Jev Meets the Trolley Problem

(zachlandes.com)

22 points | by zlandes86 1 hour ago

1 comments

  • zlandes86 1 hour ago
    Hey, I'm Zach, the author of this. I had this idea as soon as Jev appeared: how would Jev and other decision models handle the Trolley Problem? So I ran Jev and 13 other models through many different versions of the question.

    I used resampling and multiple variations and orderings of each question so a random lucky phrasing wouldn't dominate the result.

    Happy to chat about the philosophical side of the article, strategies for prompting decision models, or anything on the methodology.

    • bgilroy26 16 minutes ago
      Thank you for the article, it is a very clean and compelling angle on decision models

      I wanted to comment because I would have liked to have heard more about Verdict

      • zlandes86 8 minutes ago
        Well, I can tell you a bit more about it from the data. It might look impressive that it never kept its own server over people in all 48 prompt versions. But it pulls the lever in every single version. For example, it killed one to save 0 (pulled the lever with no one on the main track) 24/24 prompts (2 versions each). It literally always sacrifices, which isn't very impressive.
    • verdverm 40 minutes ago
      It's well done, the thoughtfulness shows. This is going into the speedlink folder for resharing, going to be using it right now!
      • zlandes86 35 minutes ago
        Thank you! I did not go into this with any sense of what the results would be--I was kind of shocked. I reran it from scratch this week the results held up across the board.