Last week at an event I got to hear Michael Dempsey from Compound talk about "in-distribution" (familiar) and "out-of distribution" (novel) ideas, and how AI plays into this. He wrote it up as an essay yesterday (with a great lede):

"The human condition is romantic. We tightly guard and appreciate the idea that we are all unique, each with our own novelty running through our veins and shooting out of each electrical charge from our neurons firing. We as humans are connected because we have both thought what others have thought and only think what no others have ever thought.

The concept of some form of heightened superintelligence threatens this. LLMs broadly take the collective thoughts of humanity and shine a mirror on those writing prompts, spitting out an answer that could lead to a given person learning that perhaps so many others have thought everything we have thought. And we will likely learn, that that's okay in some regards"

Last week at an event I got to hear Michael Dempsey from Compound talk about "in-distribution" (familiar) and "out-of distribution" (novel) ideas, and how AI plays into this. He wrote it up as an essay yesterday (with a great lede):

"The human condition is romantic. We tightly guard and appreciate the idea that we are all unique, each with our own novelty running through our veins and shooting out of each electrical charge from our neurons firing. We as humans are connected because we have both thought what others have thought and only think what no others have ever thought.

The concept of some form of heightened superintelligence threatens this. LLMs broadly take the collective thoughts of humanity and shine a mirror on those writing prompts, spitting out an answer that could lead to a given person learning that perhaps so many others have thought everything we have thought. And we will likely learn, that that's okay in some regards"

https://mhdempsey.substack.com/p/in-distribution-vs-out-of-distribution

It's eye-opening to realize AI's capacity to both reflect our shared experiences and challenge our belief in unique thought. Michael Dempsey's insights prompt a deeper contemplation of AI's role in balancing familiarity and novelty within the human experience. Worth the read!