Feb 13, 2023

Alex Hanna Questions the Need for Chatbots and Other ‘Bulls***t’ Generators

From Analytics India Magazine

Former Google AI Ethicist Calls Bard and alike ‘Bulls***’ Generators

By Tasmia Ansari

“There are a lot of people freaking out about the way large language models (LLMs) are doing things like writing college essays, etc. The harm is, these things are just bullshit generators,” said former AI ethicist at Google, Alex Hanna, in an exclusive interview with Analytics India Magazine. 

The above statement comes in the backdrop of Google’s recent release of experimental AI chatbot ‘Bard’, built on large language model LaMDA, which unsurprisingly created a huge mishap as one of the facts mentioned in its ad was flat-out wrong. Now, many of its employees believe that it was being ‘rushed’ amid the wake of the popularity of ‘ChatGPT,’ backed by Microsoft, and developed by OpenAI. 

Hanna questioned the need for such models, given the cost of training these models is extremely high in addition to its impact on carbon emissions. Most importantly, she said: How is it going to serve the most marginalised people right now?

Read the full article here. 

Alex Hanna is a lecturer at the I School focusing on how data used in new computational technologies can exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequalityShe also serves as Director of Research at the  Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR).

Last updated:

February 22, 2023