Part I of III
There’s a good chance that during the past 60 days a new phrase entered the realm of your consciousness. Yes, I’m talking about… ChatGPT. It’s all the news. It’s all the rage. It’s all the future. So much that this is likely the last blog I’ll ever need to write. From here on out, it’s simply AI for this writer. I’ll save so much time.
Well, maybe not just yet.
While I am fascinated by what ChatGPT – and other artificial intelligence – could do for our productivity, we’re still in the infant stage. To test this, I asked it to perform four writing tasks from a single prompt. Although it took less than five seconds each time, the results were… well, judge for yourself:
First, ‘Write a 150-word explanation of what ChatGPT does’
“I am an AI language model here to assist users with their tasks and queries. My purpose is to provide useful and accurate information. I can assist with writing, research, language translation and much more. I am constantly learning and updating my knowledge base. I am also programmed to understand and respond to natural language, so users can communicate with me in a conversational manner. I am able to understand the context and meaning behind the users’ words, and respond accordingly. I am always available to assist with any task or question that may arise. I take pride in being able to help users and always strive to improve my abilities. I am here to help and make things easier for users, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any task or question you may have.”
Second, ‘Write a 100-word essay about astronauts, like a fourth grader’
‘Astronauts are brave people who go to space in rockets. They wear special suits and helmets to protect them from the cold and lack of air in space. They go on space walks and do experiments to learn more about our universe. They also live in a space station, which is like a big house in space. I think it would be really cool to be an astronaut and go to space one day.’
Third, ‘Write a 50-word answer to ‘Will AI destroy our culture?’
“AI has the potential to change many aspects of our culture, but it is not necessarily something that will destroy it. It can be used to preserve and promote culture through digitization, language translation, and even creating new art forms. However, it’s important to consider the implications of AI on the job market and society as a whole, and to ensure that it is used ethically and responsibly.”
Finally, ‘Write a joke about a golfer and a car’
“Why did the golfer drive his car to the golf course? Because he wanted to be sure he could get a hole-in-one!
Before the first prompt, I received this message: ‘That model is currently overloaded with other requests. You can retry your request, or contact us through our help center at help.openai.com if the error persists.’ I waited 15 minutes and it allowed me in to create.
So, it may take a while for ChatGPT and other initiatives to change your world. Perhaps the most important thing is to make sure your grandchildren don’t end up connected to it by a cable in the back of their necks. Although that might make for a good movie; just not any sequels, please.
