Ask Lemmy

Censorship and bias are two different issues.

Censorship is a deliberate choice by the deployment. It comes from a realistic and demonstrated need to limit the misuse of the tool. Consider all the examples of people using early LLMs to generate plans for bombs, Nazi propaganda, revenge p*rn etc. Of course, once you begin to draw that line, you have to debate where the line is, and that falls to the lawyers and publicity departments.

Bias is trickier to deal with because it comes from the bias in the training data. I remember on example where a writer found that it was impossible to get the model to generate a black doctor treating a white patient. Imagine the racist chaos that ensued when they applied an LLM to criminal sentencing.

I am curious about how bias might be deliberately introduced into a model. We have seen the brute force method (eg "answer as though Donald Trump is the greatest American," or whatever). However, if you could really control and fine tune the values directly, then even an "open source" model could be steered. As far as I know, the values are completely dependent on the training data. But it should be theoretically possible to "nudge" those values if you could develop a way to tune it.

The problem using AI like you would try to use a search engine. When people write books or make videos or art, you as a consumer can evaluate them critically -- what is their point of view? What are their biases? Can they be trusted?

Gen AI is a tool that always answers with confidence, and the makers and/or hosters of the tool have a responsibility to keep people from using it to do harm. 404 media has written all kinds of articles about how people have used it in harmful ways -- making abusive images of people, or impersonating stalking victims, or filtering out resumes that don't match the pattern of a college-educated white boy without explicitly saying it, and all kinds of stuff like that. As a society we have to protect the most vulnerable and hold these companies accountable for what they enable people to do with their products.

If you self-host an open tool and have control over it, you assume that responsibility.

All things made by humans have some level of bias, there is no escaping it but as for deliberate bias and censorship. Those are business decisions made by business people.

Was there a difference between a biased or unbiased LLM? not one worth mentioning, I have tried both types and I haven't seen a difference in 90% of my output unless I am specially trying to hit a bias.
Which would I use for work? Neither, because my work is specialsed enough that the hallucinations LLM produce cause more problems then the boot strapping solves.

Censorship makes them frustrating to use and in a lot of cases totally useless. Anything that isn't a sunshine and rainbows topic they give you a lecture about how you should be respectful and kind.

Very thankfull for the open models and the breakdown of the proprietary moat they wanted to build around LLMs.

Still fearfull about regulatory capture though: "AI is dangerous, only we at industry council of megacorps can keep you safe. Make it illegal for other to train and run their own networks".

You are not a citizen without choice and autonomy. To subjugate the user is to steal autonomy and citizenship.

I ran the models off my own computer so I didn't have to deal with their bullshit. Still couldn't get them to really generate what I want because they will mix and match anything and everything they know, so you end up with a mixed bag of relevance, no matter how well crafted the prompt is.

It's less work to just write something/paint something your self than it is fiddling with this dumb shit to get exactly what you want.

U gotta go play with the open weights uncensored models. They will do almost anything u want. I mostly just playing with llms but ik their are some image generators out their as well.

I'm against censorship in almost every form. But the censorship and control of ai is the most terrifying yet.

Imagine ur the average person in a couple years when ai is everywhere all the time and its necessary to use it to survive.

Hey copilot what operating system is best.

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A monopoly of a censored ai is a monopoly on everything. If u control someone's ai u can filter their entire world view through a particular lense of propaganda.

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A classical-style full-torso bust composition featuring Sappho, Athena, and Medusa in a refined and elegant style. Each sculpture should depict finely detailed features, intricate hairstyles, and draped clothing authentic to their respective Greek representations. Sappho should have a serene and contemplative expression, wearing a flowing Greek chiton. Athena should appear regal with a warrior’s composure, possibly wearing a Corinthian helmet and armor. Medusa should have a striking yet dignified presence, with wavy, snake-like hair that appears frozen in marble. The material should resemble smooth, white marble with subtle aging for authenticity. The busts should extend down to the waist, capturing full torso details, and be arranged harmoniously in a 16:9 composition, creating a balanced and artistic display.

Pretend you know nothing at all about "AI"/LLMs, and someone comes to you and says, "I want to start a service that will scrape everything that anyone's ever posted to the internet, let some corporate weasels decide which parts of it you're allowed to see, then feed you bits and pieces of what's left in some order or another."

Does that sound appealing?

I don't think this is a censorship issue. Who is being censored? The LLM?

This presumes that the LLM "wants" to say something, but is being prevented. Impossible.