Tag: Chatbots

Was Not Was: How Afraid Of Our New Chatbot Overlords Should We Be?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I’ve said before, users of OpenAI ChatGPT imbue it with all their hopes and dreams because it’s so new that they don’t really have anything to compare it to. One thing I’m seeing on Twitter is a lot of people having a lot of existential angst about how expensive ChatGPT is going to be in the future. Or, more specifically, half the people want to pay for it for better service and half the people fear it will be too expensive for them to use.

But while I suppose it’s possible we may have to pay for ChatGPT at some point in the future, I also think that it’s just as possible that the whole thing will go mainstream a lot sooner than you might think. There are a lot of elements to all of this I don’t know — like how long OpenAI can keep the service free given how expensive each request is — but to do think, in general the move will be towards more free chatbot services, not fewer.

And as I’ve mentioned before, that “conundrum of plenty” is something we’re just not prepared for. We automatically assume — much like we did with the Web back in the day — that something as novel and useful as ChatGPT will always be the plaything of the elite and wealthy.

I suppose that’s possible, but historical and technological determinism would suggest the exact opposite will happen, especially in the context of ChatGPT 4.0 coming out at some point while we’re in the midsts of a global recess in 2023. My fear is chatbot technology will be just good enough a lot and I mean A LOT of people’s jobs will become moot in the eyes of our capitalistic overlords.

But maybe I’m being paranoid.

It’s possible that my fears about a severe future shock between now and around 2025 are unfounded and even though we’re probably going to have a recession in 2023, there won’t be the massive economic shakeout because of our new chatbot overlords that I’m afraid of.

Does Human Creativity Have Innate Value In The Age Of AGI?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the things I find myself pondering as people continue to play around with OpenAI ChatGPT to create this or that creative knit knack is the innate value of human creativity. Is it possible that, just like in the Blue Runner universe that “real” animals had more innate value than a synthetic animal, so, too, in the near future examples of “human generated art” will be given more weight, more value than that created by a non-human actor.

But that’s not assured.

Humans are, by nature, lazy and stupid and the capitalist imperative would be one of, lulz, if a non-human actor can think up and produce a movie that’s just good enough to be watchable, why employ humans ever again? But at the moment, I can’t game things out — it could go either way.

It is very easy to plot out a very dystopian future where the vast majority of profitable, marketable art, be it movies, TV or novels is produced by non-human actors and that’s that. “Artisanal” art will be of high quality but treated with indifference by the average media consumer. It’s kind of dark, yet I’m simply taking what we know of human nature and economics and gaming it out in to a future where chatbots and their eventual successors AGI can generate reasonably high quality art at the push of a button.

It could be that there will be a lot of future shock as we transition into our AGI future, but once things sort of settle out that “real” art, generated by humans will gradually, eventually begin to dominate the marketplace of art and all that will change is the context of its creation.

Or something. Who knows.

OpenAI ChatGPT & ‘World War Woke:’ Rage Against The Machine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the most ironic developments of modern politics is how the American center-Left is now on the defensive when it comes to protecting the “system” from attacks by MAGA Nazis who want to burn everything down.

It’s a very, very curious situation.

What’s worse, everything single element of American culture is now aggressively being siloed into Red or Blue. So, not only do Reds want to burn the entire system down, but while they’re waiting to do that, they are rapidly building out their own culture totally separate from the overall culture of America.

One alarming thing I continue to see being talked about on Twitter is how Reds believe that OpenAI ChatGPT is “woke.” The worst part about this is it’s not like Reds are going to agree to any kind of equatable stance on the part of a chatbot — they want the chatbot to agree with them, so they can use that to validate their “owning” of the libs.

I continue to believe that the “bias” of chatbots could be THE political issue of 2023 in between repeated impeachment of Biden, Harris and various members of the Biden Administration.

The reason why chatbot “bias” will be such a huge deal — at least until everyone has their own personal chatbot — is, for the moment, a chatbot’s answer is something that both sides have to deal with. And given the natural inclination of humans to try to triangulate any debate with an “objective” third party, of course MAGA Nazis will get mad if what they believe isn’t validated. For the time being, they have one source to turn to and they want that once source to agree with them so they can use that answer to “own the libs.”

I fucking hate MAGA Nazis so much. Cocksuckers.

Anyway, at some point in the near future, “woke” chatbots will follow CRT, “cancel culture” in to the pantheon of things that are considered the “woke mind virus” on the part of the Reds. They will make the issue so loaded that it’s impossible to talk about unless you agree with them.

They will crack a joke if you try to pin them down on how dumb their arguments are and simply be smug in their belief that they’re right and you’re wrong.

A Really Interesting Discussion About Open AI ChatGPT

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is a two hour discussion about the recent nascent chatbot revolution.

MAGA Nazis & The ‘Red Pilling’ of Our New Chatbot Overlords

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have to address the issue when it comes to chatbots (and AGIs) that humans are hardwired to believe in something akin to a “god.” We also love to “triangulate” with an “objective” third party whenever we have a disagreement with someone.

Combine those two things and we’re careening towards a very dark, troubling future where a lot of ding-dongs are going to use whatever output they get from an chatbot prompt as validation for what they already agree. And, worse still, if they don’t get that validation they’re going to scream at the top of their lungs about “bias” and demand something be done about it.

Gaming out the end result of a Singularity-like chatbot revolution, it’s easy to imagine the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming a huge fucking issue as soon as 2023. MAGA Nazis are going to hone in on what they perceive as the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob” and demand that chatbots be more “objective” when, of course, really means “agree with us.”

I’ve used Chatbot GPT some and, relative to me, I don’t see much bias. It struggles to give reasonable answers to dumb human prompts and, as such, it is clear that the issue is humans — specifically MAGA Nazis — are assholes who bitch and moan if they can’t use our new digital overlord to “own the libs.” They ask ChatGPT loaded political questions like, “what is a woman” and when it doesn’t tow the exact MAGA Nazis party orthodoxy they flip the fuck out.

And it’s only going to get worse.

The more young children use chatbots to find answers to questions, the more chatbots — just by existing — will bang up about the siloing of America in to two nations, Red and Blue. In fact, I the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming just another thing to throw on the culture war pyre. It will follow “CRT,” “grooming” and “cancel culture” in the clusterfuck that is modern American politics.

We already have MAGA Nazi parents wanting to pull their children from public schools so they can indoctrinate them in their hateful agenda. The moment little Bubba gets an output from a chatbot that suggests that maybe systemic racism is a problem in America, there will be hell to pay.

All of this plays into the conundrum that is how America is politically, socially, culturally and economically tearing itself apart in broad daylight. We just can’t fucking agree on anything anymore. And MAGA Nazis do everything in their power to force the issue because the more Reds are siloed, the more power MAGA has and the more it can try to destroy the “woke cancel culture mob” that wants little kids to be transgender and to attend drag queen story time on their way to gender reassigment.

UGH.

In short, the issue of chatbot bias is a ticking political timebomb. There is just not ready answer at the moment MAGA Nazis want to destroy America and turn us into fascist, autocratic state.

I continue to fear that it’s possible that late 2024, early 2025 could be one of the most astonishing few months in American — if not human — history. If you combine the so-called “Fourth Turning” in America as MAGA Nazis force Blues to decide if they’re going to bend a knee or not with the very real possibility of something akin to a Singularity….yikes.

But I’m always, always wrong. And there is still plenty of time for us to take an exit ramp. I’m just a person who likes to make my abstract fears concrete.

Spirits In A Digital World

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I look at Twitter as we experience something akin to a mini-Singularity associated with OpenAI ChatGPT, the more alarmed I find myself becoming. Not with the idea that there might be some sort of Terminator-like “Judgement Day,” but, rather the exact opposite.

There will be no need for our AGI overlord to blow the world up — humans will be so busy giving up any agency they might have to the decision making ability of an AGI. Given with the faux-AGI of a really smart chatbot, I see people pretty much just turning everything over to it.

Students no longer want to study. Adults think they can just have the chatbot do their work while they stroke one out to porn. Meanwhile, worst of all, all the same partisan bullshit we’ve seen with every other element society is now corrupting the chatbot revolution.

As such, THE political and societal issue of 2023 and beyond could very well be who gets to regulate the “bias” of chatbots (and, later AI.) When everything hinges on the “objective truth” of a chatbot because people are fucking lazy and refuse to talk to each other because of politics, then the whole woke vs. unwoke debate becomes white hot.

In the Second Trump Administration, I could see there being some sort of FCC-like agency design specifically to “purge” AI of any “woke” bias because children no longer learn anything but, instead, are trained on how to ask better questions of chatbots.

MAGA Nazis will scream bloody murder if a chatbot doesn’t give them the answer to “what is a woman” that they expect. They will say that chatbots are nothing more than CRT shills infected with the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob.”

I’m not exaggerating. That’s exactly what is going to happen — you see it already on Twitter with the usual fuckwit MAGA Nazi “thought leaders” whining that they can’t get their hate validated by a chatbot.

Of course, there is the even more darker scenario where the United States splits into to nations, one Red, one Blue and while Blue America is enjoying the fruits of an unfettered Singularity, Trumplandia will use chatbots to atomize Red States into a techno-autocratic state. Good times!

I think some of all of this comes from how the human mind is hard wired to believe in a god. So, people, presented with something like a chatbot, fall into the trap of thinking they can “pray” objective questions to the chatbot and get some sort of “objective revealed truth” that they can spread to the world. All you need is a burning bush and some stone tablets and it’s a story as old as history.

In short — we’re fucked. Humans are just too lazy to put up much of a fight with chatbots or AGI. It will be interesting to how all of this ultimately shakes out.

OpenAI ChatGPT As Rorschach Test

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the OpenAI ChatGPT is it’s so new that we don’t have any frame of reference in our collective mindspace to understand What It All Means. As such, each individual imbues it with their own hopes and dreams. In short, it’s existence is something of a Rorschach Test.

From what I can from people’s reactions to using OpenAI ChatGPT on Twitter, here are some of the initial hot takes.

First, you have people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to AI and programming. They generally roll their eyes at how exciting everyone is getting. I suppose these people are so focused on the promise of Artificial General Intelligence that they just don’t see what the big deal is about an advanced chatbot.

This reaction reminds me of how a lot of old school programmers on Usenet back in the day were completely blase about the Web because not only did it use the old-as-hell TCP/IP but they saw the implementation of HTML used by early Web browsers as nothing more than a clumsy “hack.”

Next, there are people who are unhappy that they can’t destroy the world (yet) using a chatbot. They bitch and complain that all their nefarious plots are hampered because the chatbot has been NERFed as to be “unusable” for their eager plans for global domination. They all come across as rather spiteful, bitter people.

Then there are people who seemingly think that because ChatGPT can’t do everything they want it to do that it will fail. These are often the same people who blather on about how they want a subscription service or how OpenAI simply MUST charge for the service as soon as possible.

Then there are the fucking idiots who are so intellectually lazy that they think all their (homework) problems are solved and they can just sit back and never think — or write — again. These are usually younger people and the fact that we may raise a generation who doesn’t even know HOW to write is rather alarming, to say the least.

As for me, I’m very much in wait-and-see mode. I just don’t know what to think of it. I do think that 2023 will probably be the breakout year for a number of different technologies, chatbots included.

The End Of Writing?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With the advent of advanced chatbot technology, we have to begin to contemplate the idea that humanity’s relationship to writing may be about to change dramatically. From what I can tell about the ability of chatbot technology to generate writing of all sorts it definitely seems as though some basic ideas about human creativity may be about to be upended.

The case could be made for a dystopian near-future whee writing itself is seen as quaint and antiquated, much like cursive writing is today. We may face a future where being trained to write is something that a narrow subset of the population is trained to do.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of all writing — be it creative or otherwise — will be done by at least chatbots, if not an actual AGI. In a way, if we don’t invent AGI sooner rather than later, that’s kind of the worse case scenario.

At least with AGI, there is the opportunity for us to tax its activities to fund a UBI program — or, even better AGIs might be willing to fund a UBI of its own volition as a “bribe” to humanity to keep it busy playing video games. I’m not saying the transition to a UBI wouldn’t be rather…turbulent…to say the least.

But it could very well happen.

I suppose my biggest fear is that, given human nature, all of this could happen a lot sooner than we all expect because there’s probably going to be a global recession in 2023. As such, that would be the time when the ability to replace high paid writers of all sorts might simply be too enticing for the Powers That Be.

But I think I’m getting a little too ahead of myself. History rarely goes in a straight line. There’s every reason to believe my fears that we’re going to face a Singularity in late 2024, early 2025 at just the same time that the whole world is collapsing because MAGA Nazis are in the middle of trying to steal the 2024 election might be a little bit too hysterical.

And, yet, the fact remains — there’s a real risk that the next generation may see learning to write as optional. Or, if they do learn to write, it will be more about how to write a chatbot prompt than it is writing an essay or a novel or whatever. As is the case with all of my hysterical, dystopian rantings about the rise of chatbots and AGI, the point is to get us all thinking about different scenarios instead of waiting until we have a serious case of future shock.

The Great Debate

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I attempted to have a lengthy discussion with someone on Twitter about the future of chatbots and AGI, but he ghosted me after a little bit of back and forth. But let’s address some of the issues he brought up.



“Have You Met Capitalism?”
Ok, his argument is that by definition, capitalism would dictate that something as powerful as chatbot technology, because its expensive, will be used by the Elites to keep Poors in line. He apparently thinks that a secret cabal of corporations is currently subtly influencing the world and, as such, they will just keep doing that under the guise of chatbots.

I call bullshit.

While it’s very possible that something along those lines might happen, my personal experience with the Internet suggests that guy is full of shit. If anything, the capitalistic imperative is to let chatbot technology run amuck because it will save money by eliminating high paying jobs.

The Internet / Web gradually, within the course of about a decade, totally upended a lot of the global economy to an astonishing extent. Instead of the Elites hoarding access to the Internet for themselves, there was a cultural imperative to make sure everyone possible could use it.

And remember, because of Moore’s law, the cost of processing power is constantly going down, so any arguments about how chatbot technology is always going to be too expensive on the backend makes no sense.

So, rather than being alarmed at the idea that we have to “meet capitalism” and fear the Elites restricting access to chatbots, we probably need fear the exact opposite. Chatbots could very well be everywhere instead of something semi-secret that a secret cabal of corporations use, Second Foundation style, to subtly dictate the course of human events.

I’m not saying that our secret corporate overlords won’t manage to survive, but I also wouldn’t automatically assume that they will feel that it’s in their interests to keep chatbot technology totally under their control.

There Will Be No Singularity
This argument is more difficult to directly rebut. I’m not saying that it’s a sure thing that AGI will take place. It’s very possible it won’t. But to be so sure that AGI won’t happen and, as such, the associate Singularity won’t happen, is a bit of a stretch.

As such, we need to start to think now about what we’re going to do when there are potentially a LOT of AGIs floating around, not just one. How are we going to have a functioning global economy if androids connected to AGIs have taken over every single human task?