> Instead it just produces "answers" which are a statistical guess based on other things it has seen on the internet.
It boggles my mind that folks expect otherwise from a Machine Learning tool, no matter how advanced and stuffed with data it may be. Perhaps it's the same phenomenon that causes us humans to see faces in clouds, smiles on dogs, and Jesus' likeness on toast?
Somewhere I definitely read about how human psychology makes us prone to that sort of thing. Even as for back as Eliza, cognitive scientists were commenting on how our thinking can be fooled.
I think there's an ideological bias in our culture that pushes people to believe that intelligent or structured phenomenon inevitably emerge organically and progressively from complex phenomena.
Teleological thinking -- a kind of imagining of purpose and cause from chaotic/natural events and entities -- riddles popular thinking, especially from people in our profession. Science fiction is especially full of it.
It's not just restricted to this domain at all. IMHO similar bias underlies thinking around economics and the magical hand of the free market economy.
Its also a bias evident in the way some people talk about nature, gardening, etc. E.g. permaculture / natural farming people show it all the time.
> I think there's an ideological bias in our culture that pushes people to believe that intelligent or structured phenomenon inevitably emerge organically and progressively from complex phenomena.
All science points to this being the case, for us. I think the only ones opposed are those that believe in young earth creationism, and only some portion of those that believe in old earth creationism.
It boggles my mind that folks expect otherwise from a Machine Learning tool, no matter how advanced and stuffed with data it may be. Perhaps it's the same phenomenon that causes us humans to see faces in clouds, smiles on dogs, and Jesus' likeness on toast?