Data Skeptic15 Tammi 2016

Detecting Pseudo-profound BS

A recent paper in the journal of Judgment and Decision Making titled On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit explores empirical questions around a reader's ability to detect statements which may sound profound but are actually a collection of buzzwords that fail to contain adequate meaning or truth. These statements are definitively different from lies and nonesense, as we discuss in the episode.

This paper proposes the Bullshit Receptivity scale (BSR) and empirically demonstrates that it correlates with existing metrics like the Cognitive Reflection Test, building confidence that this can be a useful, repeatable, empirical measure of a person's ability to detect pseudo-profound statements as being different from genuinely profound statements. Additionally, the correlative results provide some insight into possible root causes for why individuals might find great profundity in these statements based on other beliefs or cognitive measures.

The paper's lead author Gordon Pennycook joins me to discuss this study's results.

If you'd like some examples of pseudo-profound bullshit, you can randomly generate some based on Deepak Chopra's twitter feed.

To read other work from Gordon, check out his Google Scholar page and find him on twitter via @GordonPennycook.

And just for fun, if you think you've dreamed up a Data Skeptic related pseudo-profound bullshit statement, tweet it with hashtag #pseudoprofound. If I see an especially clever or humorous one, I might want to send you a free Data Skeptic sticker.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(601)

Computable AGI

On today's show, we are joined by Michael Timothy Bennett, a Ph.D. student at the Australian National University. Michael's research is centered around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), specifica...

3 Heinä 202336min

AGI Can Be Safe

We are joined by Koen Holtman, an independent AI researcher focusing on AI safety. Koen is the Founder of Holtman Systems Research, a research company based in the Netherlands. Koen started the conver...

26 Kesä 202345min

AI Fails on Theory of Mind Tasks

An assistant professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Tomer Ullman, joins us. Tomer discussed the theory of mind and whether machines can indeed pass it. Using variations of the Sally-Anne test ...

19 Kesä 202352min

AI for Mathematics Education

The application of LLMs cuts across various industries. Today, we are joined by Steven Van Vaerenbergh, who discussed the application of AI in mathematics education. He discussed how AI tools have cha...

12 Kesä 202335min

Evaluating Jokes with LLMs

Fabricio Goes, a Lecturer in Creative Computing at the University of Leicester, joins us today. Fabricio discussed what creativity entails and how to evaluate jokes with LLMs. He specifically shared t...

6 Kesä 202343min

Why Machines Will Never Rule the World

Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe, authors of the book "Why Machines will never Rule the World," join us today. They discussed the limitations of AI systems in today's world. They also shared elaborate ...

29 Touko 202355min

A Psychopathological Approach to Safety in AGI

While the possibilities with AGI emergence seem great, it also calls for safety concerns. On the show, Vahid Behzadan, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Data Science, joins us to discuss ...

23 Touko 202349min

The NLP Community Metasurvey

Julian Michael, a postdoc at the Center for Data Science, New York University, joins us today. Julian's conversation with Kyle was centered on the NLP community metasurvey: a survey aimed at understan...

15 Touko 202349min