A huge leap for artificial intelligence
Ever since reading Tim Urban’s epic blog posts on artificial intelligence years ago I have keept a healthy interest in (and fear of) AI. This weekend OpenAI released version 3.5 of their Chat GPT AI.
It is breathtaking.
If you have been on Twitter the past few days you’ve seen it. If not, you need to. The tool is a bit of software that allows you to ask questions or give commands and get responses from the computer that are extremely human-like and impressive.
You don’t have to be a techie to get enthralled with this. In fact I predict every person in the world will be interacting with some form of this technology in the next couple years.
I’m going to try to explain it to you but it is better to show than to tell so most of this edition will be screen shots of me and others interacting with the Chat GPT AI.
First I asked Chat GPT to explain what Chat GPT is, in a way that is simple to understand:
Then I figured I’d experiment with Chat GPT writing part of this edition:
Whoa.
Many are saying that this release this week will be a turning point we will look back to years from now as the marker of a new era of technology. Below I’m sharing a bunch of examples of how incredible this AI is and how it might be applied. Everything I share below is a real query and a real answer written “out of thin air” by the AI. It’s something. I’m also sharing some of the limits I’ve found.
Read widely. Read wisely.
Max
1. Example use: Writing a polite note to a customer.
2. Example use: Assessing business strategy
3. Example use: Travel recommendations
4. Example use: Drafting a commercial lease
This one is wild. You have to click the link to see it. The author asks Chat GPT to draft a commercial lease in the state of South Carolina. Look out lawyers. The software does it in about thirty seconds.
5. Example: Writing odd poetry
This afternoon I was talking about Chat GPT with my parents and my in-laws. My dad suggested asking if tight jeans or baggy pants are better. I asked the AI to answer in the form of a poem
I got into this poetry idea and asked Chat GPT to write a sonnet about Warren Buffet’s investing philosophy.
6. Example use: Create a fun choose your own adventure
This is a fun one I borrowed from someone’s tweet:
7. Example use: Replacing me in The Weekend Reader
I decided to ask the chat bot to write something I might write about — the dangers of social media — in my own style. What it came up with made me wonder if I’m not so special:
Luckily (?) I found that I can’t quite completely replace myself though. The chatbot isn’t connected to the internet.
This software is so believable and creative, it is almost scary.
At least it can seem scary. Take this example of venture capital investor Marc Andreesen asking the Chat GPT about how it might take over the world…His response to this:
“Oh no.”
But don’t fear. This thing isn’t omniscient (yet). It does make mistakes!
Most of the time the software seems pretty “humble” and doesn’t answer questions it can’t answer. But I found a great example of it being at once both very confident and dead-wrong. Look at this conversation with a user about the fastest marine mammals from Tim Connors:
postscript
You really ought to try this thing out for yourself and you can begin to see its power. You might conclude, as some have that “homework is finished forever” because of this.
Even if ChatGPT can’t replace me completely yet. I’ll let it have the last word on this edition:
