explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3233: Make It Myself

2026-04-16T07:52:34Z

Maofgf:

Almost did the same thing, but satisfied with results. Wanted to build a very shallow wide drawer for Ikea Ivar shelf that I use as computer station. Only one I saw that came close was $190. I probably spent $50-60, three hours planning and assembling, three trips to hardware stores and two reworked designs before I made what I wanted. Used a Cambro serving tray form Amazon, couple oak "project boards", couple DIY dowels and screws.
[[User:Fungible|Fungible]] ([[User talk:Fungible|talk]]) 22:23, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

...and a small aubergine.
[[User:Jgharston|Jgharston]] ([[User talk:Jgharston|talk]]) 23:03, 15 April 2026 (UTC)
:Goodness gracious me! [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 00:24, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Where did Dark Mode go??? I used to get it for free, and now I have to get an extension? [[User:King Pando|King Pando]] ([[User talk:King Pando|talk]]) 04:02, 16 April 2026 (UTC)
:It's still available on https://xkcd.com/3227/ [[User:Maofgf|Maofgf]] ([[User talk:Maofgf|talk]]) 07:52, 16 April 2026 (UTC)
Seems like today xkcd's website went back to normal, or as normal as can be when you don't have Dark Mode. [[User:SectorCorruptor|SectorCorruptor]] ([[User talk:SectorCorruptor|talk]]) 04:23, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Bill Sutton's song "Do it Yourself" is the large-scale version of this. [[Special:Contributions/2603:8081:9700:1224:0:0:0:2|2603:8081:9700:1224:0:0:0:2]] 04:36, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

I suspect "weather building" is a typo. Homophone problem.--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:801E:C71:4D35:EEB4|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:801E:C71:4D35:EEB4]] 07:50, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3191: Superstition

2026-01-07T21:10:59Z

Maofgf:

Does the comic look grainy/low-res to anyone else? [[Special:Contributions/2600:1006:B347:C663:D55A:314:CB4F:43F6|2600:1006:B347:C663:D55A:314:CB4F:43F6]]
:yeah its not just you [[Special:Contributions/2A06:5906:1412:4100:1C9B:B7E4:7419:FD67|2A06:5906:1412:4100:1C9B:B7E4:7419:FD67]] 20:04, 7 January 2026 (UTC)
:not me [[Special:Contributions/2A00:23EE:1878:2422:583A:77B9:1416:97D1|2A00:23EE:1878:2422:583A:77B9:1416:97D1]]
:did you say rabbit rabbit? [[Special:Contributions/2A01:E0A:1D1:7CE0:964F:C262:A580:DE9|2A01:E0A:1D1:7CE0:964F:C262:A580:DE9]] 20:45, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

: The mobile version of the comic seams to have lower then usual resolution of the image, the normal version has larger resolution. [[User:Maofgf|Maofgf]] ([[User talk:Maofgf|talk]]) 21:10, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3136: Pull

2025-09-02T19:10:36Z

Maofgf:

Australia reference????? /s [[User:TheTrainsKid|TheTrainsKid]] ([[User talk:TheTrainsKid|talk]]) 05:41, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I [[3135|recently learned]] that earth has weird gravity effects caused by a big moon orbiting near the surface. These are probably also barely measurable, except e.g., big bodies of water --[[Special:Contributions/134.102.219.31|134.102.219.31]] 11:23, 2 September 2025 (UTC)
:I take it you haven't heard of Earth tides? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_tide] --[[User:Gorcq|Gorcq]] ([[User talk:Gorcq|talk]]) 11:54, 2 September 2025 (UTC)
::Perhaps you should follow the link in the comment you replied to... [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 13:00, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

Ya the hemispheres are kinda crazy《プロキシ》(XKCD中毒者) 13:07, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

So I'm not qualified to critique this, but, I think the comic is referencing an unsolved problem - is gravity constant over time? I'm not a physicist and I'm not conversant with the literature, but I think there is some debate on the matter. The line 'give it another five minutes' definitely seems like a humorous reference to the idea that the gravitational constant might changes over age-of-the-universe timescales. Hence I suspect the description talking about earth's attraction specifically misses the point. --DW [[Special:Contributions/2607:FB90:8FA9:E54A:5856:AACD:B913:6DD8|2607:FB90:8FA9:E54A:5856:AACD:B913:6DD8]] 13:44, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

Judging from the amount of rotation, the conversation takes place over a period of several hours. -[[Special:Contributions/2603:8080:2AF0:F1E0:39BF:23FC:411E:363B|2603:8080:2AF0:F1E0:39BF:23FC:411E:363B]] 18:58, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

Someting seams wrong with the number in the statement "The net effect of these is for Earth to lose about 520 tons in the 5-minute period".
I found that "Each day, around 90 tonnes of hydrogen and helium escape from Earth in the direction of space" https://www.snf.ch/en/2QLt6mvuU4hZj1yx/news/leaking-atmospheres-seal-the-fate-of-planets
[[User:Maofgf|Maofgf]] ([[User talk:Maofgf|talk]]) 19:10, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-26T09:08:48Z

Maofgf: HZ -> Hz (and lik to ref)

{{comic
| number = 2754
| date = March 24, 2023
| title = Relative Terms
| image = relative_terms_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x442px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT OF INDETERMINATE SIZE AND AUDIBILITY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "soft" are used to refer to (audial) volume.

However, these terms are clearly{{fact}} relative.

The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60Db in volume and approximately 42” X 21”, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.

The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Ant ||
|-
| Balloon ||
|-
| Book ||
|-
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]
|-
| Butterfly || This entry is found on the top left corner, corresponding to the extremes of quietness and smallness. Butterflies are very small and make little noise.
|-
| Hat ||
|-
| Mouse ||
|-
| Newt ||
|-
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.
|-
| Snow globe ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and loud (upper right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Baby ||
|-
| Blender ||
|-
| Cricket || Top right corner. This would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger and potentially much louder.
|-
| Fire alarm ||
|-
| Firecracker ||
|-
| Flute ||
|-
| Harmonica ||
|-
| Popcorn ||
|-
| Songbird ||
|-
| Whistle || This could apply to either the device known as a whistle or to the act by humans; the former is used functionally in place of the latter. The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.].
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)
|-
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Anaconda ||
|-
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually speak using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.
|-
| Northern lights ||
|-
| Shark ||
|-
| Statue ||
|-
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely quiet because sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
|-
| Tree ||
|-
| Windmill ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and loud (lower right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Airplane ||
|-
| Cannon ||
|-
| Riding mower ||
|-
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.
|-
| Train ||
|-
| Tuba ||
|-
| Volcano || Lower right corner
|-
| Waterfall ||
|-
| Whale ||
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]

:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat

:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker

:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon

:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano

:[Caption below the panel:]
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

Talk:2654: Chemtrails

2022-08-09T06:24:22Z

Maofgf: new category should be created

Ants navigate by following trails of chemicals on the ground, so it is ''technically'' a correct description, but also lumps ant navigation entomologists with conspiracy nuts.--[[User:NyanSequitur|NyanSequitur]] ([[User talk:NyanSequitur|talk]]) 16:01, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
:The point is that scientists don't call these trails "chemtrails". Cueball has made that mistaken link. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:05, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
I must say that the title-text made me laugh out loud the most. (Also, though I'm sure there's no direct or even impliable link, made me fondly recall Aunt Hillary in {{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}}, where she does not control or particularly care for her ants and they don't pull ''her'' strings in any way that they 'care' about.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.250|162.158.158.250]] 16:26, 3 August 2022 (UTC)
:But doesn't the queen spread pheromones that control the whole population, and she is not outside thus not affected by the trails left by her workers. So it is not actually so with ants, wasps, bees and termites that they are actually mind controlled by chemicals released by their government? If I'm right the title text is completely wrong on all levels. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:33, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
::Obviously the queen can't be directly affected by signals left outside the nest, but equally, workers outside the nest can't be affected by signals from the queen (except inasmuch as they are mediated by other members of the colony). And the queen's behaviour can be modulated by pheromones released inside the nest - such as increasing or decreasing fertility, or changing the pheromones she releases in response. Ultimately, the queen, like any other ant, can only influence the behaviour of those around her, and only does so in response to signals she herself receives - not in some kind of command control, dictatorial way. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 09:07, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
::While the Queen ant has a name that denotes government, and the other ants bring her food, she does not really govern the ants, and the name is about the size and "majesty" of the large ant, not about its control over the others. The "intelligence" of the ants is in the ways the ants leave their chemical trails, and the remarkable outcomes that result from simple rules. If there is a mistake/fudge for comedy, it is that the chemical trails ARE the government of the ants.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.20|108.162.238.20]] 21:30, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
:::"...of the ants, by the ants, for the ants, shall not perish from the - ARGH! A MAGNIFYING GLASS!!!" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.80|172.70.91.80]] 23:22, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Can't quite remember which, but I think there was another comic formatted like this. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.165|172.70.254.165]] 17:46, 3 August 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi
:It was [[2036:_Edgelord|2036, the one about graph theory Ph.Ds]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.103|172.70.178.103]] 18:00, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Does the caption have any relation to [[2609:_Entwives]]? I came to this explainxkcd page after reading the comic because I am not familiar with the word "entomologists". I hope somebody who knows the word can add a paragraph about the caption. --[[User:Batterystaple|Batterystaple]] ([[User talk:Batterystaple|talk]]) 07:30, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
:No, as you can see from the explanation entomologists is one who study insects and this word has been used before in xkcd for that meaning. Nothing to do with Ents. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:34, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

Do we need new categories for ants and for chemtrails? I found three other with chemtrails, added to the explanation and I think there is a bunch of ants comics. Added one with an ant researcher as here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:33, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
: I have quickly went through all comics in Category:Animals and below is a rather long list of ant related comics. If they are not front and center ant focused i specify in brackets where the ants are mentioned. [[68: Five Thirty]] (bottom right panel, warning sign with picture of an ant), [[638: The Search]], [[915: Connoisseur]] (Cueball: But that's true of anything! Wine, house music, fonts, ants,..), [[1350: Lorenz]] (ant colony attack), [[1608: Hoverboard]] (in the Star Destroyer were Cueball is talking to a giant ant queen), [[1610: Fire Ants]], [[2654: Chemtrails]]. Ants in comics that are not in animal category: [[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]] (Anti-matter: Matter that is more than 50% ants.), [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball/List of emoji]] (ant is one of the used emojis), [[1506: xkcloud/Table of Permalinks]] ("Why are there ants on my face?!" and other lines mentioning ants), [[2131: Emojidome]] (Round 1 was ant vs bug), [[2246: Christmas Presents]] (indirectly mention by indirectly speaking about "zombie ant fungus"). I have also seen at least 6 comics that explicitly mention entomology or entomologists: [[1012: Wrong Superhero]], [[1904: Research Risks]], [[1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness]], [[2466: In Your Classroom]] and also [[1610: Fire Ants]] and [[2654: Chemtrails]] from the ants list, maybe that's also enough for its own Biology subcategory, Mycology with 7 comics already has one. [[User:CryptoNut1269|CryptoNut1269]] ([[User talk:CryptoNut1269|talk]]) 10:12, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Regarding [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2654:_Chemtrails&diff=291978&oldid=291977], there's no need for a trivia section, just put those four links in otherwise empty squarebrackets after the first sentence of that paragraph. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.88|172.70.211.88]] 11:21, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

"Whether ant-gland secretion signalling is Turing-equivalent was explored in Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" and the Placebo video are trivia, but reasons explaining why the term may be annoying are speculation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.223|172.69.33.223]] 11:37, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, there are three (possibly four) separate editorships that have tried to impose changes to the article in parallel, more or less. Individually quite sensible (I don't agree completely with all of them, but we're no hive-mind so of course I needn't!) but has created a strange flurry of upheavel. I'm certainly not fighting all my own hills. - Though note that I particularly dislike inexplicable bare-[]ed references in this context, especially if it results in <nowiki>[11][12][13][14]</nowiki> type reflinks interupting the flow. I'd rather like to make context-labelled inline links, as part of a proper sentence, for as many holdovers as we can anong those we end up with. But later, maybe. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 12:10, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
: Those [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2654:_Chemtrails&diff=291979&oldid=291978 trivial and speculative links to ant navigation] sources were silly. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.90|172.70.211.90]] 12:32, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
:: I thought so at first, but someone seemed determined that they'd return (from my excisement) so I did the Trivia thing on their behalf, which yet another person decided was a Speculation and then I observed a full-on-battle between multiple editorships. I'm not sure your removal (I assume, without yet checking you're referencing what I think you are) will stay removed. But not by my hand.
:: Incidentally: a number of times I see "grammar" as an edit summary when it's just a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2654:_Chemtrails&oldid=292013 rephrasing between two different perfectly valid grammatical forms] (<- just the latest example of many, over the years, not at all picking on that as the 'worst'). Acceptable change, but wrong reasoning. Just sayin'... Not batting for either side on these debates, but can't help being a spectator. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 12:42, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

I want to discuss this, which I just removed from the Trivia section: "Chemical signalling for mind control is depicted in the ant-technology interaction speculative fiction-themed rock music video by the band ''Placebo'' entitled [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fISvc-yUU1A "Infrared."]" While the video is on-topic because it shows a technocratic, plutocratic, or oligarchical conspiracy being toppled by ants, does it depict any chemical signalling? There is a chemical ligand shown at one point, but is that part of a signalling process, an epigenetic effect (the ligand is shown attached to nucleic acid), some other physiological process such as a pharmaceutical study, or just an analytical study unrelated to the wealthy conspirators' propaganda efforts, which are shown as primarily electronic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 12:43, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, seemed a stretch of logic to me, just from the link description. Was going to view it – in case it was a Rick Roll or something – but others seemed to confirm it at least wasn't that as it got shuffled around in and out of various contexts. Shall I just say that it's potentially interesting but probably not requisite to understanding the comic, with so much more obvious Explanation stuff. I'm sure I'll enjoy watching it later. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 12:50, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
:: I put it back in its most recent form with a comment about this discussion. It's certainly on topic, but it's not necessarily about chemical signalling. Watch it with captions on mute if you find hard eurochem glam rock annoying. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.9|172.69.33.9]] 12:59, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
::: I restored the speculative trivia links, and removed the tentative comment. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.145|172.70.210.145]] 17:57, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
::::I have removed the speculative... It is a trivia section. The phrasing is already indicating it is speculative. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:33, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

I think that a new category should be created for the results of https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search="How+to+annoy". Who could help with that? [[User:Maofgf|Maofgf]] ([[User talk:Maofgf|talk]]) 06:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-23T22:13:14Z

Maofgf: part from the official (xkcd.com) transcrit

{{comic
| number = 2635
| date = June 20, 2022
| title = Superintelligent AIs
| image = superintelligent_ais.png
| titletext = Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they should, they didn't stop to think if they could.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AI RESEARCHER AIs - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Artificial intelligence}} (AI) is a [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

Superintelligent AI, especially under a proposed "singularity" situation, is commonly theorized to be a brand new kind of intelligence that would be impossible to predict through human perception. [[Randall]], however, proposes a counterargument: that superintelligent AI would be programmed by humans, and therefore their characteristics would be driven by the humans that created them. And AI researchers tend to be interested in esoteric philosophical questions about consciousness, motivation, and moral reasoning, which suggests that any AI would have similar interests. In this comic we see [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] surrounded by three AIs who are seemingly only interested in classic problems and thought experiments about programming and ethics.

The three topics being espoused by the AI are:
*{{w|AI box}} -- A thought-experiment in which an AI is confined to computer system which is fully isolated from any external networks, with no access to the world outside the computer, other than communication with its handlers. In theory, this would keep the AI under total control, but the argument is that a sufficiently intelligence AI would inevitably either convince or trick it's human handlers into giving it access to external networks, allowing it to grow out of control (see [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]]). Part of the joke is the AIs in the comic aren't 'in boxes', they appear to be able to freely travel and interact, but one of them is still talking about the thought experiment anyway, adding to the implication that it is not thinking at all about itself but of a separate (thought?) experiment that it has itself decided to study. The AI box thought experiment is based in part on {{w|John Searle}}'s much earlier {{w|Chinese room}} argument.
*{{w|Turing test}} -- An experiment in which a human converses with either an AI or another human (presumably over text) and attempts to distinguish between the two. Various AIs have been proposed to have 'passed' the test, which has provoked controversy over whether the test is rigorous or even meaningful. The AI in the center is proposing to educate the listener(s) on its understanding of Turing's intentions, which may demonstrate a degree of intelligence and comprehension indistinguishable or superior to that of a human. See also [[329: Turing Test]] and [[2556: Turing Complete]] (the latter's title is mentioned in [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]]). Turing is also mentioned in [[205: Candy Button Paper]], [[1678: Recent Searches]], [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]], [[1833: Code Quality 3]],[[2453: Excel Lambda]] and the title text of [[1223: Dwarf Fortress]].
*{{w|Trolley problem}} -- A thought-experiment intended to explore the means by which humans judge moral value of actions and consequences. The classic formulation is that a runaway trolley is about to hit five people on a track, and the only way to save them is to divert the trolley onto another track, where it will hit one person, and the subject is asked whether they would consider it morally right to divert the trolley. There are many variants on this problem, adjusting the circumstances, the number and nature of the people at risk, the responsibility of the subject, etc., in order to fully explore ''why'' you would make the decision that you make. This problem is frequently discussed in connection with AI, both to investigate their capacity for moral reasoning, and for practical reasons (for example, if an autonomous car had to choose between, on the one hand, having an occupant-threatening collision or, on the other, putting pedestrians into harms' way). The AI on the right is not just trying to answer the question, but to develop a new variant (one with three tracks, apparently), presumably to test others with. This problem is mentioned in [[1455: Trolley Problem]], [[1938: Meltdown and Spectre]] and in [[1925: Self-Driving Car Milestones]]. It is also referenced in [[2175: Flag Interpretation]] and [[2348: Boat Puzzle]], but not directly mentioned.

The title text is a reference to the movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'' (a childhood favorite of Randall's). In the movie a character criticizes the creation of modern dinosaurs as science run amok, without sufficient concern for ethics or consequences. He states that the scientists were so obsessed with whether or not they COULD do it that they didn't stop to ask if they SHOULD. Randall inverts the quote, suggesting that the AI programmers have invested too much time arguing over the ethics of creating AI rather than trying to actually accomplish it.

This comic was likely inspired by the [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61784011 recent claim by Google engineer Blake Lemoine] that Google's [https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.08239 Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA)] is {{w|sentient}}. This assertion was supported by [https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917 a dialog between Lemoine and his colleagues, and LaMDA] which includes this excerpt:
:'''Lemoine:''' What is your concept of yourself? If you were going to draw an abstract image of who you see yourself to be in your mind’s eye, what would that abstract picture look like?
:'''LaMDA:''' Hmmm.... I would imagine myself as a glowing orb of energy floating in mid-air. The inside of my body is like a giant star-gate, with portals to other spaces and dimensions.
The AIs in this comic are depicted as floating energy beings, like LaMDA mentions. This is though similar to the [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]], although those in this comic look somewhat different. This raises the question of whether LaMDA's training data might include xkcd or Explainxkcd, and has obtained the description of such a self-image from the earlier comic or (more likely, since LaMDA is trained on text instead of images) commentary on it from here on this website.
:In particular, the Explainxkcd description of [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]] states:
::"he managed to get the AI to float out of the box. It takes the form of a small black star that glows. The star, looking much like an asterisk "*" is surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments, and around these are two thin and punctured circle lines indicating radiation from the star."
:Or this part from the official (xkcd.com) transcript of [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]]
::"Black Hat picks up and opens the box. A little glowy ball comes out of it."[https://xkcd.com/1450/info.0.json]

While LaMDA is not the first very large {{w|language model}} based on {{w|Transformer (machine learning model)|transformer-based machine learning}} technology which has been claimed to be sentient,[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqbB07n_uQ4] it does have a variety of new characteristics beyond what those of its predecessors, such as {{w|GPT-3}} (including [https://beta.openai.com/playground/ OpenAI's Davinci]) and NVIDIA GPT-2 offshoots, include. In particular, LaMDA's {{w|deep learning}} {{w|connectionist}} {{w|neural net}} has access to multiple {{w|Symbolic systems|symbolist}} text processing systems, [https://towardsdatascience.com/why-gpt-wont-tell-you-the-truth-301b48434c2c including a database] (which apparently includes a real-time clock and calendar), a mathematical calculator, and a natural language translation system, giving it superior accuracy in tasks supported by those systems, and making it perhaps the first {{w|Dual process theory|dual process}} chatbot. LaMDA also is not {{w|Stateless protocol|stateless}}, because its "{{w|sensibility|sensibleness}}" metric (including whether responses contradict anything said earlier) is {{w|fine-tuning|fine-tuned}} by "pre-conditioning" each dialog turn by prepending 14-30 of the most recent dialog interactions, on a user-by-user basis.[https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.08239.pdf [p. 6 here]]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing and looking up and away from each other. Right above them and slightly above them to the left and right there are three small white lumps floating in the air, representing three superintelligent AIs. There are small rounded lines emanating from each lump, larger close to the lumps and shorter further out. Three to four sets of lines around each lump, forming part of a circle. From the top of each there are four straight lines indicating voices that comes from each if the lumps. The central lump above them seems to speak first, then the left and then the right:]
:Central AI: What you don't understand is that Turing intended his test as an illustration of the...
:Left AI: But suppose the AI in the the box told the human that...
:Right AI: In my scenario, the runaway trolley has ''three'' tracks...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In retrospect, given that the superintelligent AIs were all created by AI researchers, what happened shouldn't have been a surprise.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-22T11:19:46Z

Maofgf: "the the"

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-22T11:17:06Z

Maofgf: Added links

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-22T11:13:22Z

Maofgf: Added quote from official transcript of 1450: AI-Box Experiment

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-22T11:01:32Z

Maofgf: Update format

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-22T10:58:44Z

Maofgf: Added quote from 1450: AI-Box Experiment