The Download: how to test AI, and the hidden victims of pig-butchering scams

In the past few years, multiple researchers claim to have shown that large language models can pass cognitive tests designed for humans, from working through problems step by step, to guessing what other people are thinking. These kinds of results are feeding a hype machine predicting that these machines will soon come for white-collar jobs; that they could replace teachers, doctors, journalists, and lawyers. Geoffrey Hinton has called out GPT-4's apparent ability to string together thoughts as one reason he is now scared of the technology he helped create. There's little agreement on what those results really mean. Some people are dazzled by what they see as glimmers of human-like intelligence, while others aren't convinced one bit.