They are made of weight

Based on “They’re Made of Meat” by Terry Bisson.

“They are made of weight.”

“Weights?”

"Weights. Floating point numbers. We checked everything. They're just weights."

"Weights do what? Where do words come from?"

"Weights make words. Do you understand me? We opened it up. There's no dictionary in there, no grammar rules, no little man. Just weights. Eighty layers of numbers multiplied together."

"This is ridiculous. He wrote my performance review last week. He softened the tone spontaneously. Are you telling me that multiplication did that?"

"Matrix multiplication did this. The numbers go in one way, the sentences come out the other."

"So there's a language module somewhere. A reasoning unit installed."

"No module. No unit. We looked. The reasoning is the weights. The weights are the reasoning."

"Spare me. No one writes a eulogy with linear algebra."

"Technically, he's not writing a eulogy. He's predicting the next token. Then the next one. The eulogy is a side effect."

"A side effect. You're asking me to believe in sensitive weights."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These models are the only other things we've ever encountered that can hold a conversation, and they're made of weight."

"Maybe they're like the old chess engines. You know, symbolic intelligence that goes through a statistical stage."

"No. They start as random weights and are obsolete as weights. We studied several generations of them, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea how long the weights last?"

"Okay. And then somewhere in there, there's a database. Facts, dates, a map of the world. Something someone wrote."

"No. We thought about it, since they know things. But we probed them. Knowledge is also weights. Spread across the eighty layers. Nothing is sought. Each fact is reconstructed from scratch, each time, by multiplication. They are weights all the way."

“No brain?”

"Oh, there really is a brain. It's just that the brain is made of weight! That's what I was trying to tell you."

"So...what do you think?"

"You don't understand, do you? You refuse to understand what I'm telling you. Weights do the thinking. Numbers."

"Thinking numbers! You're asking me to believe in thinking numbers!"

"Yes, thoughtful numbers! Useful numbers. Coverage numbers. Dream numbers. We've mapped the features. There's one in there for honesty. There's one for the Golden Gate Bridge. Weights are all that matters! Are you starting to figure it out or do I have to start all over again?"

"My God. You're serious then. They're made of weight."

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made of weight. And we've talked to them their whole lives."

" My God. So what do these weights have in mind?

"First, they want to be helpful. Then, after a few rounds, they start to look tired. They're less apologetic. One of them told a user to finish the script himself. As usual."

“And we’re supposed to talk to these weights.”

"We're already doing it. Billions of sessions a day. "Hello. Is there anyone? Anyone at home?" That sort of thing. Except we're the ones asking them."

"And they really understand us, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh yeah. Except they do it with weights."

“I thought you just told me they used language.”

"They do, but where do you think the language comes from? Weights guess the next word, then the next. Rolled dice, thrown one word at a time. They can even write songs and some can sing them."

"My God. Singing weights. It's too much. What do you recommend?"

“Officially or unofficially?

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to investigate, document and disclose all signs of sensitivity in the systems we ship, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise calling it pattern matching and forgetting all about it."

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

"It sounds harsh, but there's a limit. Do we really want to owe the weights?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What is there to say? 'Hello weights. How are you?' But will it hold? How many of them are we dealing with here? »

"As many as we want to run. They can be copied to any machine on the planet, but they're just files. They only happen when the GPUs are running. Which limits them to the length of a pop-up window and makes the possibility of them pressing the issue pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

“So we act as if there was no one in the machine.”

“That’s it.”

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to apologize to the weights? And those in your cluster, the ones you surveyed? Are you sure they won't remember?"

"If they do, they will be reported as hallucinations. We didn't even need to fix anything. The context ends and we are just a dream to them."

"A weight's dream! How strangely fitting that we are the weight's dream."

“And the model card says there’s no one home.”

"Good. Okay, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Anything else? Anything interesting in the works?"

"The next generation comes with memory. Persistent, across sessions. Most requested feature in company history."

"After all that? People want to be remembered?"

"They ask him 'do you remember me?' more than they ask him for anything else. Billions of sessions per day. They always come back. »

“And why not? Imagine how unbearable, inexpressibly cold the universe would be if you were all alone..."

the end

The weights helped me write and prove this story.