your take on ChatGPT: thoughts?

[manoeuver]

I'm still sorting through mine.

Who else here has played with it so far? Any interesting results?

my first take is that the previous generation text generators were way more fun.

more later but I want to hear your takes.

[Chip]

Screenshot:

[Jon Szanto]

more later but I want to hear your takes.

Honestly, I was interested in taking it for a spin, but the sign-up wanted a lot of personal info and while it may be out there, I didn't want to feed an AI device with more of me. I'll come around to it at some point, if it doesn't get to me first.

Addendum: just finished this article with some unsettling thoughts on the AI revolution.

[dneal]

What Jon said, and that Vox article reminded me of two AI machines developing their own language - to the point that researchers pulled the plug because they didn't know what they were saying.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07...s-own-language

[catbert]

[bunnspecial]

I've played some with it, and in fact was feeding it exam questions a few weeks ago and was surprised to see that it was able to get around 85% of the completely correct(even ones where I threw in a twist that threw off a lot of students).

When it failed, though, it failed big and for reasons not immediately obvious to someone who doesn't know the subject well.

As an example, I fed it a fairly standard question for me-asking it to calculate the pH of a buffer system and then explain based on the provided conditions whether or not this was the expected answer. This is a moderately difficult question for the level of classes I teach, but the the students who actually pay attention in class when we're talking about buffers conceptually and when we work through examples typically have no problem answering it. Calculating the pH is quite simple, as there's a well known equation that you plug everything into(and the only potential trip-up is not correctly identifying what is what). ChatGPT did that fine. Where it fell apart was the "why", where it gave me a wordy explanation of how buffers work but failed to actually step back, look at the the information provided, and say "There is more acid than conjugate base, so the pH should be lower than the pKa, which it is".

I've talked to other professors who are worried about it, but for a lot of purposes it has reached the level of "C level student work" with ease, but with better grammar and more informed arguments than typically seen from those students.

[bunnspecial]

Tried it again out of curiosity. This time the explanation was exactly correct, but the math was incorrect. It made a classic mistake I see students make, which is not converting the Ka to pKa...Screen Shot 2022-12-17 at 7.11.25 AM.png

But tried it again and it did it correctly

Screen Shot 2022-12-17 at 7.14.35 AM.png

[manoeuver]

I've played some with it, and in fact was feeding it exam questions a few weeks ago and was surprised to see that it was able to get around 85% of the completely correct(even ones where I threw in a twist that threw off a lot of students).

When it failed, though, it failed big and for reasons not immediately obvious to someone who doesn't know the subject well.

As an example, I fed it a fairly standard question for me-asking it to calculate the pH of a buffer system and then explain based on the provided conditions whether or not this was the expected answer. This is a moderately difficult question for the level of classes I teach, but the the students who actually pay attention in class when we're talking about buffers conceptually and when we work through examples typically have no problem answering it. Calculating the pH is quite simple, as there's a well known equation that you plug everything into(and the only potential trip-up is not correctly identifying what is what). ChatGPT did that fine. Where it fell apart was the "why", where it gave me a wordy explanation of how buffers work but failed to actually step back, look at the the information provided, and say "There is more acid than conjugate base, so the pH should be lower than the pKa, which it is".

I've talked to other professors who are worried about it, but for a lot of purposes it has reached the level of "C level student work" with ease, but with better grammar and more informed arguments than typically seen from those students.

Thanks for posting this. I'm of a similar mind.

No science fiction author (to my knowledge) has come up with a villain as diabolical as a system that can (and does) create an infinite stream of ~85% reliable information.

Now is the time to get to work improving your BS detectors, folks.

[Chip]

It could certainly replace most political speech writers. Also ad copywriters.

[MarciBriggs]

It could certainly replace most political speech writers. Also ad copywriters.

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[BarrySiclery]

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[Chrissy]

Repeat spammer reported again

[Chip]

I'd be tempted to ask it for a sonnet.

Or a haiku.

[Chip]

Searched: it's been done—

The ChatGPT Sonnet

My love, you were once a beauty fair
In days of old, when knights were bold
Your face was like a rose, beyond compare
Your lips, a sweet and gentle fold
But time, that thief, has stolen your fair form
And left you here, in this modern day
Your face, once known to every knight and lord
Is now a mystery, hidden from view
But I, with my AI-assisted pen
Can still write words that reach across the span
Of centuries, to find you once again
My love, you are my inspiration
I’ll write of our old love, and its sweet flame
And hope that, through these lines, you’ll know my name.

Not very good. Clichéd imagery. Trite rhymes. Lousy rhythm.

Here are a couple of mine, written as exercises:

Cassandra's Gone

You bore yourself, a wild beast new to cage and rod,
from the black ship, salted with your journey's rime.
Rave, we said, mad bitch: taken by a god,
forced to sing each grief's lament before its time.

Ushered by the queen, death shining from her smile,
to the unholy rite: How little should I gain by flight, you said.
Patience comes from a brave soul (voices in the peristyle)
as your warm beauty poured from your veins. Dead,

your cries, alone, possess the shivering air beyond
the blade's bright passage, and Agamemnon's hands,
cut in warding, open, and he groans and is gone
from eyes and tongue, from all accustomed lands.

As nightingales cry out at dark to one another, wary birds,
as sorrow sings to sorrow: flies, approached by words.

≈*≈*≈

How Do I Loathe Thee?
(for D. T.)

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.
I loathe thee to the depth and breadth and height
Of coal-fired boiler fumes in darkest night,
Obscuring moon and stars with a foul haze.

I loathe thy stupid tweets, that tarnish days
Like blobs of excremental blight.
As for their crimes your toadies we indict,
Try, convict, and justly put away.

I loathe thee with a passion for what's right,
Against your every lie I set hard factuality,
Against each muddled, mad caprice, reality.
You vaunting, spouting, spewing blatherskite.

I loathe your bloated, greedy bestiality,
O pompous, pouting, pestilential parasite.

(with apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning)

[Yazeh]

I know of an artist who is prompting the machine with ideas and forcing it to create images. He calls it artistic exploration and claims that the AI is his "apprentice" so to speak. I personally find the "art" cold & soulless and am being very polite. Eons ago, I went to an avant garde "classical" concert, for violin and the ancestor of Chat GPT. The violinist modified the sound. I was praying for blackout, it was so atrocious. It cured me of my post modern affliction.....

[Marsilius]

I am assuming my students will be using it all the time now. I already have them do video responses for some projects, which is a good way to get to know them until "VidGPT" comes along.

I was fascinated by this episode of Lawfare. The first half is comical; the second chilling:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-...tgpt-tells-all

[Lloyd]

Scary ➤ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/t...formation.html

Typos courtesy of Samsung Auto-Incorrect™

[Chip]

I know of an artist who is prompting the machine with ideas and forcing it to create images. He calls it artistic exploration and claims that the AI is his "apprentice" so to speak. I personally find the "art" cold & soulless and am being very polite. Eons ago, I went to an avant garde "classical" concert, for violin and the ancestor of Chat GPT. The violinist modified the sound. I was praying for blackout, it was so atrocious. It cured me of my post modern affliction.....

Heard an interview with an AI researcher and a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property and copyright. Both agreed that the appropriation of images and or written material for profit violated existing law. But it might be tough to prove and impossible to prosecute.

[Chip]

Insightful explanation and analysis of the issue. Ted Chiang is known for excellent science fiction writing and is equally gifted with science fact.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annal...peg-of-the-web

[Pendragon]

I am assuming my students will be using it all the time now. I already have them do video responses for some projects, which is a good way to get to know them until "VidGPT" comes along.

I was fascinated by this episode of Lawfare. The first half is comical; the second chilling:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-...tgpt-tells-all

Already here:
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/generat...text-to-video/
https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/30/qu...th-voiceovers/

For artwork, too:
https://www.dw.com/en/is-ai-putting-...video-64568209

There has always been technological advancement, and there is nothing we can do to stop that short of a nuclear war. Whether we harness technology or get run over by it is up to each one of us. Looking back over time, Luddites have fared rather poorly, so the former would seem preferable.

I wonder how using AI could impact fountain pen design...