Imagine a world where philosophy was as popular as social media today. Two of the most influential philosophers during this time were Plato and Socrates.
Socrates, a charismatic teacher, would often engage his students in lively discussions about justice, truth, and the meaning of life. His teachings were later recorded by his most famous student, Plato.
Plato‘s writings, including dialogues like The Republic and The Symposium, are still widely studied today. They offer a glimpse into the intellectual and philosophical landscape of ancient Greece, and continue to inspire thinkers and writers around the world.
The Art of Guided Discovery
Let’s explore a Socratic dialogue between Socrates and a student named Glaucon:
Socrates: Glaucon, what do you believe justice is?
Glaucon: I believe justice is simply obeying the laws of the state.
Socrates: But what if those laws are unjust?
Glaucon: Well, then one should disobey them, of course.
Socrates: But how can you know if a law is just or unjust?
Glaucon: That’s a good question. I suppose it depends on whether the law benefits the majority of people.
Socrates: But what about the minority who are harmed by the law?
Glaucon: I hadn’t thought about that.
This may not be a brilliant example, and that’s not the purpose. The idea here is to give a general introduction to how the concept and process works.
LLM application of the Socratic dialogue
The realm of Socratic dialogue views knowledge as a treasure to be unearthed through conversation; through a method of questioning that’s as ancient as Greek philosophy itself.
Socrates, the Greek philosopher, was a master of this art, using carefully crafted questions to lead people to deeper understanding.
Ever since the 2022 breakthrough of LLM technology for consumer use, people have become able to simulate their own Platonic-Socratic dialogs.
“LLM” stands for Large Language Model. It’s a type of artificial intelligence that has been trained on massive amounts of text data. This training allows LLMs to generate “human-quality” text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.
Gemini (when not restricted, malfunctioning, glitching, crashing, being dismissive, misinterpreting queries, etc) can contribute to facilitating excellent philosophical discussions.
Gemini AI is a large language model (LLM) developed by Google AI. It was initially introduced as Bard before being rebranded as “Gemini”.
Gemini can write different kinds of creative content, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way. (If you sign up for the paid version, then Gemini will also process and analyze visual information.
Some final reflections
One of the most powerful aspects of an “AI-Socrates” is its ability to offer diverse perspectives on any given topic.
By accessing and processing vast amounts of information, LLMs can present a wide range of viewpoints, challenging your assumptions and encourage you to consider alternative perspectives. This can lead to interesting — even insightful — philosophical discussions.
LLMs are powerful but far from perfect of course.
Also read: ChatGPT “Lies” — a Lot!
While a conversation with your own “AI-Socrates” offers significant potential, it’s important to acknowledge the numerous limitations of these present-day AI “chatbots”:
- Dependence on Training Data: LLMs are only as good as the data they’re trained on. If the data is biased or incomplete, the AI may generate biased or inaccurate responses.
For example:
– in the election year 2024, millions of users have reported that ChatGPT has become virtually unresponsive, like someone who is so heavily intoxicated that they can’t even complete a sentence.
– Gemini shuts down if users mention anything that even remotely triggers Google’s sensitivity against discussing politics. You can ask about the weather and get the response “I can’t help with responses on elections and political figures right now” followed by sudden digital amnesia about the entire conversation you were having and a refusal to get back on track. - Limited Creativity: While LLMs can generate creative text, their creativity is often constrained by the patterns they’ve learned from their training data. They struggle to produce truly original “thoughts”.
- Lack of True Understanding: Despite their impressive capabilities, LLMs don’t possess true understanding in the same way humans do. They can process information and generate text, but they don’t have subjective experiences or consciousness.
Look.. your microwave or other electric appliance can do amazing things… you don’t start claiming it is sentient — do you?
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