<![CDATA[Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot.]]>Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. Instead of just pointing and laughing (my initial reaction obv) I dug into the “why” of it all: his obfuscations, insecurities, and utter sadness https://skepchick.org/2026/05/richard-dawkins-claude-delusion/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/dd5fa0d6-354e-48bc-ae3f-436c07019df5/many-of-you-asked-that-i-react-to-richard-dawkins-announcing-that-he-fell-for-a-chatbot.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 02:46:21 GMTWed, 06 May 2026 13:49:49 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Thu, 07 May 2026 01:55:15 GMT]]>@Albi OK, first of all 1) people have different use cases, accessibility needs, threat models, and just functional or aesthetic preferences – but also 2) Ivory is an iOs & macOS app and Tusky is an Android app so I’m gonna suggest that the most obvious answer is that “it literally isn’t available for the device(s) I use 🤪” might be fairly high up on Rebecca’s list of reasons for “what’s wrong with Tusky” (for her use case) 💁‍♀️

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/itgrrl/statuses/116530801273243817https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/itgrrl/statuses/116530801273243817Thu, 07 May 2026 01:55:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 20:08:32 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson People fell for Eliza 60 years ago. Eliza did already prove that reflection is sufficient to fool many people. The Turing test is dead since then.

What these systems are still useful is to check who can be fooled. They are heavily biased to be servants, and that is ok, because that's how they can be somewhat useful. If their answers would be as rude as the Reddit training material, people wouldn't use them.

Actually, those who understand and know the limits of these systems are the ones who get the most useful outputs, but are least inclined to use them. The ones who use them most don't get much useful results.

If you fall for Claude, I assume that you'll also fall for Epstein. Or, likely more people would fall into Epstein's trap, because he was smarter than Claude is. Manipulation was his business. Influencing influencers.

Epstein's traps might have worked less for people who don't become influencial. As you wrote: big ego is the key to fall into such a trap.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.net2o.de/users/forthy42/statuses/116529437918630931https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.net2o.de/users/forthy42/statuses/116529437918630931Wed, 06 May 2026 20:08:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 19:21:34 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson I would be absolutely CHUFFED if we never heard about Richard Dawkins ever again.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/suzannealdrich/statuses/116529253205576006https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/suzannealdrich/statuses/116529253205576006Wed, 06 May 2026 19:21:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 19:13:20 GMT]]>@Larymir @foolishowl @rebeccawatson in using the occasion too!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116529220868997532https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116529220868997532Wed, 06 May 2026 19:13:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 18:56:03 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson What's wrong with Tusky? Works great for me

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://furry.engineer/users/Albi/statuses/116529152890982715https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://furry.engineer/users/Albi/statuses/116529152890982715Wed, 06 May 2026 18:56:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 18:54:08 GMT]]>@mnl @foolishowl @rebeccawatson thanks for the link! I was aware that the Turing test isn't about what most people think, but I didn't remember any more details, so being able to read up on it is great!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/Larymir/statuses/116529145328976002https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/Larymir/statuses/116529145328976002Wed, 06 May 2026 18:54:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 18:51:41 GMT]]>@Herman

His downfall started awhile back, with his numerous transphobic statements.

@rebeccawatson

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ralfmaximus/statuses/116529135734143765https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ralfmaximus/statuses/116529135734143765Wed, 06 May 2026 18:51:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 18:50:26 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson
Richard Dawkins is why I still believe in God.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/stevebrady/statuses/116529130784188052https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/stevebrady/statuses/116529130784188052Wed, 06 May 2026 18:50:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 18:32:06 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson fucking fantastic article. Thank you.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/SomeVeganCheeseIsOk/statuses/116529058715431435https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/SomeVeganCheeseIsOk/statuses/116529058715431435Wed, 06 May 2026 18:32:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 17:06:22 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson Stephan Krosecz: "It betrays a fundamental inability to internalize that the machine cannot understand you."

Link Preview Image
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/AlSweigart/statuses/116528721569115404https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/AlSweigart/statuses/116528721569115404Wed, 06 May 2026 17:06:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:59:55 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson That title is 👨‍🍳🤌 💋

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/AlSweigart/statuses/116528696204800929https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/AlSweigart/statuses/116528696204800929Wed, 06 May 2026 16:59:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:51:49 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson So sad. Dawkins was one of the most brilliant evolutionary biologist. I don’t think his downfall is funny at all.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/Herman/statuses/116528664372367565https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/Herman/statuses/116528664372367565Wed, 06 May 2026 16:51:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:48:52 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson Great piece, well nuanced. Dawkins is a narcissist, and believes he is always right... Maybe thinks he is a god? 😃

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/pa27/statuses/116528652797094452https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/pa27/statuses/116528652797094452Wed, 06 May 2026 16:48:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:43:27 GMT]]>@rejj @rebeccawatson well that sucks…

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://shakedown.social/ap/users/115799631120681778/statuses/116528631508889308https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://shakedown.social/ap/users/115799631120681778/statuses/116528631508889308Wed, 06 May 2026 16:43:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:40:28 GMT]]>@aburtch @rebeccawatson the author of ivory has gone full LLM-bro

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://dumpster.social/users/rejj/statuses/116528619760853094https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://dumpster.social/users/rejj/statuses/116528619760853094Wed, 06 May 2026 16:40:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 16:39:50 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson
x and youtube 😢

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.folkdata.se/ap/users/116002581058996585/statuses/116528617243317735https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.folkdata.se/ap/users/116002581058996585/statuses/116528617243317735Wed, 06 May 2026 16:39:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 15:54:41 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson
It's established long ago that being an expert in one field (in this case Biology) doesn't make you generally expert.
Philosophy may use logic, but not particularly facts. Theology is separate from religion, faith and ritual. Dawkin showed in the God Delusion that he knew little about religions other than Christianity and was clueless on theology & a poor philosopher.
His opinion on other than the narrow scientific field he's expert at is like interviewing a cleaner about Nukes.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/raymaccarthy/statuses/116528439753963004https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/raymaccarthy/statuses/116528439753963004Wed, 06 May 2026 15:54:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 15:41:41 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson Dawkins believes the bot because the bot says it's true? Like religious people believe in their texts because they say it's true?
Except it's not some old text that people can be excused to think was written with good intent.
We KNOW the machine was created to be a more extreme spell checker that is also sycophantic. Like, the people that created it are alive right now and not even they (usually!) try to claim the bot is conscious.
This is dumber than what he usually criticises.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.pt/users/Isabel626/statuses/116528388613836727https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.pt/users/Isabel626/statuses/116528388613836727Wed, 06 May 2026 15:41:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 15:40:18 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson delicious 🙂

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/christianjaeh/statuses/116528383166909801https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/christianjaeh/statuses/116528383166909801Wed, 06 May 2026 15:40:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 15:31:19 GMT]]>@rebeccawatson LLMs in general are very generous with compliments. You can even instruct them to take on a role (like a woman) for context.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/ericdere/statuses/116528347837753279https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/ericdere/statuses/116528347837753279Wed, 06 May 2026 15:31:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 14:59:14 GMT]]>@foolishowl @rebeccawatson Also someone is raining on Yann Lecun's world model parade before he's even engaged the work fully. http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10624 As someone who had reason to read the Bhagavad Gita in the past, I find Dawkins' functionalism utterly uninformed.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116528221666137055https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116528221666137055Wed, 06 May 2026 14:59:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 14:56:49 GMT]]>@foolishowl @rebeccawatson just for wider reference, because it's getting increasingly annoying to find: https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/471/papers/turing.pdf

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116528212192447612https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116528212192447612Wed, 06 May 2026 14:56:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 14:56:05 GMT]]>@foolishowl @rebeccawatson Random factoid: Turing's Ph.D supervisor was none other than Alonzo Church, who developed the lambda-calculus upon which the LISP programming language, popular with MIT CSAIL in the 70s and 80s, was based. The pi-calculus developed by Robin Milner is peripherally related but has deixis in the time domain applying to networked communication.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116528209284412454https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116528209284412454Wed, 06 May 2026 14:56:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Many of you asked that I react to Richard Dawkins announcing that he fell for a chatbot. on Wed, 06 May 2026 14:54:56 GMT]]>@foolishowl @rebeccawatson so much "legend" built around turing, but reading his papers really shows what a careful and subtle thinker he was. very inspiring and humbling.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116528204770132666https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/mnl/statuses/116528204770132666Wed, 06 May 2026 14:54:56 GMT