Letters archive
Join the conversation in New Scientist's Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
10 May 2023
From Nick Bloxham, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK
The belief that ChatGPT shows embryonic general intelligence stems from a particular scientific orthodoxy that equates this with problem solving, akin to the absurd claim that a New Caledonian crow is as intelligent as a 7-year-old child( 22 April, p 12 ). The supreme example of problem solving with zero intelligence is evolution. ChatGPT doesn't …
10 May 2023
From Robin Shipp, Bristol, UK
I wonder if we are missing a point when we try to decide if a program like ChatGPT is intelligent? People seem to just ask it a question or set it a task and then sit back, open-mouthed at what comes back. To be convinced an AI was really showing human intelligence, I would want …
10 May 2023
From Laurence Shafe, East Molesey, Surrey, UK
David Krueger asks why some AI researchers dismiss the potential risks to humanity of this technology. He is right to draw attention to this( 22 April, p 27 ). Fifty years after starting my PhD, entitled "A Conversational Problem Solving System" , I used ChatGPT and was astonished to discover my dream system had been …
10 May 2023
From Shane Dwyer, Melbourne, Australia
It was pointed out to me a few years ago that we put men on the moon before anybody thought to put wheels on suitcases. After reading the lovely interview with Nalini Nadkarni about her work in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, I realised that we also explored the moon before we had explored …
10 May 2023
From Felix Ansell, Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK
Graham Lawton is right to mention open fires and wood burners as serious culprits when it comes to indoor pollution, but there is a dilemma when considering the balance between outdoor and indoor pollution( 22 April, p 38 ). Old houses with open fireplaces were designed to "breathe" through their chimneys. While an open fire …
10 May 2023
From Ken Goddard, Musbury, Devon, UK
I have been waiting for a letter like Mike Lawrence's to appear here( Letters, 22 April ). The sequence – the trick– used to evolve the wondrous outcome of terrestrial nature here on Earth is survival of the fittest under a continuously changing environment. In my opinion, it is no surprise that the universe deployed …
10 May 2023
From Alisoun Gardner-Medwin, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, UK
Dominic Wyse has the right idea about teaching reading. Start with very young children, well before school, well before they have to learn to read. If someone they love reads to them frequently, they associate it with warmth, love, acceptance and enjoyment of a good story, long before the letters mean anything( 22 April, p …
10 May 2023
From Peter Cundall,Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
David Wolpert seems to think that there are limits to human cognition, and that such limits are related to language. I live opposite a park and watch dogs on leads get caught around trees. The dogs have no idea how to disentangle themselves, but the owners can do it easily because they have the intelligence …