Ready or not, it is here

I procrastinated with this newsletter because I had a rough week. Any week that includes a colonoscopy is inherently no higher than a C-. How do other writers continue to write when life gets in the way?

I decided to join the millions of people that rely on ChatGPT to write my newsletter for me. And I’m going to tell you all about it.

While I did not actually use it to write (I promise), it opened my eyes to this fascinating and terrifying new technology. The only way to appreciate its power is to try it. 

ChatGPT (generative pre-trained transformer) was produced by the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, founded by Elon Musk. It was released less than two months ago. It is a machine learning model that interprets language and generates human-like text. Chatbots like Siri and Alexa have been around for decades but their interactions with humans are rudimentary by comparison. 

ChatGPT is free and easy to access (after you prove you are not a robot). I am amazed at the speed with which it generates answers to open-ended questions. It sounds remarkably human. 

The content is complex and sophisticated as you can see in this example: “Writing can be a therapeutic outlet for managing stress, but it can also be challenging to focus and compartmentalize when dealing with personal stress. Being honest about your own experiences with stress can help to break the stigma and show it is normal to have difficult times.” 

Not bad for a robot. 

It has rapidly become a cultural phenomenon. Students use it to take exams and to write essays. Its responses are so convincingly human that academic institutions need to restructure their means of evaluating a student. It has already prompted bans of its use in schools. It passed medical licensing examinations. 

ChatGPT is programmed not to do anything potentially dangerous. It won’t help you build a bomb or tell you who the best Nazi is. But while it is authoritative looking, it can be factually inaccurate and has been known to make up sources when asked for back-up data. An Israeli startup AI21 Labs offers a new feature called Spices that can write an entire paragraph for a simple prompt. Unlike ChatGPT it will never cite fake sources. 

A robot does not have an opinion - it replicates billions of words taken from websites and social media that reflect the bias of human authors.

My dad said Covid was here to get rid of the alte kakers - a Yiddish term meaning old people. My fear is that ChatGPT is here to get rid of the poets, writers, musicians and dreamers.  Chatbots are increasingly filling roles that were once occupied by humans. It is destined to be abused like all social media. When an insanely powerful AI meets the internet, anything can happen. Can we not program it to clean up the air and the oceans?

Anthropomorphism (attribution of human-like characteristics) to machines is likely if the user interprets the responses as trustworthy. This may lead to oversharing. When we overshare, privacy concerns come to the forefront. I asked ChatGPT for its gender and it reported that it is a machine learning model and does not have a gender. 

Ignoring AI isn’t going to make it go away. The way to demystify it is to give it a try. That does not mean you support it, just stay curious. Have some fun with it. Remember to treat it like your assistant, not your therapist. Make it proofread a letter. After you have played around, talk to friends and family. Discuss how ChatGPT can be used for good and evil. Proofreading is ok, asking it to write a break-up letter or a eulogy is not. 

I will end with a conversation I had with ChatGPT. 

Pretty cool. This is what it must be like for people born on a leap day.

I’ll be traveling, so the newsletter will be taking a break. I will be back in action the following week. 

Have a chatty week,

Dr. Annie K.  💜