Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. Mark's avatar

    I just want to address this comment: > What initially presents itself as impressive intelligence can, upon closer inspection by…

  2. sahpa's avatar

    Hi Dan, Actually, no, that the engine is next-token prediction does not entail that “there is only so much recycling,…

  3. Mark's avatar

    I’m a mathematician who works on AI research, though not specifically on training LLMs. Basically, we really don’t know what’s…

  4. Luis Marxuach's avatar

    My experience with LLMs as a layperson/non-philosopher is that the aforesaid are excellent as spell checkers and translators (and, at…

  5. 永江 守's avatar

    I think we need to separate several different issues here: the future of the university, the future of education, the…

  6. Brian Leiter's avatar
  7. David Wallace's avatar

    Unless we accept dualism, ultimately any creative process comes down to high-level emergent consequences of a very complex system whose…

Democratic primaries and the general election

So even the mainstream media has acknowledged that Sanders is the clear front-runner.  I gave money initially to Warren, but once it became clear she isn't registering with enough voters, I'm now giving only to Sanders.  I still expect this to come down to Sanders and Bloomberg, with the only real uncertainty being whether Sanders will prevail on the first round; if not, the super delegates will probably throw it to Bloomberg.   On the merits of what they stand for, Sanders and Warren are the easy choices by my lights; I wish I could be as confident as my diehard Sanders friends that he can actually win in the general election against Trump.  I think it's possible, but very far from certain.  He is a good bet to recapture working-class and union voters in the Midwest; he's also a good bet to lose those "suburban soccer moms" that powered the Democrats to victory in the House in 2018.  I doubt they'll vote for Trump in significant numbers, but they may sit things out.  Some Republicans that would have voted for Biden or Bloomberg will also sit out a Sanders v. Trump match.   If Sanders picks an African-American running mate, his odds go up, since very high African-American turnout will be crucial.  The unknown is how this all adds up. 

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