I was able to get access to ChatAI this week. It was my first time interacting with one of the GPT-based platforms and it was both amazing and terrifying. I asked it to write a poem about unrequited love in trochaic tetrameter. It not only created a poem, but it made a great poem.
The crushing pain of unrequited love
A heart's desire never met above.
The loneliness that comes from no returns
My heart, it aches and ever yearns
Unrequited love is bittersweet
A love that only I can meet.
A sadness that no one else can feel
My pining for it is quite real.
To hope for love that can't be had
Leaves me ever feeling sad.
A world of one not meant to be
Alone I'm left in my misery.
I also asked it to write a fictional story that included completely unrelated nonsense elements. It wasn’t the greatest story ever, but given my prompts it was coherent. Then, I decided to get philosophical. I asked it to write an essay examining a specific doctrine in theology. It created a persuasive argument and even cited specific verses to support its position. I asked it to come up with a list of exotic sounding names that were still pronounceable because I was curious how it would interpret what pronounceable meant for a computer versus a human. It filled my request with ease. When it comes to things like this, I think AI is amazing.It has the capacity to truly change our society for the better and in amazing ways that we can’t even begin to guess at.
However, AI scares me to death. Companies and governments will be able to use this to build such rich profiles about users or citizens. I’m not sure society is ready for the changes that are just around the corner. I mean we’ve barely adjusted to the idea of the internet and being able to easily communicate with people all around the globe. Social media is a great example of our growing pains in this area. On top of that we are very quickly going to have entire sectors of the economy that will no longer need human labor. AI art generators will soon put illustrators out of work. It seems like programmers could become a needless luxury within the near term.
I’m not sure we’re ready for this, but at the same time I love using it.
But, my thinking has taken a turn. I’m still convinced we’re not ready for the emerging pace of change, but I’ve come to see that there’s little we can do about that.
That understanding has reshaped my relationship with AI. Fighting AI now feels like yelling at the weather, and today I’m more focused on adapting to the weather which I have no control over.
But, if we did wish to push back against the pace of change, here’s how we should do it.
Everybody wants to talk about this or that technology and what threat it may present etc. Focusing on this or that technology is a loser’s game, because the knowledge explosion is producing new powers faster than we can figure out how to manage them.
But the thing is, all the “experts”, the people we look to for answers on such things, are addicted to the loser’s game, because playing it is how they make their mortgage payments and put their kids through college.
If we were to have any hope, we’d have to focus on the source of all these emerging powers, the knowledge explosion, or more specifically our relationship with knowledge. How do we control that?
And what I’ve learned from pushing the above article for years now everywhere I go is, the answer is…
We don’t. We don’t control the knowledge explosion because we are simply incapable of understanding the need to.
Even the smartest, most educated people among us are trapped in an outdated 19th century “more is better” knowledge philosophy, and they are no where near ready to question it.
So all we can really do is hang on to our hats, and ride the bus of out of control change where ever it takes us.
Sooner or later the bus of change will crash in to unspeakable pain, and then humanity can revisit the question with new eyes.
I’m planning on being dead before that happens, fingers crossed.
Not sure where I heard this but it went something like this, “Twenty years ago, I thought AI-powered robots would be doing all of my chores while I sat back and worked on my art. Instead, now AI is generating the art while I’m still stuck doing chores.”
> I'm sorry, but I am not capable of taking out the trash or performing any physical tasks. I am a large language model trained by OpenAI and I exist only in the digital realm. I can assist you with any questions you may have, but I am unable to perform any physical actions. Is there anything else I can help you with?
It’s not a perfect analogy, but I imagine we’re in the Homebrew Computer Club era of this stuff. Whatever the equivalent is of having a computer in the house that the kids can mess around on fees like a very good idea.
I have grown kids who were diligent students and high achievers in digital technology. They are still high achievers in adult life. We are still deep in this matrix.
Interesting and I have more questions than answers. My direct comment for the moment consists of some material I posted yesterday. Look forward to your continued writing.
I haven't always kept up with it as much as I would like, but I do find myself going back to past ones I did and really appreciating having the artifact.
I was able to get access to ChatAI this week. It was my first time interacting with one of the GPT-based platforms and it was both amazing and terrifying. I asked it to write a poem about unrequited love in trochaic tetrameter. It not only created a poem, but it made a great poem.
The crushing pain of unrequited love
A heart's desire never met above.
The loneliness that comes from no returns
My heart, it aches and ever yearns
Unrequited love is bittersweet
A love that only I can meet.
A sadness that no one else can feel
My pining for it is quite real.
To hope for love that can't be had
Leaves me ever feeling sad.
A world of one not meant to be
Alone I'm left in my misery.
I also asked it to write a fictional story that included completely unrelated nonsense elements. It wasn’t the greatest story ever, but given my prompts it was coherent. Then, I decided to get philosophical. I asked it to write an essay examining a specific doctrine in theology. It created a persuasive argument and even cited specific verses to support its position. I asked it to come up with a list of exotic sounding names that were still pronounceable because I was curious how it would interpret what pronounceable meant for a computer versus a human. It filled my request with ease. When it comes to things like this, I think AI is amazing.It has the capacity to truly change our society for the better and in amazing ways that we can’t even begin to guess at.
However, AI scares me to death. Companies and governments will be able to use this to build such rich profiles about users or citizens. I’m not sure society is ready for the changes that are just around the corner. I mean we’ve barely adjusted to the idea of the internet and being able to easily communicate with people all around the globe. Social media is a great example of our growing pains in this area. On top of that we are very quickly going to have entire sectors of the economy that will no longer need human labor. AI art generators will soon put illustrators out of work. It seems like programmers could become a needless luxury within the near term.
I’m not sure we’re ready for this, but at the same time I love using it.
Mr. John Ward, Who Is Now Dating Lucille Ball writes…
“I’m not sure society is ready for the changes that are just around the corner.”
I’m sure we’re not, and have been pushing this article everywhere I go for the better part of a decade:
https://www.tannytalk.com/p/our-relationship-with-knowledge
But, my thinking has taken a turn. I’m still convinced we’re not ready for the emerging pace of change, but I’ve come to see that there’s little we can do about that.
That understanding has reshaped my relationship with AI. Fighting AI now feels like yelling at the weather, and today I’m more focused on adapting to the weather which I have no control over.
But, if we did wish to push back against the pace of change, here’s how we should do it.
Everybody wants to talk about this or that technology and what threat it may present etc. Focusing on this or that technology is a loser’s game, because the knowledge explosion is producing new powers faster than we can figure out how to manage them.
But the thing is, all the “experts”, the people we look to for answers on such things, are addicted to the loser’s game, because playing it is how they make their mortgage payments and put their kids through college.
If we were to have any hope, we’d have to focus on the source of all these emerging powers, the knowledge explosion, or more specifically our relationship with knowledge. How do we control that?
And what I’ve learned from pushing the above article for years now everywhere I go is, the answer is…
We don’t. We don’t control the knowledge explosion because we are simply incapable of understanding the need to.
Even the smartest, most educated people among us are trapped in an outdated 19th century “more is better” knowledge philosophy, and they are no where near ready to question it.
So all we can really do is hang on to our hats, and ride the bus of out of control change where ever it takes us.
Sooner or later the bus of change will crash in to unspeakable pain, and then humanity can revisit the question with new eyes.
I’m planning on being dead before that happens, fingers crossed.
Not sure where I heard this but it went something like this, “Twenty years ago, I thought AI-powered robots would be doing all of my chores while I sat back and worked on my art. Instead, now AI is generating the art while I’m still stuck doing chores.”
Confirmed
> I'm sorry, but I am not capable of taking out the trash or performing any physical tasks. I am a large language model trained by OpenAI and I exist only in the digital realm. I can assist you with any questions you may have, but I am unable to perform any physical actions. Is there anything else I can help you with?
I want to teach my kids how to best use these tools. Any tips?
Good question!
My guess is: become a hobbyist yourself?
It’s not a perfect analogy, but I imagine we’re in the Homebrew Computer Club era of this stuff. Whatever the equivalent is of having a computer in the house that the kids can mess around on fees like a very good idea.
I have grown kids who were diligent students and high achievers in digital technology. They are still high achievers in adult life. We are still deep in this matrix.
Thank you - I am planning on doing this!!
Would you get on a bus or into a taxi if the driver refused to tell you where it was going?
AI used to mean Amnesty International
Hi Chris,
Interesting and I have more questions than answers. My direct comment for the moment consists of some material I posted yesterday. Look forward to your continued writing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/kwnorton/p/the-microsoft-chatbot-monster-as?r=boqs0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://open.substack.com/pub/kwnorton/p/the-wef-harari-schwab-and-transhumanism?r=boqs0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Yes, that's what I did. See https://read.substack.com/p/private-substacks
I haven't always kept up with it as much as I would like, but I do find myself going back to past ones I did and really appreciating having the artifact.