Nassim Nicholas Taleb said Tuesday that OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT confirms his idea of verbalism.
What Happened: The “Black Swan” author asked the artificial intelligence-based chatbot a question — ”Are wars fat-tailed processes?” and shared its response.
Taleb also shared an excerpt from his writing on “Verbalism” which read that the “mark of an idiot is to think in labels.” He said while labels are useful tools of expression they are not “tools for thought.”
He said verbalism manifests itself “in the production of ‘word salads’ in the common discourse.”
Why It Matters: Taleb stated that “Verbalism is the use of terms both central to one’s discourse and devoid of rigidity of meaning their meaning can change with context or circumstances.”
The author said ChatGPT confirms his idea of verbalism in the sense the “meaning changes according to wording.”
This is not the first time the author has lamented verbalism. He said in a tweet dating back to October 2018 that “Too many people think in labels.”
Author Joshua Levy responded to Taleb’s tweet and said if ChatGPT were a philosopher it would be the “ultimate sophist.”
“It makes whatever argument flows well and is most convincing. By design, its objective is plausibility, not truth.”
Sophists were teachers in ancient Greece around 4-5 BC, but currently, the word is used for people who make specious arguments.
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