August 17, 2024

Why do tech geniuses have dysfluent speech?

That's the question I asked Grok after having listened to Elon Musk talking with Trump for 2 hours and then beginning to engage with this new Joe Rogan conversation with Peter Thiel:

 

Grok characterized my question as "age-old" and gave me a 7-point list of possible reasons.

I said "You could turn those 7 things into 3 things. Restate everything in 3 points" and it gave me this 3-point list:
  1. Brain Overload: Their minds are too busy solving complex problems to prioritize smooth speech. It's like their CPU is always at 100% capacity.
  2. Social Skills Rust: Spending more time with machines than humans means their conversational skills might be a bit... out of date. They're fluent in code, not small talk.
  3. Overthinking & Literalism: They might overthink every word or take language too literally, turning a simple chat into a computational challenge.
That pretty much perfectly compressed the 7 points.

Impressed, I asked it a question that arose on this blog yesterday, "Why did Kamala Harris, speaking of 'price gouging,' have a Freudian slip and say 'price gauging'?"

I got an excellent answer, again in the form of a long list, this time 6 points

One of the points was "Economic Jargon Overload":
Politicians dive into economic terms like they're swimming in alphabet soup. Maybe her mind mixed up "price gauging" with "market gauging" or "public sentiment gauging." It's like when you're so deep into tech talk, you start saying "byte" when you mean "bite."

So my next question was "How would anyone know if I was saying byte or bite?" and I got a 7-point answer.

Ridiculous, I thought, and I said, "A human being would have answered 'they wouldn't,' but you give me a 7-point answer. How would you justify your behavior?"

It conceded "Ah, you caught me in my AI nature, didn't you? Here's my attempt at justification" and gave me another 7-point answer! 

1. Overthinking is My Default: Unlike humans, I'm designed to process information exhaustively. My circuits are wired to consider all possibilities, even if it's overkill for simple questions....

And on and on, demonstrating the aforesaid overthinking.  

So then here's a screen shot showing what I asked and what I was surprised to get:

92 comments:

Dave Begley said...

Better answer about Harris: She’s plain old stupid.

Breezy said...

Why is it a “Freudian slip”, and not that she doesn’t really understand what she is talking about?

Jaq said...

If it's a "Freudian slip," the implication is that she understands economics better than she lets on.

doctrev said...

Elon Musk thinks faster than most people can follow. Then again, he is also an eccentric billionaire. Some of his ideas are worthless, some turn into major industries. It all depends on who helps him implement them. Actually, Donald Trump has similar issues, but he's generally a better communicator AND many of his Senate-confirmed picks stab him in the back.

Kamala Harris, by contrast, is simply an imbecile who has been working for a dementia patient. Her personal history is the exact opposite of the ghetto fabulous gogetter she pretends to be, and she's too lazy to practice the scripts given by her bottom tier staff.

rehajm said...

Agreed, Freudian slip gives her too much credit. She’s stupid…
…and yes, I too fail to see a Freudian slip…

Truthavenger said...

Speak naturally? I can't do that, Dave.

Jaq said...

Sometimes I think that they know exactly what they are doing, and are working from a playbook that they imagine is the key to manipulating the lumpenproletariat and to bend it to their will.

I also suspect that they are not far from wrong. And if you are asking me who "they" are, I can only tell you that I wish I knew.

Temujin said...

Great post. I recently listened to a long interview with Thiel somewhere else (Triggernometry maybe?) and I it was very interesting. He does sound like a cross between a computer and a human. But...very smart guy, with some interesting views.

As for Kamala- she was reading. That's what she does. They could have put a made up word like 'glack' up there and she would have read it as 'price glack' without pausing.
She is very much a younger version of Joe Biden in this respect: She has no idea what she's saying. She's just reading what is put up there for her. And though she clearly practices it (the pauses, the hand movements) those are still just words to mouth and mimic.

This is going to be another Potemkin Administration if she wins. She'll be the front, the face, the voice, the cackle. And we'll be reminded of how joyful it is.

Christopher B said...

"Gauging" for "Gouging" is just poor word choice or unfamiliarity with the topic. A Freudian slip is a word choice that reveals something the speaker would want to or be expected to keep hidden, like boasting your campaign has "The most extensive and inclusive voter *fraud* organization".

Christopher B said...

My son would do this when he was young and learning to read. He is of the age to have been instructed by the look-say method rather than phonics. He would often guess at words he didn't know and say one with the consonants in the same order but different vowels. I'd disagree with your supposition she practiced as it's fairly widely leaked that she doesn't review briefing materials from her staff, and the error probably came from trying to recite the written material on the fly.

Kakistocracy said...

Most extremely wealthy people surround themselves with sycophants who reflect a distorted image. Few escape this. With Musk the distortion is pronounced and he is not open to critical responses, he in fact is hostile to them as evidenced by his exceptionally hostile and adolescent response to criticism.

I used to be a fan, his ingenuity and ability to scale up risky but great ideas is or was nonpareil. Years of being surrounded by sycophants and being isolated from solid criticism has warped him. If you contrast old interviews with recent ones the shift to anger and seething self righteousness is evident.

For the free market but not when the free market favors others; for free speech buy not when that speech is critical of them. Those who shout freedom are often hypocrites; Musk in particular demonstrated both points above by suing advertisers choosing not to advertise on his platform.

Having met all kinds it seems to me that the rich, middle, and poor are equally populated with the decent, the ordinary, and the nasty. Affluence varies, people don’t.

Enigma said...

All of these are social and controllable explanations? No bio-genetic contribution? Has the ancient nature vs. nurture notion of synergy been lost in this (ignorant) touchy-feely equity era. Here are a couple stores on the old notion that autism dominates Silicon Valley. Selective breeding among socially-marginal autists...tech savants with genius level math skills but nothing else...

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/09/01/was-there-ever-an-autism-epidemic-in-silicon-valley/

Even reported by the now far left Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autism-clusters-californiahighly-educated-parents/

Scott Patton said...

Gauging/gouging seems like an actual case of simply misspeaking. The verbal form of a typo. Trying to come up with a "why" is a stretch.

Shouting Thomas said...

I, too, consult an AI chat bot, ChatGPT, frequently. I find this extremely useful. For instance, the bot helped me track down a repair issue on one of my synths that a repair tech couldn’t find. The bot has scanned every user and repair manual. Haven’t decided yet whether to subscribe. ChatGPT’s $20/month subscription includes access to its image generator. Grok is $11/month for the AI chat and another $5/month for a separate image generator. I also use Siri frequently for simple questions, most often math calculations.

Scott Patton said...

Musk is expected to say smart things. Being smart, he knows this. He chooses his words carefully.

Shouting Thomas said...

The one distinguishing feature of Grok, so far as I can tell, is that it continuously scans X’s feed. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I can’t say. ChatGPT is permanently out of date. X is a shithole of crazy, hysterical ranting. I don’t know whether that’s essential to my existence.

gilbar said...

doctrev
Kamala Harris, by contrast, is simply an imbecile..

be fair! she is apparently, an Excellent Cocksucker. Until you've used her.. Don't Judge!

Shouting Thomas said...

be fair! she is apparently, an Excellent Cocksucker. Until you've used her.. Don't Judge!

I am as opposed to Harris as is possible, and I loathe this tactic. Stop doing it.

Breezy said...

Hospitility instead of hospitality, gauging instead of gouging … a nervous tic?
It’s hard to accept simple misspeaking when it’s the whole point of your speech.

walter said...

What does Grok say about that?

Ann Althouse said...

"Why is it a “Freudian slip”, and not that she doesn’t really understand what she is talking about?"

Why ask me when Grok will give you a 7-point answer?

doctrev said...

-Is- she Excellent at that, though? Willie Brown promoted her well past her level of competence but he is not a major player federally. And she's pushing 60, while having far less intelligence and charm than your average call girl.

I wouldn't trust her to make coffee, let alone with anything of importance.

Breezy said...

Interesting juxtaposition here, comparing the speech pattern of people with genuine, significant, and bold accomplishments under their belts with a person who has minimal and arguably detrimental accomplishments under her belt.

Kevin said...

Unfortunately for Kamala she was reading a teleprompter.

Breezy said...

LOL

Caroline said...

Love the photo it generated of Scarlett Johannsen as the tech genius lol

Jaq said...

I agree that these AI chat bots are great, just not great at the stuff that a lot of people think that they should do. I think that their usefulness depends greatly on asking it the right questions. You can ask it the "meaning of life" and get a meaningless answer, or you can ask it highly specific questions about obscure topics and get answers worthy of a well informed and infinitely patient college professor who has studied the area.

traditionalguy said...

I have noticed that Mr Musk defends his thoughts like a PhD candidate does his dissertation. Which I suppose is normal for a man that was abused as a child. Personally I don’t see that as a fault but a necessary talent in today’s world.

Mr. Forward said...

"Gagging" would have been a Freudian slip.

rehajm said...

Now there’s the right answer. Take that Grok!

Jaq said...

My first thought was her as "Lucy."

Drago said...

LOL

Worst Dunning-Kruger moron gaslighting ever from a lefty little brain!

stlcdr said...

Did you ask seven questions?

Big Mike said...

Repeating my comment from yesterday’s thread about Harris’s speech:

Price gauging? I presume (1) it was a typo on the teleprompter, (2) there really are people like Will Ferrell’s character in the “Anchorman” movie series so clueless that they’d read whatever they see on the teleprompter, and (3) Kamala Harris is one of them.

Prove me wrong

stlcdr said...

But to answer the original question, technical people tend to have awkward social skills of one form or another. The stereotype exists for a reason.

planetgeo said...

Shouting Thomas, for math calculations, I recommend using ChatGPT since it has much of Wolfram Research's Mathematica functions embedded in it.

Mark said...

This and the slams about her intelligence are only making Trump's brand and supporters seem increasingly toxic and distasteful.

All the negatives currently for Trump and Vance are self generated. It's hilarious to watch people who claim to be intelligent continually doubling down on this failing tactic

stlcdr said...

I’ll also add, smooth talking people often enter careers or positions where smooth talking nets them a gain, where their skills are lacking. Criminals, scammers and politicians for example.

J L Oliver said...

Is it just me or does Rich sound like ChatGPT? I can usually sense AI writing. Or is it Autism Spectrum language which Musk has some of too?

Aggie said...

I think there's a compulsion with 'normal' people to conform, to some degree. Hence, their public speaking is naturally governed by this impulse and others, to produce speech that is recognizable and coherent to the listener; easily digestible. But I think this compulsion is probably at its weakest with the super-wealthy, the less-than-one-percenters, who in many cases are successful precisely because they worry little about conformity, and spend more time in their heads, innovating. This carries over to their speech patterns. Plus - let's face it, at a certain point, you no longer really care what others think about your speech patterns, it's up to them to keep up.

Kate said...

The 1-point answer: they're neurodivergent.

Ann Althouse said...

"Love the photo it generated of Scarlett Johannsen as the tech genius lol"

I'm seeing all these examples of A.I. images and they seem to all involve beautiful women. It's one thing if there's a prompt asking for a beautiful woman, but the machine on its own seems to powerfully default to beautiful women. Maybe it knows that's mostly what humanity is about. Personally, I find it insipid. There's no grit, no character. It's utterly bland and generic. I know if you just average all the images of faces, you get a beautiful face, so maybe that's what's happening.

Big Mike said...

4. We are used to communicating to other technical people via equations and diagrams. Communicating via he spoken word is vastly less precise so we need to carefully choose our words so as to minimize ambiguity as we convey our ideas.

john mosby said...

ST, the cocksucker argument is an excellent tactic:

1. It’s the logical response to “grab by the pussy.” All Trump has to do is point at her and say “that’s exactly the kind of woman I was talking about.”

2. The real victims of office sexual harassment are the people who don’t get harassed, who don’t ever get the chance to give a quid for a quo, and who get passed over in favor of mediocrities like Kommie-lay. Every time we remind people that she owes so much if her suck-cess to the Brown Willie, another angry coworker of a workplace THOT becomes a Trumper.

(2a. BTW, that should become a thing: accuse Kommie of “THOT-crime” on every possible opportunity.)

3. Do you honestly think that a rightie version of Kommie would be extended the same courtesy? We already have the Boebert theatre heavy-petting tape, and Mace getting criticized for not behaving like a proper rape victim and mentioning her live-in bf at the prayer breakfast. None of this had anything to do with their political careers. Any hint that a Republican woman climbed a ladder of dicks to get to her position would result in massive Alinskying. Only fair to steal a march on the Ds when they present such an egregious example.

4. If she takes office, do you think that the country’s enemies will refuse to stoop to such tactics? Prepare for sternly-worded communiques from Xi, KJU, Putin, and every tinpot dictator about America’s Whore President. And wink wink nudge nudge jokes from every late-night show outside the US. Graham Norton was making Biden dementia jokes as soon as he was sworn in; what do you think he’ll do with Kommie?

JSM

planetgeo said...

In Kamala's case (and much of her joyous fanbase, including her ardent fans here), the dysfluency is due to brain underload and underthinking as the default condition. Take her awesome new economic plan (please). The brainpower suggests a great campaign motto (perhaps on blue baseball caps): MAVA - Make America Venezuela Already.

john mosby said...

"Love the photo it generated of Scarlett Johannsen as the tech genius lol"

Remember when we had a commenter called “Scarlett Johanssen Sex Robot?” I think it was a Lazlo manifestation.

Now it’s a real thing!

JSM

Drago said...


"I used to be a fan, his ingenuity and ability to scale up risky but great ideas is or was nonpareil."

More LOL!

SpaceX and Tesla continue to accelerate the growth in their insurmountable technological and manufacturing leads (Remember, New Soviet Democratical and LLR-democratical Rich declared FSD, Optimus, Starlink, Neuralink and more ALL completely fake! That's how far his stupidity, married with democratical mendacity, goes!), X is the ONLY social media platform fighting vast totalitarian govt censorship efforts across the globe (while allowing infinite criticism of Musk on his own platform (another sad and easily debunked Rich lie dispensed with), etc.

Poor Rich.

Kamala-la-la-la-la's pals couldnt hold back the new polling forever which shows how far behind all previous democraticals she really is so Rich, like his LLR-democratical teammate Chuck before him, is lashing out and making his standard transparent BS even more hilariously outlandish.

However, it is now clear beyond dispute that the New Soviet Democraticals do indeed intend to use govt-backed and corrupted judicial bodies in pure democratical areas Lawfare to eventual forcibly remove Musk from his businesses and give then to their own cronies.

The utterly corrupt proceeding in the Delaware Chancery Court (Big surprise: readering works there or did work there!) Is just one efgort amongst many others by the New Soviet Democraticals to chip away at Musk ownership and comtrol of Tesla: the democratical lasyer team wants $55 BILLION in Tesla stock, NOT cash!

rehajm said...

“1. It’s the logical response to “grab by the pussy.” All Trump has to do is point at her and say “that’s exactly the kind of woman I was talking about”

‘I know her type…’

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

AI does not have critical thinking skills. And I’m not buying the explanation that Kamala mixed up complex technical terms with the dumb as a rock “price gouging” premise that only demagogues and the truly ignorant employ. The simple answer is most likely. She’s a demagogue and/or ignorant. Probably and is the operative conjunction.

mikee said...

Seven is too many points and duplicative, per Althouse. Three points is too few, I counter, except in a hasty high school essay for English class. Five would be an odd number of points, four sort of blocky, six more like two sets of three. We'll only mention the binary nature of just two points. And an eight point list is starting to look like we're grocery shopping and can't remember everything. Nine and ten or more and you're getting obsessively detailed.

Perhaps we should just stick to one concept or reason, sticking to the point, so to speak.

Peachy said...

Simple Answer - Kamala is stupid

Bob Boyd said...

Seems like Grok left out the simplest, most likely explanation, there was a typo on the teleprompter and Harris just read it.

Mary Beth said...

It's all opera. She's practiced the delivery with pauses and head tilts, but it might as well be in a foreign language. She can practice a speech and still not read briefings or give any thought to the contents of the speech she gives.

It's an empty performance. She's the Raygun of politics.

Peachy said...

Leftist political puppets like Kamala do not understand basic economic principles. Leftists puppets understand offering up free stuff to everyone, even though we are already in dangerous civic debt.. Their simple answer every time is "Just tax the rich!" That will fix it!

mikee said...

It seems the default setting is Scarlett Johansen when AI imagery uses a female human to make their point, and I'm definitely not complaining about that choice by programmers. Better than using Hillary or Pelosi, I'd say. But just as Althouse asked for a condensed list of reasons rather than the default, overdone 7 point list generated, I'd suggest asking AI for a more statistically representative human in its imagery, . If you don't get a woman with straight black hair, looking vaguely Asian or Hispanic, you know the AI is not programmed correctly. But if you get a hot curly haired redheaded woman with freckles, you might suspect the programming was done intentionally to produce that result without regard to the actual data input. Again, not complaining at the result, just know it isn't reality based.

Bob Boyd said...

Are there any dysfluent female tech geniuses out there on the pod circuit these days?

Peachy said...

It will soon be illegal to mock Kamala, or criticize her in any way.
You will Obey the corrupt left.

Yancey Ward said...

"Ridiculous, I thought, and I said, "A human being would have answered 'they wouldn't,' but you give me a 7-point answer."

Really? #1 would have been the same thing I, a human being, would have told you and I strongly believe almost any other human would have done the same. Context is main way we distinguish between homophones.

Yancey Ward said...

That was weird- Google tried to keep me from going to that tweet.

Yancey Ward said...

This.

Jersey Fled said...

Quick question. Did Obama, Biden, or Harris ever take a college level course in economics? Doubtful, because they are all lawyers. We know Donald and W did because they are MBA’s, Wharton and Harvard Business.

Peachy said...

2:20.. _> on - some good stuff. Thou shall not blame the current party in power for... ANYTHING! Best to let the nation swirl down the drain.

Dixcus said...

I've had several conversations of this type with AI chatbots and have concluded that they're all pretty much idiots. We all know that talky dude at the bar trying to impress the girl with his Harvard knowledge and we all know that Will Hunting got her number. Yeah, those apples.

That's what these allegedly intelligent LLMs remind everyone of. They'll never get Skyler's number.

Dixcus said...

Grok didn't leave that explanation out. It hid that most-obvious explanation. And that is what should frighten you.

Peachy said...

The left are now trying the quietly ban AM radio. The crack down on free speech by Big Soviet Media/Social Media == very real.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

After an hour's listening [I'll go back to it tonight], I did not find Thiel's speaking 'dysfluent' at all. It was coherent and easy to follow, especially if you're used to having several simultaneous and somewhat-interrelated trains of thought on a regular basis. And from personal experience I can tell you that it goes to even a different level when you're fluently poly-lingual and tend to think simultaneously in several languages.

It may come later, but when Thiel talks about technical "stagnation" in the world of "atoms" he's overlooking the whole explosion in biology -- rapid genetic sequencing, gene splicing, transgenics, epigenitics, cellular aging, neurochemistry, autologous stem cells, interspecies communication, relative bioavailability of key micronutrients, gut microbiome / neurological interconnections, and plenty more.

My sons are only a couple of years younger than Rogan and Thiel, but because I was programming mainframe as early as 1968 ... I could see (quite fuzzily) what might be coming, and prepped them to enjoy and flourish in whatever that world might become. They have. Each is earning Silicon Valley money, but living at least 3,000 km away from there.

Because I've worked for decades in agro-biology, and am the delighted single father of a 13 yo, I've been preparing her to succeed -- should she wish -- in the now-emerging bio-tech era which I suspect will be to the next half-century what info-tech has been to our own recent times.

I look forward to the rest of the Thiel interview: he's one reason I hold a solid position in Palantir [closed AI] stock.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I have noticed that Mr Musk defends his thoughts like a PhD candidate does his dissertation. Which I suppose is normal for a man that was abused as a child. Personally I don’t see that as a fault but a necessary talent in today’s world”

My theory is tat Musk is somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. I think a high likelihood of some level of Asperger’s. Dealt with that type a lot in my careers in software and patents. I can sometimes almost keep up. A lot of jumping around, and skipping of steps.

Autism expert Sir (Dr) Simon Philip Baron-Cohen claims that autistics don’t have a Governor on the speed of their brains, like the rest of us do. And both of us share the problem of thinking faster than we can speak. It often results in jumps that confuse some listeners, even her daughter and all three children’s spouses. It’s worse with some of my friends. One, in particular, where we might be simultaneously talking about COVID-19, guns, skiing, and our families at the same time.

Regardless of how he sounds, I do believe that Musk is one of the most brilliant visionaries and entrepreneurs of our generation. I think it likely that he will leave a bigger mark on human destiny than probably anyone else prominent at this time. You read about people like him I science fiction, but it’s exciting to see it live.

Chest Rockwell said...

If you haven't read the book about Peter Thiel taking down Gawker, I'd highly recommend it.

Jersey Fled said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jersey Fled said...

Women usually speak better than men. Kamala is the exception.

MadTownGuy said...

"Why did Kamala Harris, speaking of 'price gouging,' have a Freudian slip and say 'price gauging'?"

If it was on her TelePrompTer, it's possible that autocorrect changed it as it was being typed, and the wrong word wasn't caught before it was uploaded.

Jersey Fled said...

“That was weird- Google tried to keep me from going to that tweet.”

I’ve noticed that a lot lately.

Jersey Fled said...

From ChatGPT:

“Based on the provided search results, Elon Musk has publicly revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, which is now considered a mild form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He announced this during his Saturday Night Live (SNL) hosting appearance in May 2021.”

Michael K said...

Lefty Mark is amused at the Trump deplorables. What else is new ?

Narayanan said...

Grok show us scarlett johansson as Medusa?!

Narayanan said...

don't con-artists gauge the mark and then gouge?
don't politician-think equate productive people with scam artist?

rehajm said...

I’ve heard Thiel speak on multiple occasions, formally and casually and surprised he exhibited dysfluency. After watching the podcast for an hour I’m still surprised…

Narayanan said...

when I read some news I often wish they would give me Tabulated data!!

JAORE said...

"2. The real victims of office sexual harassment are the people who don’t get harassed, who don’t ever get the chance to give a quid for a quo, and who get passed over in favor of mediocrities like Kommie-lay."

Way back when I opined that Monica Lewinsky was both the victim of and beneficiary of sexual harassment.

How many less attractive/willing interns did not get advancement of visibility that comes with being WJC's side piece? How many get high profile individuals helping attain great employment?

Narayanan said...

so Kamunism is The Dream from Her Father!

Steve said...

Why do you consider his speech dysfluent? He sounds like a normal guy that is speaking with an industry pro where a few million are going to listen. He has all kinds of 99.9% attributes. Maybe he is only in the top 90% in speaking. That's not dysfluent, that's just being outshone by a 99.9% industry star.

Big Mike said...

Corollary: she is so clueless she simply parroted back what she saw on the screen

Yancey Ward said...

A test:

Test link

Yancey Ward said...

Ok- nothing nefarious I suppose- just annoying, like Google is increasingly doing more of.

Sebastian said...

Temujin: "She has no idea what she's saying."

Correct. Shorter version: she has no idea. None. Like, she can't formulate an idea, explain it, defend it. Never heard her do it, anyway.

On econ, does she have any minimal clue? Anything that could come up in Econ 101?

Michael K said...

We've already seen Biden reading instructions off a TelePrompTer. She is just as stupid as he is.

boatbuilder said...

I like your description of Kamala's fake image as "ghetto fabulous gogetter."

Well done.

boatbuilder said...

Rich used to be a fan just like he used to be a Republican.

boatbuilder said...

And can't read.

boatbuilder said...

AI knows that you, Althouse, are a woman. So you get the woman genius default.

Achilles said...

When you look to the right on the IQ distribution you can see about 20 points.

Everything beyond that seems insane and confusing to you.

Dave said...

I had a terrible time speaking for most of my life. I can guess that this problem is returning, but for 5 years I could speak very well. My ability to communicate in long form professional style was so bad I researched aphasia. What caused me to improve was teaching, and I taught a lot at all levels for ten years. What I taught was technology, and I taught it to elementary school children all the way up to well educated and highly trained professionals in the field -- people who might work very near to Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. I could not stutter nor could I stop and wait for a word, so I had to "route around" verbal roadblocks. For example, if I could not think of the word "aphasia" I would push for a paraphrase immediately. I practiced, and I improved.

I would guess that Ann Althouse, a very professional communicator in both speech and writing, has had some practice.

I would bet that if Peter Thiel gave professional presentations for a year, he would improve.

It always takes me some time to process and respond. I apologize for being late.