Is AI a stochastic parrot, or are we? The question carries profound Buddhist implications. Perhaps what we call the self is merely the unfolding of karmic, genetic, and cultural patterns. We mistake the persistence of these processes for an enduring "someone." To a higher intelligence, or to God, our lives may appear no more mysterious than gradient descent appears to us: a vast optimization process generating the persistent illusion we call reality.
Is AI a stochastic parrot, or are we? The question carries profound Buddhist implications. Perhaps what we call the self is merely the unfolding of karmic, genetic, and cultural patterns. We mistake the persistence of these processes for an enduring "someone." To a higher intelligence, or to God, our lives may appear no more mysterious than gradient descent appears to us: a vast optimization process generating the persistent illusion we call reality.