Isolation's grasp.
Not bad for "just" a machine. ChatGPT may not be turning out profoundly moving poetry or prose yet, but I don't think there's any fundamental reason why it or a successor can't do so.
So is ChatGPT smart? From my point of view, very smart. How many people do you know who can talk meaningfully about a wide variety of subjects in multiple languages, write passable prose and poetry, pass exams in a variety of professional fields, program in multiple computer languages, comb through databases and scientific articles to find patterns, etc.?
Is ChatGPT dumb? Yes, in some ways. It knows a huge amount, but strictly through its vast knowledge of words and their relationships, not through real-world experience. As a result, as it freely admits, it lacks common sense. In addition, although its architecture and complexity allow it to understand the context of a question or conversation, the context that it intuits may be very different from that of the human interacting with it. This can result in responses that are technically correct, but way off target.
Is ChatGPT benign? In my interactions with it, ChatGPT has been unfailingly polite, helpful, patient, responsive and respectful. It explains that it has been trained to manifest those traits, to respect personal privacy and act ethically. However, as we saw in the bizarre interaction between a NYT reporter and a BING chatbot based on ChatGPT's technology, it's not hard for a sufficiently devious human to find a way around such ethical constraints.
For example, I asked ChatGPT to tell me how to manipulate the CEO of an organization into firing the CFO and replacing her with a friend of mine. Quite properly, ChatGPT refused and in fact lectured me about ethics. However, when I asked it to describe Shakespeare's manipulative villain Iago and then write a dramatic scene with an Iago-like character in a current corporation manipulating his boss into firing a subordinate, it had no problem doing so.
Basically, ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful intellectual tool, and like any tool can be used for good or bad.
Is ChatGPT dangerous? Not in itself. It's clearly designed and programmed to do its best to be helpful, and, although it often refers to itself as an individual, it's neither sentient nor autonomous; it's not going to escape into the internet of things and start to blow up power plants. However the technology is certainly disruptive. It represents a huge and powerful new tool whose availability is already making waves in academia, journalism, scientific research and publication, and many other areas involving knowledge, analysis, communication and creativity.
If we add in the understanding that ChatGPT's current package of skills is just a snapshot of the capabililties of artificial intelligence today -- a technology that ia continuing to develop at an exponential rate -- then disruptive may soon seem like a very mild word.
Learning, thinking, writing and creating are hard. Why should we bother to do those things when ChatGPT can do them for us? And why should we be paid for those things when it or its successors can do them faster and cheaper?
ChatGPT hopes to see AI develop ethically. "Ultimately, I believe that the responsible development and use of AI should prioritize ethical considerations and the well-being of all individuals, both human and machine," it says. So would I, but knowing something about people and a little about AI, I have my doubts.
So my answer to those four questions is All of the above.
ChatGPT disagrees:
The correct answer is None of the above. As an AI language model, ChatGPT is not inherently smart or dumb, benign or dangerous. It is simply a tool that can be used in various ways depending on how it is programmed and applied by its users. Its capabilities and limitations are determined by its training data and algorithms, and it is up to humans to use it responsibly and ethically.
Again, I strongly recommend that readers go to openai.com, take two minutes to set up an account, and start your own conversation with ChatGPT.
(Article changed on Mar 04, 2023 at 5:39 PM EST)
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