Nonetheless, the intricate layers or unique interpretations of these themes might be underrepresented. - **Word Co-occurrence and Associations**: The model learns common pairings and associations of words. While effective for understanding language patterns, it may not capture the rich, associative meanings humans perceive in literary or nuanced texts. #### Ground truth – Look up this term - Would the linguistic patterns be a ground truth? #### JPEG – Fourier function #### LLM as inscrutable artifacts #### Bitmap to JPEG '**through a textbox darkly**' ## Interesting Idea that ChatGPT came up with - **End Products as Tools for Navigation**: - Just as a map serves as a guide through physical landscapes, ChatGPT navigates conversational landscapes, representing its source material in an abstracted, transformed manner. - This comparison underscores the relevance of considering ChatGPT as a 'blurry recording' of the internet, retaining much but not all of the information, and serving a functional role despite the loss of fidelity. # My version ## Recording ## Degradation of Recording - happens for many types of non-digital recording - Not really considered by Kulvicki or Haugeland - But pretty common, especially when the recording is from one format to another - A JPEG photo of a painting taken on a very bad digital camera - A cassette recording oa CD (limited dynamic range, limited frequency response) - Sometimes, degradation is deliberate –we compress files to free up spapce ## LLMs are Degraded Recordings - In short: "all the text of the web" is converted into a different format –weights in neural networks - Analogy: Neural network learning compared to creating a map from a landscape. - Map Creation: Doesn't replicate every feature (tree, rock), but abstracts and encodes key terrain features into symbols. - Neural Network Weights: Don't copy text directly, but abstract and encode linguistic patterns from the data. - Function: These abstractions enable language understanding and generation, akin to how a map guides through terrain. ## Text to Neural Network Transformation - **Syntax and Grammar**: The model encodes rules of language structure, such as word order and sentence construction. - **Semantics**: Meanings of words and phrases are encoded based on context and usage patterns. - **Thematic Elements**: Recurrent themes or subjects are recognised and encoded. Nonetheless, the intricate layers or unique interpretations of these themes might be underrepresented. - **Word Co-occurrence and Associations**: The model learns common pairings and associations of words. While effective for understanding language patterns, it may not capture the rich, associative meanings humans perceive in literary or nuanced texts. ## Is ChatGPT an Analog Recording? ## Recording ## Chiang: ChatGPT as a blurry JPEG - ## ChatGPT is lossy compression - format changing from text to weights in a neural netwoek - ## ChatGPT and Neur