Chat Roulette
The best way to defeat a computer’s artificial intelligence is with a lack of one’s own. In yesterday’s lead item, I spelled Brittney Griner’s name multiple ways in the same paragraph. You may have thought it was an unintentional error caused by the fact that I just don’t do that well when it comes to good news. But it was actually my subtle way of letting you know it was really me: the flawed human you’ve grown accustomed to. (The one who feels fine about ending a sentence with a preposition.) For people like me, the days could be numbered. Or worse, lettered. With advances in now widely available AI, we’re entering a brave new world of writing. As Daniel Herman writes in The Atlantic, this could be The End of High-School English: I’ve been teaching English for 12 years, and I’m astounded by what ChatGPT can produce. “If you’re looking for historical analogues, this would be like the printing press, the steam drill, and the light bulb having a baby, and that baby having access to the entire corpus of human knowledge and understanding. My life—and the lives of thousands of other teachers and professors, tutors and administrators—is about to drastically change.” Oh well, it’s not like no one warned us about the risks of majoring in English. (I’m purposely closing with a line that’s good but not too good. I want to give ChatGPT a fighting chance.)
+ What’s all the fuss about? You can ask ChatGPT yourself, or checkout this from The Atlantic: Five Remarkable Chats That Will Help You Understand ChatGPT.
+ The Verge: AI-generated answers temporarily banned on coding Q&A site Stack Overflow. “ChatGPT simply makes it too easy for users to generate responses and flood the site with answers that seem correct at first glance but are often wrong on close examination.” Holy shit, this thing is more human than we thought…
+ AI is also coming for a creative output much more valued by society than writing: selfies. CNBC: Here’s how to use Lensa, the chart-topping app that uses AI to transform your selfies into digital avatars.
+ Writers and photographers might be endangered, but don’t worry, human drummers, your jobs are safe… for now. (Maybe AI just knows it’s way too dangerous to be a drummer.)
