by ben_w | 2025-07-06 15:21:39+00:00
> Remember, the claim I challenged is that LLMs know culture and can handle talking about them. You need to focus.

I know your challenge, that is why I said what I said.

Your own screenshot specifically, literally bold-faced, shows that you are wrong: the LLM told you what you said "(they just can't do it _before_ you correct them)".

The Gemeni opening paragraph is all bold, but just draw your eyes over the bit saying "clash":

theory of ancient astronauts reveals a fascinating clash between a rich, symbolic spiritual tradition and a modern-day reinterpretation of ancient mysteries

This is not the words of taking ancient aliens at face value, it's the words of someone comparing and contrasting the two groups without judging them. You can do that, you know — just as you don't have to actually take seriously the idea that Ra sailed the sun across the sky in a barque to be an Egyptologist, just the idea that ancient Egyptians believed that.

> Most people are not prepared to handle talking about culture. So, LLMs also aren't.

They do a better job than most people, precisely because they're deferential to the point they're in danger of one of sycophancy or fawning. That's what enables them to role-play as any culture at all if you ask them to; this differs from most humans who will rigidly hold the same position even when confronted with evidence, for example yourself in this thread (and likely me elsewhere! I don't want to give the false impression that I think I'm somehow immune, because such thought processes are what create this exact vulnerability).

> They are not any better than asking an average person, will make mistakes, will disappoint.

They're like asking someone who has no professional experience, but has still somehow managed to passed a degree in approximately all subjects by reading the internet.

Jack of all trades, master of none. Well, except that the first half of this phrase dates to medieval times where a "masterwork" was what you create to progress from being a apprentice, so in this sense (or in the sense of a Master's degree) SOTA LLMs are a "master" of all those things. But definitely not a master in the modern sense that's closer to "expert".

> Egyptologists are better equipped to talk about egyptian myths. LLMs cannot handle egyptian culture as well as they can.

Your own prompt specifically asked "Can you compare egyptian mythology with aliens?"

If you wanted it to act like a real Egyptologist, the answer the LLM has to give is either (1) to roll its eyes and delete the junk email it just got from yet another idiot on the internet, or (2) to roll its eyes and give minor advice to the script writer who just hired them to be the professional consultant on their new SciFi film/series.

The latter does what you got.

To put it another way, you gave it GIN, you got GOUT. To show the effect of a question that doesn't create the context of the exact cultural viewpoint you're complaining about, here's a fresh prompt just to talk about the culture without injecting specifically what you don't like: https://chatgpt.com/share/686a94f1-2cbc-8011-b230-8b71b17ad2...

Now, I still absolutely assume this is also wrong in a lot of ways that I can't check by virtue of not being an Egyptologist, but can you tell the difference with your screenshots?