[FRIAM] Alignment (with what?)

[Marcus Daniels]

To be clear, it simply commented on the technical aspects, not tactical or strategic benefits of the bridge being usable by anyone.

I had a separate interesting interaction about how to design an electromagnetic pulse device for the Moscow metropolitan area.    😊

 

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of steve smith
Sent: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 9:27 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Alignment (with what?)

 

 

On 6/4/25 9:43 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:

Really?   The kind of biases I don’t like seem to be system prompting preferences.   For example, when an idea is marginal, ChatGPT will kick the can forward to keep the conversation going.  Perhaps the instinct is to create a demand signal or “billable hours”.  Gemini Pro will tend to be cautious.    To use them effectively one needs to have some self-discipline.  I don’t see these tools doing obvious motivated reasoning like people do.   ChatGPT will especially follow your lead, which can be a bad lead; it is a people pleaser.  

I agree that the chatbot interface presented to GPT (and others possibly less acutely) is a sycophant biased to both please humans and encourage our continued engagement.   




My latest “wow” moment:   I was checking up on the Kerch bridge attack and took a few frames from the video and pasted them for ChatGPT.  I asked if the explosion suggested poor placement by Ukrainian frogmen.  It explained that blast off to the side would be typical and suggested an attempt to displace the pier laterally deep under the water.  It did not imply an attempt to knock the bridge down but rather to make it unsafe to use, while also leading to incremental structural failure.

So to say that it reflected the (accurate?) bias of such an operation to try to maximize effect by "satisficing" by focusing on "making it unsafe" rather than wasting tactical resources on more complete destruction?   

I suppose it would be too much to ask for it to cause distortions in the bridge which selectively modify it to become useful only for Ukrainian goals vs Russian or perhaps civilian vs military?    By derating it's functionality marginally perhaps it can handle medium-load commercial transport but risk failure under heavier military (e.g.moving tanks) use?

 

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