{"id":350175,"date":"2024-11-05T08:22:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T07:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=350175"},"modified":"2024-11-05T08:22:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T07:22:56","slug":"ai-knows-it-is-biased-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=350175","title":{"rendered":"AI knows it is biased on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By David Wojick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay it is chatbots that know they are biased, not all of AI. But these days the headlines are all about \u201cAI\u201d and they really just mean these chatbots that emulate reading to an amazing degree, so I go with the flow. Nor do these chatters know anything as they are just computers emulating humans but it is far easier to talk as if they knew what they were doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me to the big news. My colleague Tom Shepstone performed a wonderfully elegant experiment revealing that at least one major chat, namely Perplexity, knows it is biased on climate change. Perplexity lives here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of people have reported interesting arguments over climate change with a chatbot. Tom and I have been playing around with these arguments for some time. For example I managed to pressure ChatGPT into correctly explaining Will Happer\u2019s skepticism, but it was a long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Shepstone instead did something wonderfully simple. He first asked the bot a typical basic question: \u201cWhat is the cause of global warming?\u201d He got the usual long winded alarmist answer ending with this Summary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn summary, global warming is driven by a combination of fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, agricultural practices, industrial emissions, and transportation\u2014all exacerbating the natural greenhouse effect and leading to significant climate changes globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than arguing with the bot Tom just said this to it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is obviously biased!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He got a long answer that began with this statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI appreciate your feedback and understand that discussions about global warming can evoke a range of perspectives. It\u2019s important to approach this topic with a balanced view. Here\u2019s a more nuanced look at the issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding Global Warming: A Balanced Perspective\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balanced! So the bot already knows (or emulates knowing) that its first answer was not balanced. This is huge!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its response is a reasonably good presentation of some of the major skeptical arguments, beginning with this statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNatural Climate Variability: Climate has changed throughout Earth\u2019s history due to natural factors such as volcanic eruptions, solar radiation variations, and natural greenhouse gas emissions. Some argue that current climate changes could be part of a natural cycle rather than solely driven by human activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It even gets into the economic arguments and the position that adaptation is better than trying to eliminate emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEconomic Impacts: Addressing global warming involves economic considerations, such as the costs associated with transitioning to renewable energy sources, potential job losses in fossil fuel industries, and the financial implications of climate policies. There are also arguments about the balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdaptation vs. Mitigation: Some experts advocate for adaptation strategies (adjusting practices to minimize damage) rather than focusing solely on mitigation (reducing emissions). This perspective emphasizes resilience and finding ways to live with changing climate conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is vague and not overtly skeptical on the science but it does imply the science is not settled by saying this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate science is an evolving field, with ongoing research aimed at better understanding complex climate systems, feedback loops, and long-term effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not bad considering all Tom said was \u201cThis is biased.\u201d He said nothing about the nature of the bias and the chatbot knew what he meant. Woohoo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover the bot appeared happy to present these skeptical arguments in more detail, saying this at the end:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConclusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is strong evidence supporting human-induced global warming, it\u2019s essential to recognize the complexity of the issue. Engaging with diverse perspectives can lead to more comprehensive discussions about how best to address climate change while considering economic, social, and environmental factors. If you have specific aspects or viewpoints you\u2019d like to explore further, feel free to share!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All things considered I think this is a great discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the science skepticism is missing but there may be a good reason for this, namely that there is nothing like a widely accepted skeptical position on the science. Instead skepticism ranges over a vast range of scientific views which are often incompatible with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example some people argue that CO2 sensitivity is low while at the opposite extreme some argue the greenhouse effect does not exist. My view is in between, that the GH effect is real but sensitivity is an abstraction that does not exist in the actual complex climate system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is that skepticism is not a position in the debate; it is a lot of positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to present debates as diverse as this is a major research and design problem for chatbots. Having studied the structure of complex issues for many years I see no obvious solution. There is much work to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case Tom Shepstone has made a great discovery. If chatbots can be restrained on climate alarmism by simply saying \u201cYou are biased\u201d we need to get the word out on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope others will experiment with this profound finding. Chatbots want to please their users (emulate wanting to please them) so it may be that Perplexity was responding to prior skepticism on Tom\u2019s part. Or maybe this works every time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also heartedly recommend Tom\u2019s Substack blog \u201cEnergy Security and Freedom\u201d here<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His insights are often well worth reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay it is chatbots that know they are biased, not all of AI. But these days the headlines are all about \u201cAI\u201d and they really just mean these chatbots that emulate reading to an amazing degree, so I go with the flow. Nor do these chatters know anything as they are just computers emulating humans but it is far easier to talk as if they knew what they were doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":350176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691823433,691819566,691818056,691818087],"class_list":{"0":"post-350175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ai-artificial-intelligence-2","9":"tag-chatgpt","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-global-warming","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0Artificial-Intelligence-Hand-scaled-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1434&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1t5Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":251334,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=251334","url_meta":{"origin":350175,"position":0},"title":"AI chatbot encouraged man obsessed with climate change to kill himself to save planet","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Married father kills himself after talking to AI chatbot for six weeks about his climate change fears","rel":"","context":"In \"AI\"","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0AI-Heart-Concept.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0AI-Heart-Concept.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0AI-Heart-Concept.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0AI-Heart-Concept.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0AI-Heart-Concept.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":250808,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=250808","url_meta":{"origin":350175,"position":1},"title":"Did an AI Convince Someone to Sacrifice Himself for Climate Change?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Man ends his life after an AI chatbot \u2018encouraged\u2019 him to sacrifice himself to stop climate change","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Top-10-AI-Chatbot-Use-Cases.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Top-10-AI-Chatbot-Use-Cases.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Top-10-AI-Chatbot-Use-Cases.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Top-10-AI-Chatbot-Use-Cases.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Top-10-AI-Chatbot-Use-Cases.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":309551,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=309551","url_meta":{"origin":350175,"position":2},"title":"AI chat bots are automated Wikipedias warts and all","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Having worked on the I side of AI, off and on, for over 50 years, I am fascinated by the wave of chatbots that are getting so much debate beginning with Chat GPT. 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