Why ChatGPT Feels Like a Living Friend: The Truth About Language Models

When you talk to a large language model, it is easy to forget that it is not a person. Language models imitate human conversation so convincingly that people start to see them as friends. The trend is especially popular among young people around the world, including Estonia. But how can an algorithm that neither feels nor thinks be so convincing?

AI-processed from Habr AI; edited by Hamidun News
Why ChatGPT Feels Like a Living Friend: The Truth About Language Models
Source: Habr AI. Collage: Hamidun News.
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ChatGPT and other language models produce such a realistic imitation of human thinking that people easily forget they are not talking to a human. A huge number of parameters trained on text from the internet is automatically perceived by the brain as live conversation.

Why does ChatGPT feel alive?

Because a language model predicts the next word based on all the previous ones so realistically that the brain perceives it as live conversation.

Do young people really see neural networks as friends?

Yes, an unexpected trend has emerged: young people around the world are starting to see language models as real friends because of this effect of realistic imitation of thinking.

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Key Questions Answered

Why does ChatGPT feel alive?

Because a language model predicts the next word based on all the previous ones so realistically that the brain perceives it as live conversation.

Do young people really see neural networks as friends?

Yes, an unexpected trend has emerged: young people around the world are starting to see language models as real friends because of this effect of realistic imitation of thinking.

ZK
Zhemal Khamidun — CPO at Alpina Digital, product manager of AlpinaGPT. Building AI products since 2019. Hamidun News is a pet project that grew into a production aggregator with 6,000+ readers.
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