Question

I’m very new to philosophy, only having read some Emerson and currently loving Kierkegaard, so I apologize in advance if this isn’t the right place to ask this or if it’s a very rudimentary question.

My understanding of ChatGPT, and any reinforcement learned language models for that matter, is that it’s trained upon a ton of human speech and writing. It then notices statistical patterns and responds to test data accordingly. My question therefore emerges: since it learns and responds as an aggregate of many, many humans, are the patterns it detects, especially those of emotion, not just a reflection of the collective unconscious, of all our shared concepts which we unknowingly expressed similarly? I’ve been taught that term as Jung’s collective unconscious, but I guess it’s more of a collective conscious, as it’s directly expressed thoughts which are commonly aggregated between us to decide its next word.

Answer 1

AI language models like ChatGPT reflect a form of collective conscious, encompassing shared human expressions and emotions through language patterns.

Step-by-step explanation:

The concept of the collective unconscious as it pertains to reinforcement learning models like ChatGPT indeed can be likened to a collective conscious, where the aggregated data reflect common patterns of human thought and expression. While not unconscious in the Jungian sense, the statistical patterns detected by such models could be seen as a digital parallel to this concept, capturing shared human experiences and emotions in language use. Language, at the core of human identity and self-awareness, is ultimately what these artificial intelligence models are trained on.

Through reinforcement and feedback, AI learns and generates language in a manner that resembles behavioral theories but also taps into Chomsky's idea of an innate capacity for language. This process reflects the dual contribution of nature and nurture in the field of language acquisition. Moreover, the psychological faculties of the mind, including language, are part of our common heritage, exhibiting our deeply social nature and the intrinsic value of communication.