AI Parrots Human B.S.

In my view, the main problem with Chat GPT is not that it creates bullshit but that it repeats bullshit. In other words, bullshit is already baked into the landscape of human existence (Video 1), and Chat GPT only further bakes it in. 

We might hope that an AI might instead provide an external check on our own self-delusions. Ask it a simple question, the hope is a literal and factual answer. Not just more human bullshit reflected by some dominant ideology or herd mentality.

Instead, Chat GPT typically gives dominant or consensus opinions rather than factual answers. It also tends to err on the side of political correctness rather than facts. In other words, it is like turning up the oven or removing a cloud from the South Texas sun.

To give one example of how Chat GPT reflects human bullshit, I posed a simple question:

How did Darwin use the term “fitness” in his theory of natural selection described in The Origin of Species?

This question has a simple, factual answer. However, it is surrounded by human bullshit. The simple, factual answer is that Darwin used the term “fitness” only once in Darwin (1859) on p. 472, where he used it to mean adaptedness. The human-bullshit answer is that Darwin used the term fitness to mean organismal survival and reproductive success (e.g., Freeman and Herron 2007; Gardner 2009; van Veelen et al. 2017; see below).

How did Chat GPT answer the question?

On a first try, it begins:

“Darwin used the term ‘fitness’ in his theory of natural selection to describe the relative ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in a given environment compared to other organisms within the same population.”

On a second try (regenerate) it begins:

“In The Origin of Species, Darwin used the term “fitness” to describe the relative ability of individual organisms to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. “

These answers are factually incorrect. The only time Darwin used the term fitness in The Origin (1859), he said:

“Nor ought we to marvel if all the contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can judge, absolutely perfect; and if some of them be abhorrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at the sting of the bee causing the bee’s own death; at drones being produced in such vast numbers for one single act, and being then slaughtered by their sterile sisters; at the astonishing waste of pollen by our fir-trees; at the instinctive hatred of the queen bee for her own fertile daughters; at ichneumonidæ feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars; and at other such cases. The wonder indeed is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the want of absolute perfection have not been observed” (Darwin 1859, p 472).

In this case, Darwin used fitness to mean adaptedness. This also agrees with his use of the term fitted to mean adapted or fit to mean adapt (verb). This also agrees with Darwin’s other usage of the term fitness, which appeared in the sixth edition of The Origin of Species: “From the highly developed structure of the shoveller’s beak we may proceed…as far as fitness for sifting is concerned, through the beak of the Merganetta armata…to the beak of the common duck” (Darwin 1872, p. 184).

Why, then, does Chat GPT say that Darwin used fitness to mean reproductive success? The reason is that this is a common misrepresentation of Darwin’s work. For example, in the textbook Evolutionary Analysis, Freeman and Herron 2007, p. 77 say, “Darwin…gave the everyday English words fit and fitness a new meaning. Darwinian fitness is the ability of an individual to survive and reproduce in its environment.” Likewise, Gardner 2009, p. 861 says, “Darwin argued…organisms should appear increasingly well designed for the purpose of achieving reproductive success, or ‘Darwinian fitness.’’”  Likewise, Van Veelen et al. 2017, p. 180 say, “the definition of fitness—the success in leaving progeny” (Darwin 1859, p. 64). All of these statements are factually incorrect because Darwin did not use the term fitness to mean survival or reproductive success. Rather, Darwin used fitness to mean adaptedness and he used the terms fit and fitted according to their everyday English meaning.

Therefore, Chat GPT is better at spitting back consensus opinions rather than facts. Unfortunately, this can lead to further b.s. For example, I posed the following question: 

How did Darwin’s use of the term “fitness” lead to modern notions of “fitness” in evolutionary biology?

Chat GPT Answer:

“Darwin’s use of the term ‘fitness’ in his theory of natural selection was a significant contribution to the development of modern notions of fitness in evolutionary biology. His concept of fitness, as the relative ability of individuals to survive and reproduce in a particular environment, provided a foundation for understanding the role of natural selection in shaping the evolution of populations.

Darwin recognized that fitness is not an absolute value but a relative measure that depends on the environment in which an organism lives and the distribution of genotypes within the population. This insight led to the development of modern quantitative measures of fitness, such as reproductive success, which are used to assess the impact of traits on the survival and reproductive success of individual organisms.

Modern notions of fitness also incorporate the concept of inclusive fitness, which takes into account the fitness of related individuals. This was a key development in the field of evolutionary biology, as it provided a way to explain the evolution of altruistic behaviors that appear to decrease an individual’s own fitness but increase the fitness of related individuals.

Furthermore, the concept of fitness in evolutionary biology has been expanded beyond the individual level to the population and species level. For example, population fitness can be measured by the genetic diversity and adaptability of a population, while species fitness can be measured by the ability of a species to persist and diversify in changing environments.

In summary, Darwin’s use of the term ‘fitness’ was a foundational contribution to the development of modern notions of fitness in evolutionary biology. It provided a way to understand the role of natural selection in shaping the evolution of populations, and has led to the development of quantitative measures of fitness that are used to assess the impact of traits on the survival and reproductive success of individuals.”

Thus, from the initial confusion about the meaning of “fitness,” Chat GPT fell into the second fallacy of assuming that “inclusive fitness” was a key development of evolutionary theory and that entire species can be units of “fitness” (which suggests that natural selection applies to species and higher levels). In fact, theories of inclusive fitness and species-level selection promote an anti-Darwinian teleological approach to evolutionary theorizing (Gilbert 2020). 

In summary, Chat GPT gives consensus opinions rather than factual statements. This can help propagate human bullshit. In other words, the main problem is not that Chat GPT makes up its own bullshit (Bergstrom and Ogbunu 2023), but that it fails to provide an independent fact check on human bullshit. Perhaps there will be a role for a chatbot that gives literal answers to questions, as Alan Turing was depicted to do in the movie “The Imitation Game” (Turing being a quite literal person, with a mind more like that of a computer that interprets inputs precisely and has no comprehension for implied meaning or metaphor). Such a chatbot might provide a rain to reverse the effects of baked bullshit. Helping moisten and dissolve bullshit might promote organismal metabolic activities against it, reversing the effects of a baked dung landscape (Fig 1).