Exploring Illusions and Optimism: Dungeons & Dragons, Artificial Intelligence, and the Evolving Marketplace
I've been into the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game for over 40 years now. I was drawn to it from the get-go and I still get the same kick out of it today during each session. I'm not entirely sure if it's a smart move to use it to train AI, but I'm no expert in that field, not D&D at least. Maybe it has a more significant role to play in the post-industrial economy.
D&D in Real Life
When it was first published in 1974, D&D was a game-changer, introducing the concept of a Dungeon Master (DM) who acts as referee and organizer, maintaining the game's setting, allowing for player character interactions within that world. I personally enjoy both playing and being a DM. As CNN reported, "Dungeon masters embody some of the best traits that human beings can have.. They’re very generous, they’re very kind, they’re very collaborative, they are open-minded. They have the coolest accessories."
True enough.
The latest version, dubbed "5.5" unofficially, has steered away from many of the original game's design choices. The new 2024 Players Handbook phased out "races" in favor of "species" and separated character statistics from the character's racial aspect, relocating it to their backgrounds, a change that I personally consider long overdue. Hasbro claims that the new Handbook is the *swiftest selling D&D book* in the game's history. Not surprising, I've already bought two copies!
So what's this all about? Well, as somebody who's been playing D&D since before it was fashionable and still does so today, it was a delight to learn that Meta utilizes D&D source books to train generative AI. I have a hunch that this may result in a few hallucinations here and there, but it should mean fewer scriptwriting gaffes in future productions (like allowing a druid to turn into an Owl Bear, which is a monstrosity, when the class ability is merely to transform into beasts).
Bear in mind that these hallucinations are not rare occurrences, but rather intrinsic aspects of the way that LLMs operate. While you can definitely implement mitigation strategies, it won't completely eliminate them, and they have real-world consequences. For instance, remember this year when Air Canada lost a court case after trying and failing to renege on an AI-powered chatbot's fare offer to a passenger.
For more theoretical insights, there are several resources available. One interesting read is Xu, Jain, and Kankanhalli's "Hallucination is Inevitable: An Innate Limitation of Large Language Models," which shows that it's impossible to eliminate hallucinations in real-world LLMs, regardless of the measures taken. This limitation by no means excludes the utility of generative AI in the financial sector. In fact, significant work is currently being carried out on Small Language Models (SLMs), which are trained on fewer parameters, tailored to specific use cases. They hallucinate less (reducing the need for mitigation) and are also faster and more affordable.
(I should note that there's also room for improvement with games. A new Google Deepmind study titled "Mastering Board Games by External and Internal Planning with Language Models" demonstrates that search-based planning can substantially enhance LLM's gameplay abilities across various board games and that the pre-training method used reduces hallucinations as the model is remarkably accurate in predicting the game state and legal moves.)
D&D Beyond Games: Social Capital
Delving beyond fintech, could swords and sorcery play a more significant role in the new economy? Yes, for a couple of reasons. First of all, Pew Research argues that in many ways, D&D is the precursor to the metaverse, a virtual creative space of social interaction and storytelling, the future incarnation of the online world.
Secondly, it addresses pressing socioeconomic questions. Andy Haldane, the CEO of Britain's Royal Society of Arts and former chief economist at the Bank of England, penned an insightful piece elaborating on social capital's importance in the Financial Times, highlighting the high costs of "bowling alone" – subpar growth, stagnant social mobility, rampant loneliness, and fractured communities.
Haldane posits that the erosion of social capital contributes substantially to our societal problems, and he's on the money. I couldn't help but notice that in the very same issue of the esteemed newspaper of record, there was a report on Games Workshop joining the FTSE100. The article pointed out that while in public perception, Warhammer appears as dorky as trainspotting, Games Workshop has valuable lessons for corporate Britain.
It seems to me that if we aim to boost social capital, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, and other similar pastimes allow people to reconnect around a table and interact once again! Frontline battles with AI-generated monsters in 3D headsets are not what we should focus on, but rather teamwork against real-world challenges in 3D community spaces such as kitchens, schools, and cafes.
Recognizing the necessity for a country-wide AI strategy, legislators are working on measures to foster innovation and boost overall prosperity. Yet, it appears to me that a national strategy for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is equally essential. I'm all ears and ready to serve when the nation requires it.
Season's Greetings to everyone!
In the realm of technology and finance, there's a growing interest in utilizing Small Language Models (SLMs) in the financial sector. Unlike their larger counterparts, SLMs hallucinate less, making them more suitable for specific use cases, thus reducing the need for mitigation and potentially improving outcomes.
Dungeons & Dragons, with its focus on collaboration, generosity, and kindness, provides an excellent platform for social interaction and storytelling. This virtual creative space could be seen as a precursor to the metaverse, which could play a significant role in the new economy.
