[theptip]

I see, the initial reply to my G(G...)P comment, which you said was spot on, was:

> That would only be possible if Sydney were actually intelligent or possessing of will of some sort.

Which I read as claiming that harm is not possible if there is no actual intelligence or intention.

Perhaps this is all just parsing on my casual choice of words "if it was able to make outbound connections it very well might try.", in which case I'm frustrated by the pedantically-literal interpretation, and, suitably admonished, will try to be more precise in future.

For what it's worth, I think whether a LLM can or cannot "try" is about the least interesting question posed by the OP, though not devoid of philosophical significance. I like Dijkstra's quote: "The question of whether machines can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim."

Whether or not these systems are "intelligent", what effects are they capable of causing, out there in the world? Right now, not a lot. Very soon, more than we expect.