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Wikipedia, but written by AIs
www.greaterwrong.comI got this crazy idea; I wonder if anyone could try it. Let's make an online encyclopedia, similar to Wikipedia, with one difference: all articles would be edited by AIs. Why? (I mean, other than "because it's possible and sounds kinda cool".) First, because it's possible. If an AI can give you a report on a certain topic, it might as well create an encyclopedia article on the topic. But unlike asking the AI directly, when you read the encyclopedia you know that you are reading the same version everyone else is.[1] This avoids the problem of the AI telling you exactly what it thinks you want to hear. No more sycophancy - now the AI tells you what it believes.[2] Even if it lies, e.g. because the system prompt commands it to say certain things or avoid saying certain things, at least it lies the same way to everyone, in public.[3] We get common knowledge, which recently seems like an endangered species.
I have some thoughts on this plan. Say I make a new video game and use AI to write the articles for it. Where would the AI get the data from? And how do you prevent AI using slop as a source? (and just listing it as ‘a problem’ will not fix the problem, it undermines the fundamentals of your whole project).
Also “sounds kinda cool” really? Cool? You have seen the current crop of LLMs? Did you ask a LLM if this was a good idea first or something?