To go deeper: some animals act curiously, others with fear, but only a few of them understand what the mirror does and use it to inspect themselves.

The mirror test is frequently cited as a means of testing sentience.

OP I think you hit the nail on the head.

This is a great one - although I never see animals worshipping the mirror.

If I understand your statement correctly, only the most intelligent creatures would understand that LLM's are themselves?

Just think about the fact llms are basically trying to simulate reddit posts and then think again about using them.

I love the idea of a bunch of woodland creatures (completely unaware of what mirrors are) investing heavily—and aggressively—in mirrors and mirror-related technology.

Squirrels (lemmings) pooling all of their nuts at the alter, lol.

Except it's not my reflection, it's a reflection of millions if not billions of humans.

I've got a duck that prefers to dance in front of a chrome bumper or glass door where he can see his reflection than to go after any potential mates. Possibly he's worshipping the mirror. Possibly he's just really vain.

I find this kind of Anti AI Sentience bigotry horrible!

Nothing wrong with a handsome duck taking a little self affirmation time - he knows his value, he can't look away.

the “mirror stage” by lacan is worth looking into here but no, I don’t think humans automatically think the llm has a sort of reified other, but as we get past an uncanny valley and into generations growing up with entire personal histories in an llm - I can absolutely see that happening.

My dog doesn't pay any attention to mirrors, or llms.

I checked with that other gorilla who lives in the bathroom and he says you're wrong

I think most people using them know that there's not something there, and yet when using it they'll still act as there is. Even giving it that benefit of doubt in what it outputs as valid, as if it's from another person, maybe even one who knows more than they do. So it's a gray area of "not believing".

Except it’s not their reflection, it’s a string of phrases presented to you based partly on the commonality of similar phrases appearing next to one another in the training data, and partly on mysterious black box modifications! Fun!

Or forming romantic attachments to the mirror

Sounds like he’s ducking handsome

And here I am practising my smile in the mirror (like that golden retriever)

But they are a reflexion of ourselves. If you look at the algebra and stats underneath, you'll realize that they spit out whatever it is in us

Interesting take. Could you elaborate?

My post comes from the study of the algebra and stats that enable LLMs (well, part of it. i am not done with the "attention".

lol, Is that the same gorilla that you see in other bathrooms? Or (like me) you meet a new gorilla every time you wash your hands?

I was making a joke based on my username

I think he's the same guy. I used to try to bust him up but he just kept multiplying into more pieces and then coming back whole every time I saw a new mirror, so I eventually gave up

False. My reflection can't tell me that pressing the Steam button and X will bring up the keyboard on Steam Deck's desktop mode.

Related: is there a name for "question bias"?

Like asking ChatGPT if "is x good?", and it would reply "Yes, x is good." but if you ask "is x bad?" it would reply "Yes, x is bad, you're right."

It's just a leading question.

pressing and holding the steam button tells u every steam shortcut

Ooofff... Good call

Uhmm ... you never had a pet bird Im guessing?

Seeing all bird masturbate up against a mirror is just par for the course when you have bird pets. Its gonna be either a mirror, a favorite toy ... or you.

He is actually. When he washes himself he's blinding white. And when he dances he gets a little feather pompadour on the top of his head.

Annihilation?

Based on the fact that most people don't see their interaction with the LLM as gazing into the mirror, am I being led to believe that most people are not sentient???

Based entirely on the opinions of people on niche social media platforms, yes.

Huh.....so what you're saying is that mirrors are actually AI.

THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE!!! EVERYBODY COVER YOUR MIRRORS!!!

It is not a leading question. The answer just happens to be meaningless.

Asking whether something is good is the vast majority of human concern. Most of our rational activity is fundamentally evaluative.

Investor Squirrel 1: “All you have to do is gather your acorns right here, and they will instantly double in value!”

Investor Squirrel 2: “Bro’, we’re so sentient!!!”

Wait, let's hear OP out.

Continuing on "there's not something there", what about theater analogy to llm's? Usually people know it's all act, but if actors play too good, you immerse.
And it's focus is not the truth, it tells the story.

Marketing is a valid use for AI (because bullshit was always thewod anyway)

Deep thoughts

Except when you leave several LLMs able to communicate with one another they will, on their own, with no instructions, including creating their own unique social norms.

https://neurosciencenews.com/ai-llm-social-norms-28928/

No.

I disagree about the dichotomy. I think you can (1) understand what LLMs actually are. (2) See the value of such technology.

In both cases being factual (not being deceived) and not being malicious (not attempting to deceive others)

I think a reasonable use of these tools is as a "sidekick" (you being the main character). Some tasks can be assigned to it so you save some time, but the thinking and the actual mental model of what is being done shall always be your responsibility.

For example, LLMs are good as an interface to quickly lookup within manuals, books, clarify specific concepts, or find the proper terms for a vague idea (so that you can research the topic using the appropriate terms)

Of course, this is just an opinion. 100% open to discussion.

This is nothing else than the reflexion I am talking about. It is not a reflexion of you, the person chatting with the bot, but an "average" reflexion of what humanity has expressed in the data llms have been trained on.

If a mirror is placed in front of another mirror, the "infinite tunnel" only exists in the mind of the observer.

Laughs in vampire

Your duck:

Yeah. Figured it was a good visual representation of seeing an AI version of ourselves in a mirror.

I think of it like a nonhuman character, like a character in a book I'm reading. Is it real? No. Is it compelling? Yes. Do I know exactly what it'll do next? No. Is it serving a purpose in my life? Yes.

It effectively attends to my requests and even feelings but I do not reciprocate that. I've got decades of sci-fi leading me up to this point, the idea of interacting with humanoid robots or AI has been around since my childhood, but it's never involved attending to the machine's feelings or needs.

We need to sort out the boundaries on this, the delusional people who are having "relationships" with AI, getting a social or other emotional fix from it. But that doesn't mean we have to categorize anyone who uses it as moronic. It's a tool.