AI and the Gell-Man Amnesia Affect

You know what AI is but might not know what the Gell-Mann Amnesia affect is. You should because the latter is essentially to proper use of the former.

What is the Gell-Mann Amnesia affect, you ask? You have likely experienced it. Imagine you are reading a newspaper and find an article on subject you are very knowledgeable of. Typically, you will see major errors in that article and question the writer’s and/or paper’s competence. Then you turn the page, read another article, and assume it accurately reflects reality, forgetting that one minute ago you thought the paper was awful. This is a concept I was aware of many years ago when I was in college and I remember mentioning it to people. If I knew you could name such things, maybe it would be called the Uschold Amnesia Affect. Maybe that can be the name for the fact the people can remember lots of useful information but their neighbor's name.

I think the connection to AI is pretty clear but I suspect it might not be as strong as for newspapers or other media because most of us have heard enough weird AI stories to be a little wary. I guess the media has not been doing themselves any favors either, whatever your leaning.

I have recently started playing with AI to see how it can be helpful to me professionally and personally. Like any tool, you need to learn to use and practice to develop skill.

Yesterday and today, I practiced using that new tool. In one case, I was trying to clarify a theological question I had. To the particular question, the answer is either one or two. And that is what a few different AI tools gave. Some said 1, some said 2. (OK – so my classmates can’t agree on the answer either but that is another issue).

In another case, I asked several AIs to answer a question I had been working on regarding process capability and circular position tolerances. ChatGPT gave an answer it said came from a textbook and some industry standards documents. I maintain that is the wrong answer. Perplexity and You.com both gave an answer that I thought was correct. OK, forgive me for being quite pleased that it was referencing the Linked article I wrote and a pre-published version I uploaded last week. I will toot my horn even louder if/when my paper gets published.

But I digress…

That does just about wrap it up. You now know what the Gell-Man Amnesia affect is, I got to plug my papers a little bit, and you got a reminder to be careful using AI. Like most powerful, tools it takes practice and can hurt you if you are not careful.