2019年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--机器写手无法完全取代人类(2)

 

What eludes¹ computers is creativity. By virtue² of having been trained on past compositions, they can only be derivative³. Furthermore, they cannot conceive a topic or goal on their own, much less plan how to get there with logic⁴ and style. At various points in the online version of his article, readers can see how GPT-2 would have carried on writing Mr Seabrook’s piece for him. The prose gives the impression of being human. But on closer inspection⁵ it is empty, even incoherent.

计算机无法达到的是创造力。由于是在过去的文章上受训练，机器写手只能是衍生物。此外，他们不能自己构思一个主题或目标，更不用说如何用逻辑和风格去实现它。在这篇文章的网络版中，读者可以看到GPT-2是如何继续为西布鲁克先生撰写这篇文章的。文章刚开始给人一种人写的印象。但仔细一看，它是空的，甚至是不连贯的。

Meaningless prose is not only the preserve of artificial intelligence. There is already a large quantity of writing that seems to make sense, but ultimately doesn’t, at least to a majority of readers. In 1996 Alan Sokal famously submitted a bogus article to a humanities journal, with ideas that were complete nonsense but with language that expertly simulated fashionable post-modernist academic prose. It was accepted. Three scholars repeated the ruse⁶ in 2017, getting four of 20 fake papers published. Humans already produce language that is devoid⁷ of meaning, intentionally⁸ and otherwise.

毫无意义的散文不仅是人工智能的专利。已经有大量表面看起来有意义的文章，但其实没有意义，至少对大多数读者来说是这样。1996年，著名的Alan Sokal向一份人文杂志提交了一篇伪造的文章，其观点完全是胡说八道，但其语言却熟练地模仿了时髦的后现代主义学术散文。这篇文章发表了。2017年，三名学者重复了这一伎俩，发表了20篇假论文中的4篇。人类已经有意或无意地创造了没有意义的语言。

But to truly write, you must first have something to say. Computers do not. They await instructions. Given input⁹, they provide output. Such systems can be seeded with a topic, or the first few paragraphs, and be told to “write”. While the result may be grammatical English, this should not be confused with the purposeful kind. To compose meaningful essays, the likes of GPT-2 will first have to be integrated with databases of real-world knowledge.

但要真正写作，你必须先有话要说。机器写手做不到这一点。只能等待指令。给定输入，电脑提供输出。这样的系统可以植入一个主题，或前几段，并收到“写”的指令。虽然结果可能是合乎语法的英语，但不应将其与有目的的英语混淆。要写出有意义的文章，像GPT-2这样的项目首先必须与真实世界的知识数据库相结合。

1 eludes   

v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的第三人称单数 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到

参考例句：

• His name eludes me for the moment. 他的名字我一时想不起来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• But philosophers seek a special sort of knowledge that eludes exact definition. 但是，哲学家所追求的是一种难以精确定义的特殊知识。 来自哲学部分

2 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

3 derivative   

n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的

参考例句：

• His paintings are really quite derivative.他的画实在没有创意。
• Derivative works are far more complicated.派生作品更加复杂。

4 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

5 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

6 ruse   

n.诡计，计策；诡计

参考例句：

• The children thought of a clever ruse to get their mother to leave the house so they could get ready for her surprise.孩子们想出一个聪明的办法使妈妈离家，以便他们能准备给她一个惊喜。It is now clear that this was a ruse to divide them.现在已清楚这是一个离间他们的诡计。

7 devoid   

adj.全无的，缺乏的

参考例句：

• He is completely devoid of humour.他十分缺乏幽默。
• The house is totally devoid of furniture.这所房子里什么家具都没有。

8 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

9 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。