Unless something has changed since I was a programmer, getting any answer from a computer requires providing the answer to the computer. That means you would have to collect (millions) of questions with appropriate answers. Let’s say you were willing to compile all that. In case of “moral” questions, your answers would have to be what? What you believe? What is a current belief? What’s in the Bible? Etc. In other words, I think the answers would totally depend upon the designers’ beliefs. (I don’t understand how AI works, so perhaps it can really create its own answers and the above method is no longer used.)
In the early 80’s there was a fun program (app) that acted like a counselor, using the Socratic method. You would pose a problem and for example, when it would detect a feeling it might offer “Why do you feel that way?” When you answered that it might say “What ideas do you have about doing something that would help?” It could go on for a long time. That was before our current laptops, and was on the machine sold by Radio Shack. I don’t remember its name nor the name of the program, which was “Ask ________?”
My understanding of how these researchers got their data is they first got the QUESTIONS (issues) from Reddit then used Mechanical Turk (the Amazon pay-per-piece outfit) to have more than a million people ANSWER the questions (each is paid a few cents per answer). The AI then aggregated all the answers.
The problem arose because the way Reddit users frame their discussions is both racist and sexist (and a few other horrors!) so the questions were loaded, like “Are men smarter than women?” That’s a loaded question because Reddit users are mostly male and we can safely predict how they would answer the question … so the answers ended up “loaded” as well.
But seems like with the current version (it’s number 4) they’ve mostly fixed the problem. The answers to questions I posed seemed carefully calibrated not to offend. Plus, they added the disclaimer in a prominent place and the FAQ addresses most of the controversy. You should check it out … it’s illuminating!
Unless something has changed since I was a programmer, getting any answer from a computer requires providing the answer to the computer. That means you would have to collect (millions) of questions with appropriate answers. Let’s say you were willing to compile all that. In case of “moral” questions, your answers would have to be what? What you believe? What is a current belief? What’s in the Bible? Etc. In other words, I think the answers would totally depend upon the designers’ beliefs. (I don’t understand how AI works, so perhaps it can really create its own answers and the above method is no longer used.)
In the early 80’s there was a fun program (app) that acted like a counselor, using the Socratic method. You would pose a problem and for example, when it would detect a feeling it might offer “Why do you feel that way?” When you answered that it might say “What ideas do you have about doing something that would help?” It could go on for a long time. That was before our current laptops, and was on the machine sold by Radio Shack. I don’t remember its name nor the name of the program, which was “Ask ________?”
My understanding of how these researchers got their data is they first got the QUESTIONS (issues) from Reddit then used Mechanical Turk (the Amazon pay-per-piece outfit) to have more than a million people ANSWER the questions (each is paid a few cents per answer). The AI then aggregated all the answers.
The problem arose because the way Reddit users frame their discussions is both racist and sexist (and a few other horrors!) so the questions were loaded, like “Are men smarter than women?” That’s a loaded question because Reddit users are mostly male and we can safely predict how they would answer the question … so the answers ended up “loaded” as well.
But seems like with the current version (it’s number 4) they’ve mostly fixed the problem. The answers to questions I posed seemed carefully calibrated not to offend. Plus, they added the disclaimer in a prominent place and the FAQ addresses most of the controversy. You should check it out … it’s illuminating!