Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    Meta is bringing an all-in-one movie and TV streaming hub to Quest headsets

    September 17, 2025

    All the news from Meta Connect 2025

    September 17, 2025

    Microsoft’s new Xbox mode on Windows has leaked for any handheld

    September 17, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » AI Will Understand Humans Better Than Humans Do
    Business

    AI Will Understand Humans Better Than Humans Do

    News RoomBy News RoomNovember 5, 20244 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Michal Kosinski is a Stanford research psychologist with a nose for timely subjects. He sees his work as not only advancing knowledge, but alerting the world to potential dangers ignited by the consequences of computer systems. His best-known projects involved analyzing the ways in which Facebook (now Meta) gained a shockingly deep understanding of its users from all the times they clicked “like” on the platform. Now he’s shifted to the study of surprising things that AI can do. He’s conducted experiments, for example, that indicate that computers could predict a person’s sexuality by analyzing a digital photo of their face.

    I’ve gotten to know Kosinski through my writing about Meta, and I reconnected with him to discuss his latest paper, published this week in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His conclusion is startling. Large language models like OpenAI’s, he claims, have crossed a border and are using techniques analogous to actual thought, once considered solely the realm of flesh-and-blood people (or at least mammals). Specifically, he tested OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to see if they had mastered what is known as “theory of mind.” This is the ability of humans, developed in the childhood years, to understand the thought processes of other humans. It’s an important skill. If a computer system can’t correctly interpret what people think, its world understanding will be impoverished and it will get lots of things wrong. If models do have theory of mind, they are one step closer to matching and exceeding human capabilities. Kosinski put LLMs to the test and now says his experiments show that in GPT-4 in particular, a theory of mind-like ability “may have emerged as an unintended by-product of LLMs’ improving language skills … They signify the advent of more powerful and socially skilled AI.”

    Kosinski sees his work in AI as a natural outgrowth of his earlier dive into Facebook Likes. “I was not really studying social networks, I was studying humans,” he says. When OpenAI and Google started building their latest generative AI models, he says, they thought they were training them to primarily handle language. “But they actually trained a human mind model, because you cannot predict what word I’m going to say next without modeling my mind.”

    Kosinski is careful not to claim that LLMs have utterly mastered theory of mind—yet. In his experiments he presented a few classic problems to the chatbots, some of which they handled very well. But even the most sophisticated model, GPT-4, failed a quarter of the time. The successes, he writes, put GPT-4 on a level with 6-year-old children. Not bad, given the early state of the field. “Observing AI’s rapid progress, many wonder whether and when AI could achieve ToM or consciousness,” he writes. Putting aside that radioactive c-word, that’s a lot to chew on.

    “If theory of mind emerged spontaneously in those models, it also suggests that other abilities can emerge next,” he tells me. “They can be better at educating, influencing, and manipulating us thanks to those abilities.” He’s concerned that we’re not really prepared for LLMs that understand the way humans think. Especially if they get to the point where they understand humans better than humans do.

    “We humans do not simulate personality—we have personality,” he says. “So I’m kind of stuck with my personality. These things model personality. There’s an advantage in that they can have any personality they want at any point of time.” When I mention to Kosinski that it sounds like he’s describing a sociopath, he lights up. “I use that in my talks!” he says. “A sociopath can put on a mask—they’re not really sad, but they can play a sad person.” This chameleon-like power could make AI a superior scammer. With zero remorse.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleElon Musk’s PAC admits $1 million voter giveaways aren’t ‘random’
    Next Article Is Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Good for Games?

    Related Posts

    Matthew Prince Wants AI Companies to Pay for Their Sins

    September 17, 2025

    How AI Is Upending Politics, Tech, the Media, and More

    September 16, 2025

    Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions

    September 16, 2025

    USA Today Enters Its Gen AI Era With a Chatbot

    September 16, 2025

    OpenAI Ramps Up Robotics Work in Race Toward AGI

    September 15, 2025

    How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate

    September 15, 2025
    Our Picks

    All the news from Meta Connect 2025

    September 17, 2025

    Microsoft’s new Xbox mode on Windows has leaked for any handheld

    September 17, 2025

    The Next Era of Gene Editing Will Be Disease Agnostic

    September 17, 2025

    Americans want AI to stay out of their personal lives

    September 17, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    News

    Microsoft Paint is getting its own Photoshop-like project files

    By News RoomSeptember 17, 2025

    Microsoft has been steadily improving its Paint app for Windows 11 in recent years with…

    WIRED Health Recap: Cancer Vaccines, Crispr Breakthroughs, and More

    September 17, 2025

    ‘Ask Gemini’ AI will tell you what you missed during a Google Meet call

    September 17, 2025

    Logitech’s Pro X2 Superstrike offers haptic-based clicks and rapid trigger

    September 17, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.