Karen Howe
Appearances
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
The most important competitive advantage that each company has in creating an AI model, it's ultimately the data. Like, what is the data that is unique to them that they are then able to train their AI model on? And so the chatbots actually are incredibly good at getting users to give up their data.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
If you have a chatbot that is designed to act like a therapist, you are going to get some incredibly rich mental health data from users because users will be interacting with this chatbot and, you know, divulging the way that they might in a therapy room to the chatbot all of their deepest, darkest anxieties and fears and stresses. They call it the data flywheel.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
Now they have this compelling product. It allows them to get more data. Then they can fill up even more compelling products, which allow them to get more data. And it becomes this kind of cycle in which they can really entrench their business and create a really sticky business where users rely and depend on their services.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
I just think that as a country, as a society, we shouldn't be, you know, sleepwalking into kind of mistakes that we've already made in the past of ceding so much data and so much control to these companies that are ultimately just their businesses. That is ultimately what they're optimizing for.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
The thing about large language models or any AI model that is trained on data, they're like statistical engines that are computing patterns of language. And honestly, any time it says something truthful, it's actually a coincidence, right?
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
So, like, if you train your chatbot on, you know, history textbooks and only history textbooks, then, yeah, like, then it'll start saying things automatically. that are true most of the time. And that's still most of the time, not all the time, because it's still remixing the history textbooks in ways that don't necessarily then create a truthful sentence.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
That's like a kind of like a core aspect of this technology is there is literally no relationship to the truth.
Up First from NPR
When Chatbots Play Human
Whether or not it was true of that chatbot in kind of like a roundabout way, it might've actually hit on a broader truth. Maybe not the truth of like this particular team designing the product, but just a broader truth about the tech industry It's funny, but it's also deeply sad.