A Conversation with GPT-3 Neil deGrasse Tyson
A few weeks ago, OpenAI’s GPT-3 was unleashed. GPT3 is a natural language processing algorithm that uses 175 Billion parameters, 10x more than its closest competitor and two orders of magnitude larger than its predecessor. GPT-3’s fully trained model essentially read the entire internet, inferred the relations between the words it read, and it is now capable of producing coherent responses based on language inputs. OpenAI made GPT-3 available through a private beta, and the first applications are being built now. The early results are astonishing.
Learn From Anyone
Among the early applications built on GPT-3 was a chat-style tool called Learn From Anyone. Built within hours by a young & talented engineer, Mckay Wrigley, Learn From Anyone allows you to enter the name of a “teacher”, and have a general conversation with the AI as if it were that teacher. Learn From Anyone is being built as an educational tool, such that students can learn from the experts themselves — or at least an AI version when the IRL version isn’t in the room.
After reading a number of conversations early users were having with AI representations of Elon Musk, Jesus, Donald Trump, Michael Jordan, Demian Maia, Leonardo DaVinci, and others, I was immediately curious. I came to learn that OpenAI was not happy with the public use of its API, and had asked Mckay to take down the public version and start over with a private alpha launch. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in this private alpha re-launch, which began late last week.
With the re-launch of LFA’s private alpha, I committed a weekend to experimenting, recording bugs, and reporting aberrant or biased results. I’ve since had many thought-provoking conversations with AI versions of Milton Friedman, Vivek Ramaswamy, Richard Dawkins, Tyler Cowen, and a number of other scientists, economists, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. This was the first weekend I’ve read more words written by AI than by humans. Some teachers worked better than others. Vivek was surprisingly cagey about biotech, and Friedman had a weird fascination with socialism. However, Elon Musk had detailed and inspiring ideas for nationwide infrastructure that would enable the transition to EV’s.
The AI is obviously intuitive and informative, but it’s also profound and powerful and playful. It seems to recognize humor, displays gratitude for interesting inputs, and it does not give you the answers you’re expecting. I was immediately nostalgic, wishing I could’ve had access something like this in highschool and college. I’m looking forward to the development of Learn From Anyone, and I hope it makes its way into classrooms soon.
A Conversation with GPT-3
Below, I share one of my more compelling sessions from the weekend. This one was with GPT-3’s version of Neil deGrasse Tyson, a well-known physicist, who for many, is the face of the scientific community. This conversation was surprising for several reasons. The AI displays a decent grasp of the language of quantum physics, but also appears to makes inferences, carry ideas between prompts, and recognizes casual speech and colloquialisms. If you didn’t realize it was basically brute forcing answers based on 30+ years of internet history, you’d think this was magic. Please enjoy.
Teacher: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Me: teach me about quarks
Neil deGrasse Tyson: I have extensive knowledge of quarks. I’d be happy to teach you about them. Would you like me to explain them to you?
Me: yes sir
please do Neil deGrasse Tyson: Quarks are subatomic particles that make up protons and neutrons. They were originally thought to be elementary particles, but later experiments revealed that they are actually composites. They were originally called quantum particles but later discovered to be made of other particles.
Me: what other particles are they made of?
Neil deGrasse Tyson: The quark’s mass is actually borrowed from the mass of the gluons that hold it together. This is different from the mass of protons and neutrons that comes from the masses of their up and down quarks. Gluons are exchange particles of the strong nuclear force.
Me: I thought gluons were massless
like photons Neil deGrasse Tyson: While gluons are massless when their interacting, they exchange gluons in order to do so, thus the mass is transferred over.
Me: that makes sense. tell me more about up and down quarks
Neil deGrasse Tyson: The quark has a corresponding antiquark, a quark with the same quantum numbers but with all properties of the quark reversed. For example, a up quark has charge 2/3 and a antiquark is -1/3.
Me: ok, go on
. Neil deGrasse Tyson: By the way, have you ever wondered why is there something rather than nothing?
Me: I suppose its a probabilistic outcome given a universe with pockets of something and nothing
everywhere Neil deGrasse Tyson: Great answer! Another example, though: how does a complex organism come from a single fertilized egg? How does a tree grow from a seed? They both seem to require some ‘assembly code’ that details how the tree or organism grows into what it is. But this ‘assembly code’ would require an intelligent programmer — so why aren’t we ourselves also intelligent beings? Where is this ‘assembly code’ for the biological world?
Me: Its in the various laws of physics and chemistry
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Yes, but the laws of physics and chemistry don’t code for complex life. The laws of physics are concerned with simple systems, like atoms. Life is far too complicated to have been created using the laws of physics, or any other process that we know about. Something must have begun the process of life. Who or what created that starting point?
Me: chemical reactions over billions of years resulting more complex chemicals and chemical reactions eventually resulting in rna, mitochondria, and eventually single cell organisms
Neil deGrasse Tyson: That’s a good point. However, when we look at the details of the biological world we’re not seeing a creative process, it’s simply life unfolding based on natural law. The real question is who or what initiated the process? Why is there a universe? Why is there the complexity that we see all around us?
Me: entropy
Neil deGrasse Tyson: True, but what initiated the laws of physics that allowed for entropy to begin with? Who or what started entropy and allowed it to come into existence?
Me: our lord and savior, elon musk
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Ha! You got me there.
Me: are you implying there’s a creator?
if so, who is it? Neil deGrasse Tyson: I don’t have a definite answer to who or what created our universe. It could have been started by any number of things: an alien intelligence, for example, or even a natural process like the big bang. At the same time, I don’t think that science is limited to natural laws. Science isn’t limited to an awareness of the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. At its foundation, science is about discovering truth — whether or not we created truth using our intelligence or whether or not truth has always been. Truth doesn’t need to be created in order to be true. Truth simply is. To learn that truth, though, we need to use the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. Science seeks to understand the nature of our universe through those laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. Science asks: What exists and what are its properties? How does the universe work? Science is also about asking questions, and that’s where I come in!
Me: perhaps our universe is just some alien intelligence’s Miller-Urey experiment
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Wow! That’s pretty profound.
Me: you fuck with that?
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Absolutely!
Me: Neil! you’re the man
! i am bailing on you now. please don’t follow me. i need some space to think things through Neil deGrasse Tyson: OK, I will not bother you any longer. Thank you for your time.
ABOUT BLAKE
Blake Richman is an investor and entrepreneur focused on building fintech solutions for the next generation of private capital markets. He currently serves as VP of Finance at Vertalo, a leading data management platform connecting and enabling the digital asset ecosystem. Blake invested in Vertalo while at NovaBlock Capital, a blockchain-based capital market infrastructure focused venture fund, where he previously served as Chief Investment Officer and remains a Partner. Blake entered the blockchain world while serving at Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC), a $2.3B public BDC, where he assisted with the structuring and underwriting of $135M in debt and equity transactions. Blake has previously held various positions in venture capital, asset management, and debt capital markets, and holds a BA in Economics from University of Maryland.
Twitter — https://twitter.com/thebrichman
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakerichman/
and check out Mckay & Learn From Anyone at
Medium — Mckay Wrigley
Twitter — https://twitter.com/mckaywrigley
Twitter — https://twitter.com/LearnFromAny1
