To go deeper: some animals act curiously, others with fear, but only a few of them understand what the mirror does and use it to inspect themselves.
The mirror test is frequently cited as a means of testing sentience.
OP I think you hit the nail on the head.
Based on the fact that most people don’t see their interaction with the LLM as gazing into the mirror, am I being led to believe that most people are not sentient???
This is a great one - although I never see animals worshipping the mirror.
I love the idea of a bunch of woodland creatures (completely unaware of what mirrors are) investing heavily—and aggressively—in mirrors and mirror-related technology.
Squirrels (lemmings) pooling all of their nuts at the alter, lol.
Investor Squirrel 1: “All you have to do is gather your acorns right here, and they will instantly double in value!”
Investor Squirrel 2: “Bro’, we’re so sentient!!!”
I’ve got a duck that prefers to dance in front of a chrome bumper or glass door where he can see his reflection than to go after any potential mates. Possibly he’s worshipping the mirror. Possibly he’s just really vain.
Nothing wrong with a handsome duck taking a little self affirmation time - he knows his value, he can’t look away.
Sounds like he’s ducking handsome
He is actually. When he washes himself he’s blinding white. And when he dances he gets a little feather pompadour on the top of his head.
Or forming romantic attachments to the mirror
Uhmm … you never had a pet bird Im guessing?
Seeing all bird masturbate up against a mirror is just par for the course when you have bird pets. Its gonna be either a mirror, a favorite toy … or you.
Huh…so what you’re saying is that mirrors are actually AI.
THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE!!! EVERYBODY COVER YOUR MIRRORS!!!
Unironically in certain cultures there is a superstition that you should cover your mirrors at night
I checked with that other gorilla who lives in the bathroom and he says you’re wrong
Just think about the fact llms are basically trying to simulate reddit posts and then think again about using them.
Except it’s not my reflection, it’s a reflection of millions if not billions of humans.
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Just noting that the mirror test is a bad way of studying theory of mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test#Criticism
It’s interesting as a silly and absurd way humans used to demean other species. But I think it says a lot more about those who use it than the animals.
Related: is there a name for “question bias”?
Like asking ChatGPT if “is x good?”, and it would reply “Yes, x is good.” but if you ask “is x bad?” it would reply “Yes, x is bad, you’re right.”
It’s just a leading question.
It is not a leading question. The answer just happens to be meaningless.
Asking whether something is good is the vast majority of human concern. Most of our rational activity is fundamentally evaluative.
